About a week and a half ago, an evil ATM ate my debit/ATM card. The machine was broken, and though it attempted to return my card, I couldn't manage to get it out of the machine before it was sucked in. I called my bank, cancelled the old card, and ordered a new one. They said, "It'll be there in about a week."

A week goes by. I have another account that I have an ATM card with, so I'm not completely cashless, but it's still annoying to have to work around the fact that I've mostly lost access to my primary bank account. I manage, knowing that as soon as Thursday rolls around, everything will be well again. I find and deposit checks into my secondary account, and all is well, mostly. I'm itching to have my real debit card back, though.

So I get my new card in the mail. I take it to the grocery store. I try and use it there, and realize mid-transaction that they've changed my PIN on me...and haven't included the PIN in the envelope. (Reasonable security procedure, yup. Annoying as hell, double yup.)

And I can't change my PIN over the phone. I actually have to physically show up at a branch of my credit union to change the number. My credit union, which has all of two branches in my area....both of which are on the other side of Lake Washington.

I'm sure you can see where this is going, right?

So this morning, I email into work saying that I'm going to be late, pack myself up, and get on a bus over to the east side.

I look at the Metro Web site and figure that the 230 will take me over there. I get dropped off at the freeway station by the 25, walk down the stairs, and note that the 230 doesn't stop at this freeway station. Oops. I decide, after looking at the schedule, to get on the next bus heading towards Overlake.

It's also cold. The cold is sinking in through my gloves and my slacks. I start wishing I'd put on some long underwear this morning. I lean against the bus shelter and read Evolution's Shore and try to ignore the cold. It almost works.

After a whle, a bus I think looks likely comes by. I hop on. The bus is cold inside and I'm starting to wonder if I will ever be warm again. After 45 minutes of vigalance, I determine that my bus has arrived in the approximate neighborhood of my bank, and I start walking. I get into the bank, change my PIN, and am out of the bank in less than five minutes.

I then commence waiting for a bus that will take me back to Seattle. Twenty minutes pass, a bus comes, I go to the Bellevue Transit Center, and another (blessed!) bus comes and takes me downtown. I walked in later than I thought I would be, chilled to the bone and with a couple of fires than I needed to put out at work, but feeling better because I finally had access to my bank account again.

And in today's mail was the letter telling me what my new PIN on my card was supposed to be. An amusing little postscript to a long a frustrating morning.

By the way, I've started using Odigo regularly (user #3171196), and I can generally be found online during the day. The best bit about it is the *ffff-kngggg* arrow sound that it makes when you get a message.

I would also like to note for the record that K looks really, really good in leather pants. Ohmy.

And on that note, I'm off to bed...

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