lawmummy

Because I now think that Danica McKellar is the coolest girl ever. The former child star of “The Wonder Years” went on to get her degree in… Math. And now she’s telling the world that being smart is cool.

Her book, Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail goes on sale this week.

The number one reason is that, at the end of the day, I believe that I’m more likely to be the victim of identity theft as a result of actions that were completely out of my control.

You know what I’m talking about… Banks and other financial institutions give you this whole song and dance about protecting your information with passwords and fancy verification systems and most of the time, it seems that the gap in security is a result of their actions, not ours.

Case in point #1:  my checking account was cleaned out when I was a customer at PFCU. Found to be an inside job. Cleaned out. Thousands of dollars.  Gone.  And I was never allowed to know what happened once they figured out it was their fault.

And the latest episode?  I received a letter today from Certergy which stated the following:

“Certegy Check Services, Inc. (Certegy), a service provider to U.S. retail merchants, was recently victimized by an employee who wrongfully removed and sold consumer information to a data broker who in turn sold a subset of that data to a limited number of direct marketing organizations…  As a result of our investigation, Certegy believes that information regarding the above-indicated account [editor's note:  that would be my checking account] was included in the misappropriated information.”

The letter went on to tell me that this information included my credit/debit card data, name, address, telephone number, account number, expiration date, transactional data, date of birth.

Blah, blah, blah.

I love how the company - not me - was “victimized” by this employee.  And the employee sold the data to a broker who sold it again?  There’s apparently a whole organized system for selling personal data with zero checks as to where the information came from.  The people who run and/or work for those companies who buy personal information without regard for the source should be prosecuted, as well.  This whole “I didn’t know where they got it” nonsense is bullshit.

So, anyway, forgive me if I’m just a little bit bitchy today.  I have a lot going on.  And apparently, no matter what I do to protect my own identity, it doesn’t matter - my bank and the companies it chooses to do business with aren’t doing enough on their end.

And for the record, PFCU is no longer my bank.  This was a different bank.

I have really enjoyed my time at BlogHer.  It’s been a real learning experience, I’ve met lots of interesting people and I have had some time to contemplate the direction of my blogging, my writing and more.  All good.

And now, I’m sitting in the Yahoo internet cafe, across from Amy Sedaris (!) who is signing books.  It’s all very surreal.

My ride departs shortly, in about an hour and a half.  I will then been whisked away to the airport (I decided to use the shuttle because I couldn’t bear the idea of getting on the damn train one more time).  Hopefully, all will go smoothly and I will land in Philly a few minutes shy of midnight.  Maybe there will be an offer on my house by then…. Oh yeah, it was shown twice today!

(subliminal messaging:  buy my house, buy my house, buy my house)

Sally over at Living Without Meat has given me the Power of Schmooze award.  Can you see me blushing?  Thanks, Sally.

I’m supposed to pass along the award to five other bloggers who comment, read and schmooze with the best of them.  Here is my list of Schmooze-worthy bloggers…

• Darlene at Interview Chatter
• Dave at Brit Music Scene
• PT-Lawmom
• Christa at A Vocational Duality
• Madgirl at Hogwarts Herald

Thanks Sally!

It’s lovely, really.  But two things:

1. Who decided that I needed decaf coffee?  I only had two choices, decaf or decaf.  Wha-huh?
2. I appreciate the little Gilchrist & Soames soaps and shampoos.  They’re pretty and they smell nice.  But who’s great idea was it to make the mouthwash and the shampoo the same color?  I’m just sayin’.

This is my first trip away from the kiddos that has lasted more than 24 hours - even my stint up to New Hampshire without them lasted less than a full day (though it was an overnight).  But two whole nights?  Just bizarre.  And this is how I can tell that I needed time away:

• While flipping through the cable TV in my room this morning, I stopped and thought, “Great, Clifford is on.”
• The first thing I looked for in the list of Chicago attractions was the children’s museum.
• When the kid on the plane started crying, I almost said, “I’ve got crayons in my purse if you need them.”
• I arrived yesterday without having eaten all day, so I went to the corner store to get a sandwich.  When searching for something to drink (I’m ridiculously addicted to Diet Coke), I went straight to the milk cooler first out of habit.
• I keep putting things up high so that the kids can’t reach them.  This morning, I thought, “Why would you put the coffeemaker within reach of little hands?”
• My bag feels way too light.  I keep worrying that I forgot something… like diapers, diaper cream, toys…

I’ve finally arrived in Chicago.  It is remarkably different from Philly, which I didn’t expect (you cannot hail a cab in this town, despite the fact that my cab driver told me there are 7000 cabs in Chicago - he says no one wants to walk, and no one wants to drive).

It is quite breathtaking.  The skyline is just beautiful.

I am excited to start touring tomorrow and catching some great BlogHer moments.

More later, exhausted.  The getting here was brutal.

I am off to Chicago.

The commute to the airport was remarkably easy. Bus to train station, train station to airport.

Terminal D, got it. Automatic check-in, got it. This couldn’t get any better, right?

Right. Cause that’s where the easy part ended.

Annoying encounter #1. I was standing in the security check point and the guard came over to read my boarding pass and check my ID. I had two bags. She starts kind of shouting at me, “You know you’re supposed to leave that on the table.” I look at her quizzically, not sure what she means. She says much more loudly, “You know you’re supposed to leave that on the table.” I have no clue what she’s talking about. My laptop? What? Apparently, she meant my coffee. I was holding a coffee. But the word “coffee” never parted her lips – and I wasn’t the only offender. At the next table, I dutifully put the coffee away.

Bizarre encounter #2. The security screening, never my favorite part, wasn’t so bad… until the end. After we cleared security, there was a bit of a dust-up in front of me. An older man, clearly a business traveler, had recovered his belongings and was waiting for the woman in front of him to move out of the way. She was slow. And I mean slow. So he started to go around her (remember, we were no longer in line). She started freaking out, yelling, “Ba-bababababa!” at him and holding up a finger in his face. He took offense. I took the opportunity to escape around the both of them.

I sit down on the floor of the gate waiting room for a bit. It is just after 8 and my flight is to begin boarding at 8:42. There is an announcement: storms in Chicago. The 8am flight will not leave on time, but the 9:15am flight will. You and I both know what that means. The 9:15am flight will not board on time (it is, in fact, 9:42am and I am still waiting at the gate).

There is another announcement: Chicago flight #1 cleared at O’Hare but Air Force One is scheduled to land at Philly in 15 minutes so all flights are shut down until that happens. I can’t reasonably explain the pandemonium that followed. People ran to the windows (I happened, unfortunately, to be sitting near the windows) with digital cameras and cell phone cameras. Keep in mind that once the plane landed, you couldn’t see a thing. TSA officials flocked to the windows. People stood in chairs (!). One woman cried (upon telling Chris this, as it was happening, he said he’d cry, too, for different reasons). And then, when the plane touched down, people applauded. That’s right. They applauded the President sitting in a cushy leather seat, not moving. About 10 minutes of people trying to get a view of him followed (they couldn’t).

We continue to sit. Finally, at about 9:30am, the 8:00am flight is boarding. This does not bode well.

Ah well. Still on my way. It’s 10:23am, still not boarding. Sigh.

Anybody else headed that way?

The idea that Charlie has mastered the remote control at 14 months, or that he used it to switch to FoxNews yesterday.