lost my credit card

I'm especially cranky today because when I was in NY over the weekend, I lost one of my credit cards at JFK Airport. I bought food at the airport, and that's the last time I remember seeing that card. Unfortunately, I didn't realize for 2 days that I had lost the card. Citibank called me alerting me to a bunch of charges being made on my card in NY. Sometimes, I've been frustrated when I travel and they put a block on my card because I make a lot of purchases in a different city all of a sudden, and then at the register of the store, I have to call the credit card company to have the hold taken off. It's embarrassing and time consuming, but I know they're just being cautious and doing their job.

This time, it helped me (and them). They told me that in two days, someone had made over $3000 of charges. I'm not exactly sure yet how much was charged. The credit card phone representative stopped listing off the charges after awhile, and just said, "OK, I think it's safe to say that you think your card has been stolen."  I'll look at my statement for this month, and tell the credit card company to

The thief paid a TMobile bill. They went to a spa. They bought clothes. They got their hair done. They stayed at a hotel. They shopped online. They had TRIED a $500 charge at a store on Monday, but by then the credit card company had placed a hold on the card. I won't have to pay for any of those charges. But someone will. Whether it's the stores that won't get paid, or the credit card company losing money, SOMEONE lost money.

And yet, I'M the one who feels bad. I'm kind of an airhead sometimes, and I don't take care of my things (cell phone, wallet, etc) as I should.  If I had at least noticed that my card was gone, I could have immediately phoned the credit card company and told them to cancel my card. And maybe by that point, the thief might have only had time to make one or two charges. Somethings tells me I'm the only one who feels guilty. I shouldn't feel too horrible about the non-online charges. I sign the back of my cards AND write on them, PLEASE SEE ID. And I didn't lose my ID. So the store clerks, hotel desk clerk, and person at the spa didn't check the ID or didn't do it very well.

I remember once, I used John's credit card at a store (with his permission), and the clerk must have not even looked at the name because they didn't bat an eye. Unless I look like my name should be John.

I'm every bit as at a loss for words with people who download illegally as I am with the person who stole my credit card. I'll never understand people who think they can get something for nothing.

If you think a porn movie sucks, then DON'T buy it! Is your (I'm talking in generalities, not to a specific person) time SO invaluable, that you just sit there wasting time watching stuff that isn't worthwhile?

I wish that porn fans were MORE discriminating. There's a lot of crap out there. Don't spend your money on it. But don't think that YOU can choose what you think you should be able to watch for free, either. Companies get to pick their business models, not you. You get to pick whether or not you want to financially support their business model.

Well, enough tangents for today.