greeting card identity theft?

Several weeks ago, I received a rather strange e-mail. It was from the friendly electronic greeting card company bluemountain.com, and it was thanking me for registering with them. Of course, I had done no such thing. They also addressed the email to Allison somebody else (I can't remember the last name but it was definitely not mine.) Apparently this person had used my email address to sign up with her greeting card company. "That's strange, and slightly annoying," I thought to myself. A few minutes later, I started to realize that Allison was having quite the busy evening sending e-cards, because I got another registration email from the American Greetings website. And then she sent one. Since they thought she lived in my computer, they sent me a copy of the card. I stared at it for a minute, thinking that it would be wrong to read someone else's correspondence, but of course I couldn't resist. One nauseating music-box style song and some chirping birds and bouncing flowers later, my heart was warmed by her heartfelt thank yous to someone named Joy for being such a good and encouraging friend. Was this wrong? I don't know. I felt a little guilty, but when you type in someone else's email address (someone whose name doesn't even resemble yours) to register for a website, then you're kind of asking for it. At least that's my perspective.

Fast forward to tonight. I seem to have been the victim of yet another unrelated email greeting card confusion. I received a copy of someone named Allison Lott's belated birthday wish from Aunt Cathy and Uncle David. I saw that the message was copied to both my address and a Baylor college email, so I'm assuming they just got confused and that this girl who is hopefully a Baylor student got her birthday card. So obviously, curiosity got the best of me once more and I clicked on the card. And let me tell you, I'm so glad I did. PLEASE look at this. I'm sorry, Aunt Cathy and Uncle David, whoever you are. I'm sure you meant well. But this might be the worst and creepiest card I have ever seen.

Happy Belated Birthday Allison!

I'd like to conclude with a public service announcement to the Internet users of the world: Please, please use your own e-mail address when sending greeting cards, because if you steal my identity and they get sent to me, I cannot be held responsible for any invasions of birthday-wishing privacy that may occur. Thanks and have a great day.

congratulations...

... to Andrew for winning the book. Sorry -- I wish I had enough to give one to all of you that entered! But all of you should definitely buy the book because it's awesome.

a friendly reminder

you can still win the book... today's your last chance to send me a story! i'm kind of sad because i haven't gotten very many entries. (so your chances are very good!) it doesn't have to be long. heck, it can be three sentences if you want. e-mail or comment it to me by tonight.

A MILLION MILES IN A THOUSAND YEARS [book review & giveaway]

A good friend of mine posed a question to me a couple years ago that has since become a favorite conversation topic of mine with many different people. “In the movie of your life,” she wondered, “what actor would you choose to play you? What about your best friend? What about your love interest? What songs would be on the soundtrack?” It’s fun to think about, isn’t it?

Donald Miller begins the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by writing about when two film producers approached him with the idea of making a movie based on his memoir Blue Like Jazz. His description of the screenwriting process is fascinating. Although the book is taken directly from Don’s own life, the movie is to be a fictional portrayal of the character Don. The struggle he faces is unique: turning the events of his life into a cohesive story that grabs an audience and wraps up in two hours, and along the way coming to terms with the fact that his life is, frankly, quite boring. When Don asked one of the producers if people would be bored if the movie showed his life the way it happened, the reply that came was “I think they’d stab each other in the necks with drinking straws.” But really, all of our lives would probably be pretty boring if they were made into movies. “Life is slower [than film],” he writes. “It’s like we’re all… waiting for something to happen, and every couple months the audience points at the screen and says, ‘Look, that guy’s getting a parking ticket.’”

How many times have I daydreamed about my life-movie? The more I thought about it after reading the first few chapters of A Million Miles, though, the more I realized that the movie in my mind is based on a completely fictional life – one where I wear designer shoes and look like Reese Witherspoon and fall in love with someone who has a British accent, with a charming indie-rock soundtrack following me all the way. But let’s face it, Reese would probably not sign on to do a movie where her character sat around and studied most of the time except when she was taking naps or watching television or e-mailing a friend. If I wanted to make my life into something anyone would pay nine dollars to come watch, it would take some serious editing.

