Estoy escribiendo de mi nueva computadora

I am writing from my new computer. I bought a laptop. How, you may ask, did I buy a brand new car, move to a new apartment paying first and last, and a new laptop all in the same month? I'm not really sure yet either.

Since I usually don't use credit and pay for everything in the month I buy it, it is even more crazy. Well, okay. I'm not paying for the car this month. Obviously I've re-entered the land of credit this month for that.

Things come in waves, I figure. I still put the max per month into a ROTH IRA so at the end of the year I've filled it. I still save enough each month to be able to afford a trip to Belize and Guatemala in September. I still manage to justify spending $2.30 every damn day for a Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

Perhaps it's time I stop whining and realize that I make enough money to not only take care of myself, but to also have some extra. A LOT extra. It's time to pause for a moment and own that.

I could complain and say I can't buy a house. Or that I can't afford to ski next year if stupid American Ski Company keeps selling off its mountains and there isn't an affordable pass option. I could complain and say that I want a widescreen TV or new clothes, but the facts are I don't really care about any of that.

I only really care that I can travel. I found a great quote a while back and just googled it to find it again (what did we do before the internet? seriously?)

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
Desiderius Erasmus

That's me. Books and travel. That's all I really care about. A new laptop is a serious luxury. A new car a even more luxurious thing. And you can borrow books. I'm a huge fan of the library. Can't borrow travel, though. That'd be cool, huh?

Books and travel. And a Dunkin' Donuts coffee. And I'm happy. The laptop and the car? Major icing.

Ah, the MBTA...

The Boston subway system, the MBTA, more colloquially known as the T, recently went high tech. Gone are the days of little metal tokens and turnstiles and here are the days of CharlieCards, CharlieTickets and "bleekers" that read your card and open the automated doors to let you through.

It's been a bit of a nightmare transition. We New Englanders hate change. We hate to admit we hate change, and instead just call everyone stupid and claim that the new thing is broken, not good enough, or just stupid. We rarely just say, "Hey, we are afraid of change!" So, even on a good day, people have struggled.

I myself accidently bought my January monthly T-pass in paper CharlieTicket form at the machine because I didn't pay enough attention to the directions to properly use the bleeker and bleek my pass onto my hard plastic CharlieCard.

And the poor old people! My goodness.

Today, I went to the customer service desk at Downtown Crossing (which, is the only place, as far as I can tell, to get T customer service). My goal was to buy 13 individual CharlieCards with $10 each on them for our Teen TeamWorks Program Participants to use next week. (I couldn't just get CharlieTickets, because with those, it is an extra $.30 a ride which over the course of a week and 13 users, would be a waste of money.)

Below are the two letters I wrote and submitted to www.MBTA.com this afternoon. They do a fairly good job of telling you how my purchasing experience went. Enjoy.

FEEDBACK ONE: sent under the heading "Employee Commendation"

"I do not know her name, but her Badge Number is 7044 and she was working at the Downtown Crossing Customer Service Office today at noon, February 16, 2007.

I wanted to buy 13 CharlieCards with $10 each on them and do one credit card charge. This is not possible. So then I said, "Okay then, just do 13 separate charges." This is not possible since there is a 2 per day limit on credit card charges to the T.

So finally, I said, okay, how about I buy one CharlieCard for $130 and then you move $10 increments onto 13 different cards? Couldn't. CharlieCards have a limit of $100.

Finally, she figured out that she could do 2 charges for 13 separate CharlieTICKETS and then switch each ticket over individually to a CharlieCard for me. She had to do each one separately, feeding it into the machine, recording it on a sheet by hand and then putting the CharlieCard on the black card reader and printing out each receipt. It took her 25 minutes and she did it well, quickly, and without complaint.

She made my day. And she restored my faith in customer service completely (a faith that's been tested lately.)

I commend Badge #7704, whose name I wish I knew. Please make sure she knows I wrote you. And hire more like her.

Thank you.

Karen Boss, T-user"

FEEDBACK TWO: sent under the heading "Complaint"
"Why can someone only charge twice a day with the same credit card with the MBTA?

Why can a CharlieCard only hold $100?

Why can I not buy multiple CharlieCards on one credit card transaction?

These all seem like rules that only serve to lose you money and make people like me, who work with groups, have a harder time figuring out how to get them onto the T.

Can you tell me why these are the rules?

