I think I'm bipolar.




No, I'm not.

Today, I'm officially the victim of my first credit fraud experience.

I get this letter from some collections agency last week indicating I owe $1600+ to SprintPCS. Doesn't say why but I have to pay this agency within 30 days. I finally called and inquired and was told that I was a victim of credit fraud. The guy asked whether I ever lived on Corzine Street in Brooklyn. I said no and he believed me. Of course he did. I didn't lie.

I wonder what happened? Did they clone my phone? Despite losing my wallet several times in the three years I've been in New York, I still have both of the cell phones I've ever owned. Did they use my name and address? OK. At the start of this blog, I thought this was pretty funny. Now I'm wondering how much my name and identity owe to organizations nationwide. I really should check out my credit report. Well, I didn't really want to buy a house, or a car, or apply for another credit card, or grad school loans anyway.

Dear Ann,

A long time ago, you printed a terrific definition of success. It made a huge impression on me. Would you please print it again, and this time, I promise to clip it and put it in a safe place.Ohio Fan

With pleasure. This definition was written in 1904 by Bessie Anderson Stanley. It is one of my favorites:

SUCCESS

By Bessie Anderson Stanley

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.

Worst Marital Luck

Edgar Bronfman Sr. and Georgina Webb: Edgar Bronfman Sr. may possess a billion-dollar business brain and a thoughtful, charitable soul, but in affairs of the heart the liquor baron has been a serial loser.

Bronfman's marriage to his second wife, Lady Carolyn Townsend, in 1973 lasted less than a year and was followed by a high-profile messy divorce proceeding. The case reportedly included testimony that the British noblewoman had spent her wedding night with another man.

Bronfman also holds the distinction of being the only billionaire to marry (and divorce) the same woman twice. Georgina Webb was a 25-year-old barmaid in an English pub when Bronfman, then aged 45, married her for the first time. The two split up in 1983, only to remarry in 1984, and divorced again a few years later.

Bronfman sired two daughters with Webb before the second breakup. Bronfman, who now owns a large chunk of the struggling French conglomerate Vivendi, admitted to his issues with matrimony in a 1989 Newsday interview: "Marriage is an institution, and if you like living in an institution, well then go right ahead."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/forbes_divorce_021011.html

It took three divorces to realize the truth in that last sentence? Well, at least he's rich.

Is there a cure for laziness?

Is grabbing a particular section of the newspaper first a good indication of what one's truly interested in?

Saw "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

I don't know why I was so naive. For a little bit, I actually thought that I was making decisions at my work that affected change, that I was doing something important. Now I'm realizing I'm just a pawn, a drone. In addition to being a MW, I'm also just a CW too.

I thought I was smarter than to realize it now. What was I thinking?

I was listening to music last night and I've realized why I like R&B/hip-hop more than I like rock 'n roll (well, the singer/songwriter type of rock 'n roll). It's because the former is more fun and latter is so much more sad. And yesterday, I wanted to wallow in my sorrow and disappointment so I listened to the latter more. And then I wanted a change of pace and put on some hip-hop, but since I wasn't really looking to feel better, I turned it off. Self-pity is such a fun thing.

I knew there was a reason I liked Hemingway:


"WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?", AS RESPONDED TO BY:

GEORGE W. BUSH: I don't think I should have to answer that question.

AL GORE I invented the chicken. I invented the road. Therefore, the chicken crossing the road represented the application of these two different functions of government in a new, reinvented way designed to bring greater services to the American people.

RALPH NADER: The chicken's habitat on the original side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrialist greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled
habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal a job from a decent, hardworking American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet someone out there is
already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars, and when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build roads for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART: If the chicken crossed the road on my property, I would be fully justified in blocking its exit until the local authorities could arrive to arrest it
for trespassing. I am a private person and should not have to be subjected to the "innocent mistakes" of common chickens.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the " other
side. "That's what "they" call it - the "other side." Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And, if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side."

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA: In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed The road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it overcame a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

VOLTAIRE: I may not agree with what the chicken did, but I will defend to the death its right to do it.

RONALD REAGAN: What chicken?

KEN STARR: I intend to prove that the chicken crossed the road at the behest of the President of the United States of America in an effort to distract law enforcement officials and the American public from the criminal wrongdoing our highest elected official has been trying to cover up. As a result, the chicken is just another pawn in the president's ongoing and elaborate scheme to obstruct justice and undermine the rule of law. For that reason, my staff intends to offer the chicken unconditional immunity provided he cooperates fully with our investigation. Furthermore, the chicken will not be permitted to reach the other side of the road until our investigation and any Congressional follow-up investigations have been completed.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes! How Many more chickens have to cross before you believe it?

FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2003, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook---and Internet Explorer is an inextricable part of eChicken.

EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What Do you mean by chicken? Could you define chicken please?

THE BIBLE: And God came down from the heavens, and He said Unto the chicken," Thou shalt cross the road" And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?

Wedding thoughts from this weekend:
Good, short; people my age are still committing to one another their lifelong devotion and love. Wow! I can't even commit to taking my contacts out every day. I stood there watching the groom repeat after the minister, "...and I, take you to be my wife..." and I'm like, whoa! Who's up there? What movie am I watching? Are these people ones I know? It's so real but not, at the same time. And then I leave to come back to New York and I don't see them for a while and it passes and I now shift these people from the single column to the married one and then it's not so bad.

The rest of the weekend:
I told him so. Heh heh.
But somehow it's comforting to know that things don't work out for others too. That's awful to think, admit and broadcast, but I just did.