Plumbing, Cell Phones, and Social Security Numbers

Not too long ago, I read a horror story on the internet about a couple with an older home who found sewage backed up in their toilet and shower one day and had to have their driveway dug up in order to have their entire sewage system replaced. "Wow," I said to Dominic, "maybe we should get a plumber out to run some maintenance on our lines!" Normally, Dominic is the one who thinks we should Do Everything to Our House All at Once, like knock down those limestone planters on our front porch and build new brick columns, or extend our front porch, or pull up all the billions of bushes in our front yard, or refinish the back deck, or put more lighting in our back yard, or put up a hammock, or buy a new grill, or put up planters, or any of about a thousand other projects that would collectively cost us about a billion dollars. So I guess all of that was just to say that I was totally not surprised that he was receptive to hiring out a plumber to "blade" our lines, because he was, oh yes he was. And now we've got plumbing free of the tree roots that could have possibly caused extensive, potentially irreparable damage to our sewage lines, (it's so difficult being responsible home owners sometimes) but we're out nearly two hundred dollars this month that could have gone to any number of valuable causes, such as:

1. Buying me a new cell phone because I destroyed my old cell phone going on two weeks ago now.
2. Buying a hammock stand for the hammock I bought Dominic, which led, ultimately, to the destruction of my cell phone.
3. Buying me a new cell phone, so I don't have to reactivate Dominic's old cell phone because it's craptacular.

Anyway, we'll see how long I can play this game called, Complaining About the Fact that I Have to Buy a New Cell Phone Without Actually Buying a New Cell Phone. I think I can last another week, at least.

This morning, at work, I forgot my social security number. Big deal, you say? I've used my social security number almost everyday for some reason or another for the past 10 years, ever since I was forced to memorize it for my 7th grade English class. For the past six months, I've used it to clock in at the computer every morning. But today? Today, I forgot it, and I had to have a manager clock me in. Later, she handed me a piece of paper with my number written on it, and I was all, "Oh, nevermind! I remembered it! I remembered it! I can't believe I forgot it!" And she gave a nervous laugh and said something to the effect of, "That's something I'm sure everyone does." And I said, "Oh no! That's only something I do!"

In other words, Kate Gaskin: Weirding People Out Since 1982.