IDENTITY THEFT

I received a call from an old friend in Alaska a few months ago. He was wondering if I had heard about the problem with the public employees’ AND teachers’ retirement systems from the state. “No, tell me more”, I replied with a bit of trepidation in my voice. Apparently the administrator of these two systems (and I belong to BOTH) had lost data of 77,000 employees and had failed to report it immediately. Somewhere, out there in ether-land, was a lot of personal info, maybe mine, floating around doing who knows what.  My friend referred me to the local newspaper for further details. I was to receive a letter from the state if I was involved, but for me, living in Mexico, receiving regular mail is not an option. I did find out that the administrating firm was offering every involved person 2 free years of identity theft coverage, and that the deadline for signing up for this was May 3^rd. A few weeks ago I tackled this issue. I first called the state to see if I was involved. The answer was yes. I had the info for identity theft coverage, but I needed a special promotion code. The state worker also gave me this. From there I applied online for a program to protect my identity. (Doesn't that sound re-assuring??!!)
The process was relatively easy, but once again it was a situation to create a username and password. I opened my little notebook where I keep track of them , and upon looking at my way too lengthy list, it just hit me…how crazy it is, how our lives sometimes feel to be reduced to a password, and by golly, you better get that password right or else! And be ready to change it at moment’s notice! My grandparents and even my parents must be rolling over in their graves thinking about what a crazy world we live in. My husband was kind enough to let me vent for a day or two.
We also are still dealing with my husband’s inability to enter Canada. (See my post "Locked out of Life".) Last year he returned on a 6 month permit, but this year he has to re-apply all over again. Last year he had a criminal background check from the U.S. FBI which took 3 weeks at most to process, but this year they are backlogged and the wait will be 13 weeks. So that’s another piece of bureaucratic BULLSH** we are challenged by. And I know that we aren’t the only ones involved in the junk of life. Ours is just a blip on the screen, a hiccup in life, but my heart goes out to those who truly are trapped in the system.
The bottom line is to enjoy and cherish every HUMAN, face-to-face connection. Don’t let the cyber life rule. Except, that is, Cyberfibres...Online quilting is VERY IMPORTANT!
The story behind this piece is more important than the construction….fabric, bleach, thread, buttons! Put it out there! Vent on fabric!