Most people know how my friend Bubba the Ilium likes to have a party whenever I eat/skip eating. I think I'm in good enough company and trust here to say that Heavenly Father has definitely lessened those problems a lot for me recently, particularly while I was student teaching, and certainly while I've been out with the back/tailbone. For that I am so grateful, however disappointing it may be to have that resurface as I am again able to handle it. But that was the weird thing...today's episode hardly felt like classic Bubba at his best. I had a delectable salad for lunch (which wasn't as healthy as I wanted after they put on twice as much dressing and bacon bits as I asked for, but I didn't think it would be a big deal and ate them anyway). All seemed well for the next two hours until suddenly I had some sort of massive attack in my stomach, chest, and throat. Food poisoning? I doubt it. Instead, it felt exactly like the allergic reactions I get from eating peanuts, minus the gross peanut taste (sorry Skoticus), vomiting, and lack of breath. This time there was a lack of breath I suppose, but not from itchies, only from the immense pressure I was feeling in my throat, etc. Weird. How could this happen from a simple salad? I don't know, but that's the only thing I'd really eaten up until that point. No medicine of mine or pain killer is yet to take away this peanuty feel, over 10 hours later, and I wonder, am I just one of those freaks allergic to food in general?
Anyway, such was the cause for a not-so-great afternoon. But it gets better. On the way to my night class, I dropped my phone as I left the library. The crack literally snapped the phone into two separate pieces (my tail bone and old computer felt a bond). This is my almost new, tiny baby phone! It was just to weak to handle Harold B.'s marble stairs, I suppose. Not wanting to be out of touch with communication for 3 weeks like I was last time my phone broke, I called the cell phone company as soon as I could use Janae's phone and asked for an upgrade if I re-signed my contract. The upgrade timing was perfect, and I can get a cheap-o one for free, so was down with that. Speaking of down, so is their website. The woman must have told me three times that if I wanted to pay full price at a store, I was welcome to, but that I really should just buy the cell online or over the phone. I kept trying to explain that that is exactly what I wanted to do--buy it over the phone--otherwise I wouldn't have been calling her. :) However, due to the web page for phone purchases being out of commission, she told me there was no way to see which phones I could purchase in order to make a request with her that matched my plan. Can these people use email or at least give me a list of the eligible phone names so I can do the research myself? Certainly there has to be some other way. According to her, I just need to wait 36 hours until they're up and running again, and then we can talk. Phone will then get shipped to me about a week later, so until then y'all, don't bother leaving me voicemails. :)
With the phone thing tabled, I decided to attack a miscommunication on my bank account with, well, it's a long story. They told me yesterday that I would be back in business to use my account today and that I would only have a fee of a couple dollars. A couple turned into $32 and my cushy balance is still unavailable. Whatever. While working on finances, I decided I'd check out all the purchases I've made on food this month via the credit card so that with this $32 debit I'll know how much remains to spend in that department. Lo and behold, my credit card has been shut down also. Wow. Is some unseen power trying to attack every source of living/communication I have? I solely expect my old laptop here to frizz out on me at any minute, and the power to go out again in my apartment (it happened again and we now know the cause, unrelated to pranking). :)
The Citi Bank website only told me that I had "suspicious account activity" and that the card is now closed and I can get a new one. I'll probably be getting that about the same time as this phone. :) Well, knowing that I have the card in my possession (and always have) and reviewing that there are no purchases made outside of Provo or for more than $100 in the past month, I didn't take this "suspicious" business for an answer. I borrowed Janae's phone again and gave my friends at Citi a call (hooray for all-night customer service!) to plea my case of expenditures. What I am told is that one of the merchants I bought something from had someone hack into their system who now has my credit card information. Super. Of course they won't tell me who that merchant is, because they know, say, that if it's the BYU (which she pronounced "bew") Bookstore, I'll not want to shop there again, and that breaks the confidentiality rules they have with their merchant partnerships. You'd better believe I wouldn't shop there again, or at least would launch my own FBI investigation. :)
Alas, in likening these setbacks unto Elena, who said that my tailbone fracture was a good thing to slow me down, I'm thinking this is a blessing to get me back to the basics. My family, for example, is shouting for joy as they read this that I can't spend money and talk on the phone, and may not have a computer any day now to post long and ridiculous information about myself via the blog, facebook, and twitter (if they don't spontaneoulsy combust before then, as it is). So you see, everything works out in the end. And I just decided last night that money is overrated anyway, and there are a lot more important things to live for than cell phones, email, and credit card purchases. Like, for example, my friends and family. Janae's response tonight when I was in grumpy disbelief was, "Wow, you sure lead an adventurous life." In pondering that odd concept, I came full circle to my earlier thought about today being boring. At least while my roommates are lying around doing the same-old annoying homework, I have been *on a phone (all is not lost :)) with a story or two to tell. And now that I've taken 5 years to journal it while I wait for this peanut-without-peanuts-yuck to go away so I can sleep, I'll be glad that in a week or so I can read this and just laugh. In fact, I think I'll go laugh myself to sleep right now.... :P
