Banks, Credit Cards, Rock Climbing, Getting Out
Why do People In Charge make such stupid decisions?
I don't go to the bank a lot, because I have direct deposit of my paycheck and I pay bills with checks. But I'd done some work and gotten cash, and so yesterday I went to a branch of Standard Federal in Ann Arbor during my lunch break. I wanted to deposit the money into my checking account, but I didn't have my checkbook with me. I know my account number, so I looked for the deposit slips, but there weren't any.
One of the tellers waved a deposit slip at me, so I went up, and saw that she had a whole stack. Apparently, the new policy is to not have checking account deposit slips out where people could get them. This was new; I was told that earlier it was the withdrawal slips that were kept behind the desk. That's really ridiculous.
I used to go to the bank at least once a month to pay my credit card bill. That was back when they actually ran the credit card machinery. About a year into it, they consolidated the credit cards on a national scope, and then, after a few months, just outsourced the whole thing to MBNA.
All through that time, I'd had a credit limit of $500. As soon as MBNA got the account they started bumping up the limit, apparently in hopes that I'd stop paying it all off every month and let it ride. But I didn't care much. My credit card number had changed twice, but it had stabilized. And the credit card statements didn't have all those inserts that I'd seen in other statements.
MBNA has started to get obnoxious, though. Quite a while ago they started sending checks, which I don't really mind because it's an excuse to use my shredder (I love it). But now there are the solicitations for useless junk that I have to tear off the envelope before I send it back.
They sent me an offer to "upgrade" to their platinum card. I looked at the offer, but as soon as I saw that it would give me a new number, I balked. I have several recurring charges, and it wouldn't be worth it unless the benefits were good. So I gave them a call, and asked what the benefits were. Apparently it was some travel planning services (which I wouldn't use) and some rental-car insurance, and other stuff like that. So I declined, and shredded the form.
And then they called me. Offering the same card. I'm listening to the spiel and getting cranky hearing the guy keep calling me "Ms. Drissman". (I hate when people do that. Geez, is "Avraham" that different from "Abraham" that they couldn't figure it out?) I'm trying to decline it, explaining that I don't really want to change my number, no I'm fine, really. So then he starts explaining about how I could get it in addition to my existing card. At that point, I'd had it. I told him that I didn't need any more credit cards, and that it was Mister Drissman. And I hung up.
My new main credit card is an American Express Blue. It's incredibly cool-looking being transparent and having a chip and all, but there are real benefits that it provides (like price-protection and warranty-doubling). I'm keeping my Visa just for the places that won't take the Blue. But honestly, one more call from MBNA and I'll just cancel it.
I'm just waiting for American Express to provide their chip-reading software for the Mac.
Last Saturday night I went to a Hillel event at Planet Rock. It's a place with 55-foot walls with various-shaped things sticking out at random places. I was nervous at first, but strapped on a harness and just started climbing. It wasn't really hard--just hand over hand, foot over foot--but it was a unique sensation of just concentrating to find the next place to grab or to step on and not having anything else in my mind. After I got down from the top, I couldn't even move my hands. After about an hour I'd recovered enough to take part in a relay race for which you only needed to climb halfway up. My team lost, and after that I hadn't any strength left in my arms. Even today if I move my hands wrong I can still feel it.
I'm finally getting out for some Shabboses. Fine, Shabbosos. Anyway, next week I'm staying with Zev G who was introduced to me by Henry G. I need to start learning about Oak Park, and the shuls and people, and this should be a good start. And the week after that, I'm going to be staying with Rick in Ann Arbor for their Hillel's Shidduch Shabbos. I filled in and submitted the matchmaking form, so I get to see what will happen. I'm not taking it seriously, though. First, there were no spaces for "grad student" under grade. The organizer told me to draw one in, but I don't know how many other people knew that. Secondly, there was no way to indicate religious level, so that's a crapshoot. And finally, the questions were rather dumb. Are they going to match by similarity of answers? That's all I need--to meet another passive-aggressive obsessive-compulsive introvert who doesn't get enough sleep. (Just kidding!)