Blah

I don't feel like commenting on Capital One and all of their crap, so I'll post something that made me smile:

From: Khan, Salma
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 2:36 PM
To: Khan, Sami
Subject: RE: hahaha

You should volunteer w/doctors without borders in India or something

From: Khan, Sami
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 2:44 PM
To: Khan, Salma
Subject: RE: hahaha


Yeah and then I'll come back looking like Gandhi-- all manourished and sh*t cause of the heat and lack of food (which is rationed off to the impoverished first before it gets to my belly). Then during my med school interview (if I make it there on a wheelchair), I'll pass out 30 minutes into it and show him first hand the difficulties one must endure while treating patients in a non-hospital/unsanitary environment...

And with my last ounce of strength spit in his face for not accepting me the year before.


(Kudos to Sami-K on this one)

Identity Theft

"No wonder you be walking 'round like you got attitude" - ED Security Guard after explaining to her that someone had charged over $700 with a credit card under my name that I never applied for.

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It was after a long two hour meeting at work today when I received a call from an 800 number on my cell phone. I hesitated to pick up fearing that it was Blockbuster calling me again about a late movie I never returned. Instead, it was a Capital One Collection's Agent telling me how I needed to make a minimum payment on my account and how the account was 90 days delinquent.

"But, I just paid my bill not too long ago"
"Ma'am you owe a minimum of $100. Your total account balance is $754"
"My account balance isn't that much. I just paid it"
"Ma'am your late fees have added to your balance. Now, the last transaction that was made on your account was for Car Fax Vehicle History"

At that point, my blood started rushing. I don't even own a car. I attempted to tell the agent -- calmly, but my lips started quivering -- that I didn't make that transaction. They told me the card was still open and that I would need to talk to the Fraud Department. But, at this point I was still held liable for all of those charges.

I got in touch with the Fraud Department at Capital One. By putting our heads together, the agent and I found out that someone had applied for a credit card under my name and was happily using it. Meanwhile, my credit score has been taking a tumble since June.

You would think Capital One would do a better job with cross checking their information, right? They didn't notice that the two accounts that were open had different mailing addresses for the statements. My account online said absolutely nothing about another account being open, suspiciously. Someone apparently had called in trying to get access into the account and failed to provide the correct passcode into the account, and NO ONE alerted me about it. This was back in July.

Now I'm stuck with shitty credit for the next three months while Capital One tries to get this mess sorted out.

Don't think it cant happen to you.

Wise Words

"God is so good to you. Are you good to God?"
(Courtesy of Lydia's dad.)

"Do you want me to take a picture with you and Allah?"
(Courtesy of Lydia after asking her (sincerely) if she wanted a picture with an Evangelical Christian preaching on the streets.)

In other news, I have offically reached FOB status by listening to streaming Hindi radio at work.

Riding the Waves

After two months of being here in DC, I think I've FINALLY accepted that this is my home, and will be my home for a while. The realization hit when I was in NYC with Sonia and I said to myself, "Dude, I just want to get home to DC and relax". The two terms had never been synonymous up until that point.

What makes a city yours? For me, it's having your "spots" and circle of people you surround yourself with. A couple of weeks ago, I was still having a lot of difficulty figuring where to go for whatever I needed/wanted to do. Now, it's not a matter of asking where to go for a haircut, but just heading on over to Andre Chreky.

Also, it helps to finally figure out the stupid quadrant system here along with not having to go on WMATA.com every freaking time I want to go somewhere.

Something that's still a little hard to deal with is losing my program-mates (is that even a word?) from MPSN. I miss them all dearly. Having two of them as roommates presently is helping a lot, but I miss the three that I shared a room with. (Yeah, four girls to one room...that was an adventure). I miss having my therapist in the next room whenever I wanted to vent about even the most insignificant of things (i.e. running eyeliner and dry skin). I even miss my cooking team and the gross concoctions we forced people to eat on Wednesday nights. Sigh.

But I guess that's just life, right? People come and go. You just gotta ride the waves and see where they take you.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big-A Pizza Pie...That's Amore

I was looking up romantic/first-date spots in DC on AOL City Search (yeah, don't ask) and none of the restaurants looked very appealing to me. Of course, then I proceeded to look up the same list for Los Angeles.

I wanted to cry.

Guess who was #1?

I miss home.