So, most of our lives would not make very exciting movies. What do we take from this? To me, the rest of the book after the initial setup served as a personal challenge. Don weaves elements of his own story in with parts of many other peoples’ to illustrate that the most fulfilling parts of our own lives are those where we made choices to create our own stories; when we consciously point ourselves in a new direction. We’ve got to take risks, we’ve got to learn from other people, and we’ve got to create memorable experiences. Because when you look back on your life, I’m sure you don’t want to see it as one endless cycle of sitting around and eating food and watching television and going to the gym. You’ll want to look back at the time you rode your bike across the country, or took a risk and pursued a relationship with someone, or jumped off a cliff. “There is a force in the world that doesn’t want us to live good stories,” Don writes. “It doesn’t want us to face our issues, to face our fear and bring something beautiful in the world.” We have to overcome our complacency in order to live a bigger life.

This was one of those books that I read at the perfect time. It seemed like every chapter spoke to me directly and encouraged me to live just a little differently. It’s definitely one I’ll keep on my shelf and pull out again sometime soon and I’d highly encourage all of you to read it.

Here’s the exciting part. I got this book from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, and they sent me an extra copy to give away to a friend. So I’m going to give it to one of you. All I’m asking is that you tell me part of your story – something memorable that has happened to you, whether it is funny, or sad, or even if it’s a little bit boring. You can leave it in a comment or e-mail it to me at allisonlott [at] gmail.com. On Friday, I’ll pick someone to win the book. Have fun – and I’m looking forward to hearing your stories.

top five jobs i would rather have: wednesday edition

1. the person who smashes up all the makeup to photograph it for magazines. i think there would be something very therapeutic about pouring out a $55 jar of powder and then smearing a Chanel lipstick across a page. and getting paid for it.

2. game show host. everyone in the world perceives you as a genius when really all you have to do is read a teleprompter. maybe i could take over for alex trebek when he retires? i think "jeopardy host" would look rather impressive on my resume.

3. poet. i wonder how much money william carlos williams made for that red wheelbarrow poem? i could write that in four minutes flat. also, i would not be required to use capital letters, something in which i am clearly not in the mood for today.

4. homeless person. it worked out okay for this girl... and i don't see her slaving away over a pathology textbook until all hours of the night. win/win. and i could get free medical care by just going to my neighborhood ER every time i got a headache, right?

5. the person who writes the labels for vitamin water. i could SO be funnier.

musings of a disgruntled narcoleptic.

A few weeks ago, I switched to a new Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance policy. Because I had been uninsured previously for a few weeks, I was anxious to get some more of my narcolepsy medicine because I had run out. So on September 1st, the day my new insurance policy began, I be-bopped on down to my neighborhood Target pharmacy in order to pick up my prescription. However, the pharmacist had some disappointing news. "You need prior authorization from your physician's office," she informed me. So I called my physician's office. They cheerfully agreed to call Blue Cross and provide authorization. So, a few days later, I checked back with Target. Bad news again. "We spoke with your doctor's office, and they provided authorization, but for some reason when we try to run it through it still says this drug is not accepted. Maybe you could try to call the insurance company and see what the problem is."

A couple days after that, my parents got a letter in the mail from Blue Cross saying that approval had been verified for the drug. Great, I thought. Maybe it just now went through. So I tried again with Target. Still rejected. Finally, yesterday, I called Blue Cross. After a long and confused conversation with a very friendly yet clueless BC/BS representative, we managed to pinpoint the problem that had been confounding every party involved for the past two weeks. Here's the deal: The drug I am taking is called armodafinil, manufactured under the trade name Nuvigil. There is no generic for this drug; only one company makes it. The Huntsville Hospital Sleep Center had given prior authorization to Blue Cross for me to take armodafinil. Target had been trying to run it through as Nuvigil. Between the physician's office, the pharmacist, and the insurance company, not one of them could figure out that these two different drug names, in fact, were the same thing.

Now, this seems like a pretty ridiculous problem. I don't even know to whom I should direct my incredulousness. Okay, perhaps the doctor's office should have provided both names for the drug in their correspondence with the insurance company, I'll admit that. But Blue Cross obviously has a distinct policy regarding this drug because of the fact they specifically required previous authorization for it, so I'm not sure why their system would not recognize the two names of the drug. Also, isn't it a pharmacist's job to know that drugs generally have a compound name as well as a manufactured name? If this was a common problem, would they not have automatically checked both names? I'm wondering how often things like this happen and go unnoticed, or how many patients think that insurance is not covering their medication when it really is. What a dumb problem to have.

spelling bee winners: where are they now?

courtesy of toothpastefordinner.com