I Love Chocolate and other random thoughts

Today I took one of my co-workers out to lunch for her birthday. We had salads for lunch. For dessert we went to Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. I have just two words: dee-lish. We had the chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, graham crackers, butter cookies and marshmallows. It took everything in me not to lick the bowl when we were done. *smacks lips in utter delight*

In other news….
We have had some major issues with our bank recently. Someone managed to get my hubby’s info for his business account and created some fake checks. The pilferer then wrote three checks to herself and somehow forged my hubby’s signature. (If you saw his signature, you’d know what an amazing feat that was!) When all was said and done, the thief made off with $14,000. Thankfully, BB is anal when it comes to our money. He discovered the discrepancy on the same day that the theft occurred.

Needless to say, we have since closed our accounts and reopened them (at the same bank). The bank replaced the money pretty quickly. However, we are in search of a new bank, if only for the simple fact that we don’t have a lot of activity on that particular account and we can’t understand how they allowed this to happen. When BB’s one employee would present a check from that account to the bank, they almost always called to verify that he had, in fact, written said check. And now all of a sudden, they allow three checks to be cashed in one day, for more money that he ever spends from that account??? WTF?! To add insult to injury, there were typos in the fake check.

Just to be safe, I am pulling our credit reports and filing security alerts with the major credit bureaus. What a pain in the boo-tay.

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ATTENTION Homeless men and the creepy security guard at my office: I am off the market and I have been for quite some time.

Why am I making this announcement? I’ll tell you why. Let’s start with the homeless men that hang out all up and down Wabash (downtown Chicago). I empathize with the plight of homeless people. I buy the occasional Streetwise. Every now and then I will even give them some money. But what I don’t appreciate is when I give money to a homeless man and he proceeds to ask me for my phone number. This forces me to be mean. I don’t mean to cringe in complete disgust. It’s just a reflex. Don’t take it personally. I am out of your league. And most importantly, I am married.

And to the creepytopia security guard: Please stop trying to guess my first name. I hate that you even know my last name. Again, I am married. Happily. (Thanks to post 9-11 heightened security, we have to swipe our key cards when we enter the building and our first initial and last name pops up on the security screen.) Our relationship is and will always be strictly hi and bye. I will not have lunch with you. Period.

The baby train goes round and round…
I am growing weary of having the whole baby/fertility thing on my mind all the time. I have started charting my bbt and my cervical mucus and position now that I should be able to get pregnant naturally. So every day before I roll out of bed, I have to stick a thermometer in my mouth and record my temp. This forces me to think about fertility first thing in the morning. According to one book, I should be checking my cm three times a day. Ugh. And the whole checking of the cervical position! Not fun. I mean I am all for self-discovery, and I am fascinated and amazed at how the human body works. But some days I just don’t feel like being that much “in touch” with myself.

I've been thinking a lot about what will happen with my job once I have a baby. I like the idea of being a stay-at-home mom in some ways...no worries about sub par daycare. The cost of daycare alone is enough to make me want to stay home. I am always telling my stay-at-home friends that I would love to switch places with them...spend my days going to the park, the pool, the mall etc...

But there is a part of me that wonders what life would be like if I stopped working. I have had a job since I was 16 years old. Will I miss the adult interaction? Will I become one of those women who only talks about her children? Is my identity really tied up in this job? Working gives me a sense of independence. I don't want to have less say so in our financial matters just because I am not working. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

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FYI, I found a dress. It's cute. But not as cute as my other dress. (hmph)

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On the kind of creepy, extremely weird and totally unrelated tip...
http://www.thedogisland.com/index.html

I have been making a conscious effort not to post about a close member of the family and his pending nuptials. But I can no longer hold my tongue. The future spouse of said family member has complained that she does not feel welcome in the family. This, coming from a person who can never seem to find the time to attend a single holiday dinner at our house (at least not in the past 3 years since I married into the family). I won't get into all the details, but suffice it to say I have reached out to her on several occasions and it has not been reciprocated. So I refuse to feel bad.

Anyhoo, yesterday they called me to ask if I would do a scripture reading for the wedding. Did I mention that the wedding is next weekend? I already bought my dress (it is very cute and a little sexy...but not too sexy for church). I was looking forward to relaxing in the audience. But a reading should be easy. No biggie, right? WRONG! They want me to wear the colors of the wedding. Which means I have to get a new dress. UGH!

Normally, I would not mind having a ready-made excuse to go shopping. But I feel like I was an afterthought in the whole process. I mean the bride to be does not work. She had ample time to figure out who she wanted in the program. I really hope they don't think they are doing me a favor by "including" me all of a sudden. I don't mind helping out in a pinch, but I am annoyed that even when I told the wedding coordinator that I already bought a dress, she really was not trying to hear it. Her suggestion was that I change clothes after the ceremony if I really wanted to wear my new dress. Well, I don't wanna!

Long story short, now I have just a few days to find another dress. I tried on about 22 dresses at lunch today. They were all either too sexy, too frumpy, too sparkly etc...so the quest continues.

Be Careful

My husband has a friend who does not believe in bank accounts. He keeps all of his money in cash in a safe. Every month when it is time to pay bills, he will take the necessary cash to the currency exchange and get money orders to pay his bills. He just does not trust the bank. While I have no intention of keeping our money in the house, I no longer trust the bank either. Some lowlife (probably a former client)forged 3 checks and helped themselves to a large chunk of my hubby's business account. Luckily, BB is quite anal about the money and he caught the fraudulent transactions on the same day that they took place. The bank has restored the funds and hopefully they will catch the culprit(s).

Even though the money was returned to the account in less than a week, we will be moving our money. It turns out that the transactions were completed at three different branches and apparently not one of them required an ID. The bank used to call us when BB's associate would present her check to be cashed, just to make sure that he did in fact write the check. Her checks were usually around $1,000. So it baffles me that someone could present a check for more than $4,000 and no one called the house to verify anything. Smells like an inside job to me.

Back to work.

My hiatus is just about over. I go back to work on Monday. In some ways it is good. I'll get back to writing regularly. But overall, it makes me very sad.