Tuesday, September 06, 2005

"Money, money, money, money"

I don't actually know where to begin.

Well, first let me start by saying that I still need to find a monitor. I decided against buying new because I think I'm going to be upgrading to a laptop in a year (it's been 7 years since I bought my computer, although the one I have now I've only had for about 3 years it was a refurbishment that BeeDragon did of another computer). I'll be looking on craigslist in the next couple of days, but I just might head to the used computer store on Friday, as Moose suggested.

I start seeing clients on my own for the first time tonight. It's a big deal for a few reasons...1) I've worked for 3 years to get to this place, 2) I just calculated last night that I've spent the equivalent of 3 paychecks on the setting up of this business, and 3) working on my own means I actually get paid for doing this work for the first time (although considering the loss I already have, I won't see any profit for quite some time)...still this somehow feels "grown up" and significant.

In the midst of the exciting goodness that is my new office (and I will plan to take picture of the place and post it once my computer is working again), I realized last night that my identity had been stolen again.

I suppose I should back up and explain that a bit. About 11 years ago, the house that I was living in was broken into...I and WritingInAK were both asleep in the house at the time...and my bag with all my ID, including my very old Social Security card, were stolen. It was all reported to the police, but I didn't think much to do beyond that at the time.

Then about a year later, I got a call from Citibank fraud department asking if I had attempted to open an account with Citibank recently. I had not, and what followed was a round of calling credit bureaus to get fraud statements on my records. Luckily, these folks had only opened a store account and not used it...or so I thought. I learned about 6 years later that they had also opened a cell phone account in my name. This sat on my credit record for years and has since dropped off.

End of story, I thought. In April UC-Berkeley informed me that my information was on a laptop that was stolen from their admissions department and they advised me to put fraud statements at the bureaus, etc. I did and they very nicely sent me copies of my credit records. I didn't look to closely at them at the time, but there were some discrepancies that I wanted to correct. Then 2 weeks ago, I received a letter from a collection agency for a Sprint PCS account that was not mine, and I did not open said letter until yesterday.

It sucks! It sucks! It sucks!

It's not bad enough that I'm pretty much maxed out on my own suddenly someone else is maxing me out as well.

But really, I am very excited about the starting of my new practice (and I'm trying desperately to hold on to that little bit of excitement).

4 comments:

HistoryGeek said...

And now I've joined the ranks of word verification...

and my first "word" is "fcupp" the previously undescovered largest bra size (with the added p for emphasis).

Allison said...

Spinsterwitch,
I had identity theft happen to me, check out those things if they are wrong. And quickly.

Also, you may be able to get a monitor for free on freecycle.org
in your area. Just a thought.

LavaLady said...

ARGH!
I'm angry on your behalf.

I'm also excited on your behalf. It's so great to read about people doing what they wanted to do.

I've been trying to figure out what that is for me...

Oh, my word is luwvw... mmmm.

Aravis said...

Oh spin, so sorry about your loss of identity. On the other hand, your carving out your new professional identity as you realize this long-held goal. I'm so happy for you on that score!

Yours,
pbjokt
(but you can just call me Aravis)