Have cards, will use!

Woohoo! I should now have working debit and credit cards again, after activating them.

( How I went for months with no cards )

In a while, I'm planning to head off to break in the new card at Sainsbury's. Beforehand, though, I'm sorely tempted to make sure it's really activated at an ATM, to avoid potential embarrassment and phone calls to the bank at the checkout!

I also lost my Virginia driver's license in the wallet, so will have to apply from scratch once we hit California, which is really inconvenient in itself. (And expensive, since I'll have to get a driving school vehicle for the road test, with the DMV's weird insurance documentation requirements.) Virginia won't let you request a replacement online without the customer number on the license (helpful!), and I am so not going to fly back home just to go to the DMV. Next time I get my paws on a license, I'm keeping a photocopy in a safe place, with the passport one.

That should be fun for a while, especially since vatine has never really needed to get a license. Getting a British one requires a lot more hassle than just walking into a DMV branch (especially if you're a foreigner with chronic health problems!). Neither one of us wanted to mail our passports off to Swansea, and they require a remarkable amount of hoop-jumping if you have just about any kind of health problem (which includes "any mental ill-health condition (including depression)"#).* So we've both made do without.

At least his future workplace runs employee shuttles, so he should be able to get to work without too much trouble until I get things sorted out.
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* Unfortunately, the weird phrasing seems to reflect some attitudes.

Elsewhere... 21/04/2010

Quick pointer: “What’s Happened to Original Sin? It’s Become Unhealthy”

Cards and PINs, oh my...

It's a good thing I did remember to take cash with me, and try to get money out of an ATM with the new debit card before using it at the checkout. Surprise, surprise: I couldn't remember the PIN!

You remember that kid who never seemed to be able to get into her locker in school? That was me. At least nobody's making fun of me to my face when I have this kind of lapse now. ;)

I blame the dyscalculia.

I tried entering every PIN I could remember, and didn't hit the right one. Not so usefully, I did recall the one for the other debit card I did not have along. So I just requested that HSBC send me a new one, while I was thinking about it.

Even more frustrating, and darkly funny? When I picked up the phone to call Ingvar after I got home, I started off by punching in what I'm pretty sure was the right PIN instead of his mobile number! *facepalm*

But, I had £40 cash, so we do have some groceries. With some leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge, tonight we're getting (corn noodle) lasagne with lots of spinach and ricotta, and some salad on the side.