State of the Blogger

I would like first and foremost to thank everyone who's donated to my Un-F@$k My Life Campaign on GoFundMe. I am trying to figure out what the hell to give you all as a thank you, and I have absolutely no idea what I can do that's worth actual money. I have this problem a lot.

I was very close to doing all right this month, until someone I don't know used my PayPal account to send money to someone I'd never heard of for something I hadn't bought. If anyone happens to be acquainted with Global Test LTD, or someone named Maxim Filatov in Tyumenskaya Oblast, Russia, please feel free to register my displeasure with the situation. Creatively.

I logged in to thank PayPal for flagging a genuinely fraudulent transaction, and was punished by being unable to unlock the account to get at what is in fact my money. I apparently linked it to a pre-paid Visa as a "bank account" ages ago, before I had a proper checking account in Boston, and since I never pull money directly out of that one via EFT, I had no idea. I don't know what the account number is, and the card is long gone. So, after proving that I was me -- I passed the identity check part, because I'm me -- I now can't pass the security check to reset my password and security questions, without which they will not let me transfer funds anywhere, including to another PayPal account. Money, which I kind of need, remains in that account, totally inaccessible.

PayPal says that in order to fix it I have to phone them, which will be difficult, because I do not currently have a phone. It's pre-paid and goes on the list of "things I drop when I would otherwise not be able to pay rent". Currently it is on there with "groceries" and "LinkPass". I am physically able to walk to Cambridge and downtown Boston from here -- thank God for a city that believes in sidewalks -- and the weather is cooperating, so I will be doing that next Thursday, the one day between my September pass running out and my regular paycheck coming in so I can buy one for October. Joy.

I am reminding myself that I'm lucky enough to live in a time and place where my horrible life problems are things like, "I am temporarily unable to access my imaginary electronic money, which I legitimately earned myself," and not, "I am lying on a pile of rags in a tenement, unable to care for my six small children while I die of cholera."

In the meantime, the GoFundMe has raised enough to take care of the current monthly payment on the plan we worked out with the crazy landlady's much more reasonable, though extremely scatterbrained, lawyer, and to pay off my colossal library fines. You can still donate through that URL without a problem, as that is linked directly to my bank, and if anything goes wrong there I can physically present myself at any one of about six local branches to fix it.

If you want to donate through PayPal, please use the link paypal.me/UnsolicitedAdvice, which goes to a secondary account, from which I can at least do things like throw it at my roommate for bills.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The mystery of "Himmmm"

Fun things to feed rats