Thank you,

Karen Boss, T-rider"

A New Car!

http://www.scion.com/showroom/xa/gallery/

This is my new car. I'm a little bit in love with it. It's a Scion xA and it's wicked cute. Toyota makes it, so it'll go for a long long time. It's got good cargo space when you put the seats down, and I can control the radio from the steering wheel. Did I mention it's cute?

I've never owned a new car before. Ever. I once bought a dealer rental, which they let people use when they needed something, that had 19,800 miles on it when I bought it. This car had 9 miles on it when the sales guy picked me up at the JFK T-stop yesterday in it and let me drive it back to the dealership in order to finalize the purchase. 9 miles! YAY!

It's blue. It's called Indigo Ink. Nice.

It smells like new car inside.

I'm going to obsess over every little mark on the outside of it even though for years I'd've hardly noticed if someone had splashed paint on my car or taken the bumper with them as a momento. :) Now I'll notice every little thing, I'll have to get used to that.

The old car, poor dear, broke and died on the way to Vermont last weekend on the side of Route 89 off the desolate exit 12A where there is nothing, in George's Mills/Sunapee, New Hampshire. This was exactly 107 miles from my mechanic in Boston, so I still owed AAA a bit of money after the first free 100 miles they towed it. I paid only $1600 for that car in September and I got $200 on the trade, so that's $280 a month I paid to drive that little car. Learning to drive a stick with confidence, though? Priceless.

Yay for new cars! Next up? New apartment next month. Lots of changes!

Dear Woman who now has my old cell number,

I am very sorry that you were assigned a recycled phone number by Verizon a mere 30 days after I left Boston. I too have suffered this fate. I occassionally get a call from an 800 number verifying that I am Roxy. I assure the 800 number caller that I am not Roxy and explain that I have her old number. They try to verify my address, which is when I assure them since I am NOT Roxy, I do not live at her house.

This is annoying, without question. I wish the 800 number people would stop calling me. But alas, I cannot make them. I can only choose to answer the phone and tell them I am not Roxy or ignore the number because I do not recognize it and move on.

You, too, Oh Woman who now has my old cell number, have this choice. Apparently this is not enough for you. I am sorry that a few of my family members and perhaps friends have called my old cell number since I unexpectedly returned to the US in September. I think my Aunt did once, and my Dad did, too. (He was upstairs without his own cell phone and pulled my number out of his wallet. It was my old number.) So yes, a few people have mistakenly called you. A "this is not Karen's number anymore" or "this was Karen's old number" would have sufficed. But, no, oh mystery woman. You had to be really mean.

On my birthday, an Aunt called your number (my old number) and said "Karen?". You yelled, without missing a beat, "Karen's dead!" and hung up the phone. On my birthday. Lovely behavior.

And so, after learning that some of my family can't seem to record a new phone number, I called you to apologize. I dialed your number (my old number) and said to you, nicely, "Hi. I'm Karen. You have my old number." You yelled, "Yes, and tell all your family and friends to stop calling me! I'm sick and tired of it!" And you hung up.

I, of course, didn't know you hung up, so I launched into my little speech about how I was sorry some of my family and friends were being dumb and that I had in fact told everyone my new number and then I nicely asked you not to tell anyone else I had died. Only then did I realize you didn't hear any of it.

I called you three times in a row, and you hung up on me three times. The fourth time you yelled, "I don't have the money to talk to you. Stop calling." (On a Verizon plan on a Sunday. Clearly math isn't your forte.)

So I texted you. You can't hang up on a text. I said "Do not tell anyone else I'm dead." You got pissed and texted back something along the lines of you telling anyone you wanted whatever you wanted and that I was dumb for not telling everyone my new number and that not being your problem (but it IS your problem, isn't it?) and then you said I had no right to call you.

I had just gotten off the phone with Verizon, who I had called to register a complaint about their measly 30 day waiting period. It should be longer, don't you agree? I got your text and texted you back to say that you hadn't listened long enough to hear that I was calling to apologize and that I had talked to Verizon. I ended with "Please stop being so rude."

You, of course, didn't reply.

My sister and her husband begged me for the number so they could harrass you. You deserve it, frankly. But now you have my number and my first name and you could probably get me for harrassment if I let them do it, so I won't. But I wish I could.

You are a big huge bee-atch. I hope lots of people keep calling you looking for me. I didn't used to wish that, but now I do.

Sincerely,

Not Roxy, Karen, with a new number, who used to have your number