What do you mean 'invalid'?

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Today was supposed to be a 'do some writing and some cleaning up' day. I slept in, answered email, and made a nice cooked breakfast. So far, so good, right? Then I decide I could really go for a coffee to suck down as I (finally) get to work on the wip. But I have no money on me, and ds is making noises (begging) about getting the new 50 cent cd.

Okay, fine, I go across the street to the bank and do the routini. Only it's not the routini I'm used to, my friggin’ card is invalid. What?! I just bought groceries last night at 9:15pm, how can my card be invalid? And I know I got cash in there. I tried again; same answer. This ABM is not at the institution the card was issued from, so if I try a third time and the machine eats my card I'm sooo S.O.L. I decide to hoof it down to my bank--a 10-15 min walk away--with ds tagging along.

It's a nice day out and we continue our earlier conversation about how I am absolutely sure this last Star Wars movie is going to suck the bag per dialogue, character arc, emotion. Lucas dropped the about-to-be-sucked bag on all those elements with the first two prequels, I don't see him suddenly realizing that mouthwatering costumes, 'cool' CGI effects, and awesome fight scenes, does not a great sock-it-to-the-heart movie make. It's about the characters, George. Not the back-story and settings. Ds is slowly coming round to my way of thinking, but he still wants to drag me to the theatre to sleep see the epic moment when Annikin turns into Vader.

Back to the banking situation.....

Turns out someone made a copy/clone of my card! Ack!! The bank, thank their cold-hearted-bottom-line-nickel n’ dime-yer-ass-to-death-in-service-fees selves, figured out right away something foul was afoot and shut down access to my acct. *phew!* We went over all the debits since March 1 and everything was as it should be. Those thieving if-I-catch-your-ass-I'll-kick-it-from-here-to-that-Iranian-shithole-Saddam-was-hiding-in f***tards didn't make a payday off of me.

Then, since we were outside already, ds and I decided to walk downtown (1 1/2hr) to buy his CD, and for me to see if I could locate a copy of Tiger Eye (it has a March release, but the Toronto stores don't have it out yet). We used to do these 'walk & talks' a lot when he was younger, just our time together to talk about anything under the sun, make up stories, tell jokes, broach those 'sticky' questions your kids pin you on eventually about life and morality, whatever. I guess people would call it 'quality time'. I'd like to think he'll always have fond memories of them.

So amongst some of the things we yakked about, was who'd be perfect in a remake of BODY SNATCHERS (David Duchovny in the Donald Sutherland role), my complimenting him on the growth of his dirt-stach (gg), and the character I could base on him in one of my book ideas. He wants to be the Hero's sidekick in a paranormal. I'm fine with that, but that character will be named: Ratboy. I sound like an awful mom, don't I? Well, all's fair around here. When I had my upper lip waxed (god did I just admit that publicly?)earlier in the week (after work), we happened to have spaghetti for dinner that evening. The boy oh-so-casually mentions that I have sauce on my face, and rubs at the corner of his mouth to indicate where. Me: I don't feel any sauce. (rubbing). Nope it's still there, he nods his head vigorously. Only after I look in the mirror, do I get his ha-ha-ha joke--I'm still a little red from esthetician. His smirk lasts the entire time he does the dishes.

We got future Ratboy's cd, plus some used DVDS, and I picked up another book: Confessions Of A Deathmaiden by Ruth Francisco.

I thumbed through it and read various passages at different points--I like the author's voice. The story seems fast paced, and the main protagonist (it's written in 1st person pov) likable. (I just realized she also wrote, Good Morning Darkness, which I’ve heard good things about. If I like this one, I’ll have to hunt that one down. But, yikes! on a couple of those Amazon reviews. Which I never pay attention to anyway….)

Anywho, the boy and I stopped for dinner at Wendy's, then trudge back home. All told, we'd been walking a good 5 hrs. My feet are still throbbing.

Jeez, here I thought I had hardly anything to say, and was too darned tired to say it. Some of the best days, are the unplanned ones.
Blog Widget by LinkWithin

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're right. The next Star Wars will suck.
I love and admire George Lucas, but he's just not getting it.
Somebody send him the DVDs of the LOTR trilogy...
(take care of those feet, Vanessa!).

~Dreamweaver

Sasha White said...

I'm with you both. Ratboy is your kid, he'll come around to our way of thinking eventually. *g*

I remember seeing the original Star Wars in theaters when it was released the first time...as a kid I loved it...as an adult..I still love that one best. I thinkthat says something important about the staying power of the story.

Linda Winfree said...

I haven't even seen the first SW trilogy, so can't comment on that. Love the picture of your relationship with Ratboy. Great mom, Jaye!

Larissa Ione said...

Oh, hugs on the card copying! I've been the victim of identity theft before, so I totally understand how angry that can make you and how violated you feel. Hope they catch the bastards!!!!

Katrina Glover said...

Isn't it amazing how your day can make you go through so many things and turn out to be so great?

Yeowch on the walking! 5 1/2 hrs of walking! Yick! As a frequent Disneyland patron, I feel your pain.

Anonymous said...

Yikes on the five and a half miles!!! Betcha have great legs though, LOL!

Anonymous said...

That's the exact thing that happened to me! Someone cloned my card. As soon as I started reading your entry, I knew it.... In my case, I was robbed of $1200. The bank did pay me back and I had to file a case with the police, but I don't think they ever found the person. They wanred me to never let my debit card out of my sight. For instance, like if you use your card at a restaurant and let the waiter/waitress walk off with it and come back. They can copy the card in seconds! And they can get your password off the magnetic strip!!!!

vanessa jaye said...

I would show ds all your comments on Star Wars, but that smacks too much of 'neener neer', and I'm just too mature for that. ::blink,blink::

The feet were fine after a couple of hours (gg), but if you've read the blog post above, you know I got sick, which sux even more. :-(

Ds and I are close. He's not a mama's boy, mind you, but I raised him with an eye toward us both being adults one day and having to relate to each other that way. I'm not saying I was his friend instead of his mother (I"m a bit too much of a disciplinarian to go that route. gg) but I wanted to be both. And every now and again, he tells me I'm one of his best friends, so I guess it worked. :-)

Suzanne, I never let my debit card out of my sight. My credit card (at restaurants) yes--but what choice do you have there, unless you pay cash? I'm still trying to figure out the how/when? The bank doesn't like to tell you their methods of catching these theives, but one CSR mentioned that geography plays a role (which is what I think happened with you, Suzanne), so I wonder if my late night grocery shopping (at a place I frequent several times a week) played a factor. I'm being a little more careful with punching in my PIN code though, but now you're telling me they can lift that off the magnetic strip, anyway?!

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 

2008 Vanessa Jaye | All Rights Reserved | Design by Katrina Glover | Back to top

You are visitor number:

web stats