A Blah Day

Yesterday was a very blah day. I spent most of the day strangely tired and writing a MATLAB code to make something go faster and more effeciently than it had before (I'll skip the boring technobabble on the subject). Actually, I didn't get much done because my splitting headache kept me from concentrating to hard. But today I woke up totally refreshed.

Identity Problems

I've had three days of excitement over my cell phone. And now the excitement is over. Why? Because VoiceStream discontinued my service. This really really infuriates me, because I signed a contract with the dealer saying I bought the phone at a special price ($50 instead of $200 some other places were selling it for) and I would only have 3 days to return it. Of course, it was the fourth day when my coverage was discontinued.

Why, you ask, would they stop providing me with cell phone service. I have about as reasonable credit as any 22 year old could have (no loans, only a little credit card debt, a history of timely payments...). Because, they don't believe I am ME!

This may serve as a warning to Karen, I guess, but I have had the worst trouble re-establishing my identity since I have graduated college and return to Switzerland. Matters were already bad when I had half my bills going to my Florida address and the other half going to my Atlanta address, but that was explainable because of the whole college thing. Matters got worse when I went to get my Texas drivers' license and they shredded my Florida one, only giving me a sheet of paper to serve as a temporary license until they mailed me a new one - what kind of backward state is this, where they can't print you a drivers' license on the spot? Thank god I have my passport and my pilots license (that proves my social security number, since my social security card is with the movers) or I would totally be at a loss. Oh, yeah, and to get car insurance I even had to provide my Swiss ID card and my work permit to prove I had been living there.

So, to get my cell phone reinstated, they need no less than the following: 1. Passport 2. Permanent Drivers' License with Photo 3. Utility Bill with my name on it (impossible until I move to my new apartment) 4. Swiss ID card 5. Copy of a pay check stub 6. Copy of my social security card 7. Lease agreement (again, impossible until I move into my new apartment)

Oh, yeah, and all this information must be faxed to them from an authorized VoiceStream center. Apparently the place in the mall where I bought my cell phone is not one of these, and the nearest one is somewhere in downtown Houston.

Grumble grumble. This is very very frustrating.

So, the point of the story is don't call my cell phone anytime soon.