New Hat! Thievery!

On my list of things to do when I have money: Buy and wear hats. Well, friends, I have a little bit of cash, and I have bought a hat! Unfortunately, I don't know how to describe it to you, which doesn't do you much good. But I bought it and it's a happy thing.

You know what happened, though? Somewhere in the three purchases I made yesterday, somebody swiped my debit card number! Grrrrr! I got a call today from someone wanting to confirm that I had purchased some domain name. Neither it nor the company sounded familiar, and I was told that somebody must have used my number. Well, I'm glad it's been caught quickly. I called my bank and they're on the case. I expect they'll get the fraudulent charges erased; and if -- worst case scenario -- they don't, at least the purchases were very small.

Normally, I'd expect to feel bad about the inconvenience of it all, and would be worried that somehow it will fall on my shoulders to pay for someone else's crime. But there's an emotional consequence I did not expect from myself: Suspicion. When I was in college, our apartment was broken into while I was away for Thanksgiving. I was unruffled. But today, I found myself wondering whether the guy who made the intial call to me was honest. I wondered, as I was passed from one bank operator to another, whether I should be confirming my passwords and personal information over the phone. It was harder to trust everyone because one person out there has shown themselves untrusworthy. And for that I am pissed. For unrelated reasons, I've been thinking lately about what a big problem I have with blind selfishness and disregard for others, and this added fuel to the fire. The person who trips the final wire in the minefield of my temper will be most unfortunate.

But while I'm giving them an earful, I'll be looking cute in my hat. Pretty hat!