I went with my wife to the store last night. We decided to take Elvis, our precocious little Shitzu, along. Elvis really belongs to No. 1 daughter (who doesn’t live with us - but is moving back home soon), but we have him almost full time at home and he really loves my wife. Anyway, my wife headed towards the store, while I went over to the bank next door to the ATM.

I had Elvis with me. He was struggling to follow my wife to the store, and I had to pull him towards the ATM. I deposited a few checks, all the time trying to restraint Elvis. He is still an untrained, spoilt puppy so he doesn’t listen to me except when he knows I have treats for him, and so continued to pull away. After I deposited the checks, I checked the receipt, and then pushed the button for another transaction. I then took out some cash. Elvis tugged on the leash some more. When the cash came out of the slot, I took it counted them and took the receipt. Checked my balance and proceeded to go and put the cash in my wallet as I went. Elvis was happy to be trotting towards “Mommy”. I let him walk around outside the store, and then pulled him back towards the car. I opened the car door and Elvis jumped in. I wound down the windows a little and then closed the door behind me.

Poor Elvis.

He looked at me pitifully through the window as I walked back into the store to help my wife with the shopping. We spent a while at the store, as we needed to be careful to pick out items that my wife had coupons for. It was quite a while before we were done. When we were ready, my wife informed me that she forgot to bring out her credit card. I opened my wallet and proceeded to pay for the groceries.

As I did so, I noticed something wierd. One of the slots was empty. I usually have four cards in my wallet. There were only three. I looked at it again, and then I realized what was missing was my ATM card. My ATM card. My ATM card. What happened? I checked all my pockets - there were only two actually. Checked them again and again. Don’t panic. Think. To my horror, I realized what happened. I must have walked away after fishing the cash out of the machine while it was prompting me for “Do you wish to make another transaction?” I didn’t even hear the machine beep at me… or maybe it didn’t beep…

I remember walking past some people when I left the ATM, and also walking past a few cars at the parking lot. Cold sweat was breaking out. We took the groceries and rushed out quickly and headed towards the ATM. No sign of the card anywhere. I took a deep breath. I was thinking “Oh, no!” I imagined the worst. Perhaps someone is now out for a shopping spree right that moment. Using my card! The thing was, I was quite calm, considering. I was freaking out inside, but I wasn’t showing it too much. The wild imaginations were flittering in and out of my mind. In between I was taking deep breaths. I used to really freak out and I would have blamed myself and call myself all sorts of nasty names. I wonder if it is the Lexapro that is working, or it is the therapy and I am recovering, or a little of both.

I went home and empty out my entire wallet. Nope. No ATM card. I reached for the phone and dialed up the bank’s webpage. I dialed the 1-800 number. But they don’t do twenty-four seven. And, there were no answering service. I went online and sent off an SOS e-mail from the “Contact Us” page. In the meantime, I checked my accounts and did not find anything amiss.



Maybe I should transfer the entire balance to my PayPal account.

For some reason, I did not panic and was quite calm. I was even able to sleep like a baby last night. This morning, my e-mail probably made a customer service staff’s day.

Anyways, a phone call this morning to the local branch and the clerk found the card still in the machine. Could I come by tomorrow and pick it up?

By the afternoon, though, I received an e-mail from customer service.

Your card has been canceled and you will be sent a new card.



Hooray! I have a new nominee for financial services customer service of the year!

That is the good news part.

The other part I am not too sure about…



Am I losing my mind? Is it the Lexapro that has caused me to be so forgetful? Or is it just that I am now easily distracted? Or is it old age… Or, perhaps I can blame it on Elvis… heheh…