Mike and the Engagement Rat
Today was all kinds of stressful in the weirdest ways. The brokerage company we've had large investments with locked me out of their website when I attempted to do what I always do. Log in through our tax software and do an electronic download of tax documents.
Nothing worked like it was supposed to and I attempted to log into the company website so I could just download the tax info and then uploaded into our return. Locked out. Told Jim to give them a call since neither of our passwords were working and I could not remember how much we had there. We'd transferred the bulk of the investments elsewhere but I knew there was something there.
I don't do the monthly looking at our accounts. Jim does. His obsession, his fixation, hence the other day and his calling around to another place that hosts our investments.
Just like I figured there was little there. Jim found out there was a small amount available in my personal Roth IRA fund. The company would not tell him how much, saying I would have to call. He wanted me to transfer the funds into our mutual fund account there. I said yes, I don't care, I will do it.
So I did, starting a crazy journey of a freaking day. I was transferred from person to person. Turns out when I called three years ago to change the mailing address on all our accounts they didn't do it on this one lone stray Roth.
It was a tiny amount, but to transfer it into our mutual fund first I had to correct the address. They transferred me again after telling where to ask the next guy to transfer me and the term I needed to transfer the money. I had already been transferred to other departments a pile of times now for a simple transaction. Small amount that wouldn't even buy a pair of decent shoes.
Then the trouble started. I got a young man that would not let me into my account because I could only answer one of the security questions. You have to understand those questions were set up over twenty years ago and I cannot remember how I answered most of them. The other folks confirmed who I was via account information only I would have and left those pesky questions in the dust. This man would not.
Again, we're talking tiny sum here.
At the same time Jim was in the background being a smart ass when "Who was your first boyfriend" question, starting to razz me, and squeak out why wasn't it him. According to the man I was talking to that created a security risk, and he kept claiming I had him on speaker phone. I did not, I kept assuring him while turning to Jim and asking him to please shut up.
Jim has the tendency to do this sometimes when I'm on the phone trying to straighten some snafu out, or if I am working on something important like taxes. I tend to explode when he does it because it really, REALLY throws me off when he does it.
The young man kept mutinously muttering whenever Jim popped off, saying security risk and he was hanging up. Then he put me on a long hold and I dug up my old passwords book from that long ago and scared up the answers to the security questions. It was astounding how much better I was suddenly treated when I came up with the answers. At this point it had gone on for well over an hour. He told me he was sure I was a scammer before, which is wild because I had all the information but what my first boyfriend was.
Apparently I put Mike down as my first boyfriend even as my six year old self had a boyfriend named Blake for about six weeks. He even gave me a cheap little ring. Mike was later, when I was in seventh grade. He was also in my grade even if he was a full two years older than us. Mike did his best preteen Lothario interpretation, trying to woo me. I was so unsure and frazzled by Mike's over the top attentions to me. It was too uncomfortable. Then there was the time Mike tried to stick his hand up my skirt.
One of the things Mike did was come over to my house and give me his pet rat. Let me repeat that, his pet rat. Now, I'm not a fan of rats or mice in any way, shape or form. My father picked at me relentlessly and started calling it 'The Engagement Rat.' I gave that Engagement Rat away to one of my best friends who wanted it after I told Mike I was washing my hair ad infinitum. I broke up with Mike.
Many years later when I was working on working and getting my degree I had a car breakdown in the parking lot of a convenience store. A kind man stopped to help me. It was Mike. He told me he'd never forgotten me, and wanted to know if I'd go out with him. I did.
Over the course of a couple of weeks I saw Mike a great deal. I also saw his family in situ. His parents home was like an episode of "Hoarders," his sister was on relief with ten kids by ten different guys. His father owned a bar, a hard drinking place in the bad part of town. I ended up breaking up with Mike over his family. I just could not deal with them and their circumstances, I kept feeling if I got serious with Mike I would be drug down into their mess. I knew I didn't want that, I wanted a better life than what I was seeing. I knew my parents would disown me had I continued on with Mike.
Plus there was the biggest problem - I could feel zero chemistry with Mike. I wasn't attracted to him in the slightest. How do you overcome that? I still don't know.
Hadn't thought about Mike in years. Wonder where he is and if he ever found happiness. He was a large cut above the people he came from, a diamond in the rough. Any girl would be lucky to be loved by him. I was just too stupid and young to appreciate him either time.
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