Yesterday I received a letter in the mail informing me that my personal information was "recovered" during an investigation by law enforcement and Amex.

What does this mean, in bank-speak? That my card information was hacked and stolen by ID thieves.

I had to laugh, because these are exactly the kinds of customer communications letters I write in my new(ish) bank job.

But I was surprised that Amex not only didn't offer to issue me a new card with a new account number, but they didn't even offer credit monitoring services, which is pretty routine these days.

They did supply with the letter a laundry list of things I could do myself, like check my credit report, "be vigilant," yadda yadda yadda.

I called them up to request a new card and account number, and they agreed. They also said they'd transfer over all my points and credit card history so that my credit wouldn't suffer by closing out one of my oldest credit cards. But I had to ask for all this specifically; it wasn't proactively offered.

Since I had them on the phone, I did ask about the new propel card and would I be eligible to earn those rewards if i already had another amex card, since they denied me rewards once before based on that fact. I don't think the rep understood my question and i didn't want to get into it at the office, so i let it go as I'm not quite ready to go for that card. I'd like to wait til later in the year when my car and homeowner's insurance are due, as that's an easy $1,000 of spending right there.

But I would urge anyone who already has an AMEX card to double-check with them first before going for their new card to avoid being severely disappointed when they don't give you the up front bonus!

In other news, yesterday's payday was the first of 2 monthly deductions for health insurance. At $87 per deduction, or $175 a month, I will realize a monthly savings of $229 (compared to what i was paying with my Obamacare plan) without doing a thing. Love it. I've arrived at Reasonable Cost Land and don't ever want to return to Downward Unemployed Spiral of Escalating Costs.

In my last post, I happily reported having made an easy $100 from selling perennials growing in my yard as I work to return a very large but unkempt/overgrown bed to lawn. I decided to repost the Craig's List ad for these plants because I still have quite a few things left that I could either make some decent money on or throw in the compost heap. So there are 2 more people who have expressed interest (and 2 still who expressed interest earlier) but it's doubtful it will happen this weekend since today it's raining and tomorrow is Mother's Day. I would squeeze someone in if they wanted to come, but don't think it will happen.

Next week I have another trip to Boston area for another daylong meeting. I can look forward to 5 hours of drive time round trip. They're all meeting for drinks afterwards, and i feel some subtle pressure to at least pop my head in there, but considering i don't like to drink and certainly don't want to drink before facing a 2.5 hour ride home, I don't plan to go to that at all. I'd just as soon get on the road as soon as the meeting ends.

However, a while back i asked my boss if there was any way they could move back the start time of the meeting to better accommodate those of us who were driving in from out of state. My friend said they'd never do it and didn't really care whether it was a hardship to get up at 5 to get up there in time and then drive back home, making it a very long day. Lo and behold, they did move back the start time to 11 a.m., so i can leave around 8 am, which seems almost civil. I'm allowing an extra half hour for traffic, which may not be enough, but that's all i'm allowing.

Otherwise, work is fine though there is plenty of drama with one of the women, B., who sits next to me. She seems to be a Teflon contract worker who has ingratiated herself with our boss and thus seems to be impervious to anything bad happening even though she goofs off for the majority of her day, has gotten away with not showing up at the office numerous times, even missing a conference call because she was busy making vacation plans for Labor Day weekend. She has ZERO work ethic. Everyone seems to be aware of what's going on except our boss.

Then, finally, another woman, M, who sits in my area, complained that this woman's frequent emotional breakdowns were too distracting to deal with and asked to be moved to another location. Although B. was spoken to by our boss, she now simply spends more time texting rather than talking on the phone because she knows someone complained. But now she's hell bent on finding out who complained to the boss about her.

She IM'd me and asked me point blank and I told her no, it wasn't me, although I've known all along it was M. who complained, and I was fully prepared to support what M. said should our manager ask me, but she never did. You would think the boss would want to get to the bottom of it. M. and I are the only two who sit near B., so you would think our manager would want to talk to me to see if i corroborated what M. said, but that never happened.

B. doesn't suspect M. AT ALL, because M. is very pleasant to her. So B. was taking to M. yesterday saying how upsetting it was to know that someone ratted her out, and M. proceeded to try to give her advice and told her to forget about it and move on. M. must have been feeling very nervous because I had already told M. the day before that I'm not going to lie to B., and that while I won't volunteer information, I will tell her if she asks me any specifics.

After talking to her husband about it, M. was feeling very nervous about letting B. know it was her who complained because she she thinks B. is unstable and doesn't want a confrontation, but it was extremely awkward hearing her talk to B. about it. It's possible B. may still suspect me since I'm the one who can be cool with her because she's such an emotional yo-yo and can be annoying so I vacillate between trying to help her (she's beyond help) and trying to steer clear of her as much as that's possible when i sit next to her and do work with her.

Ahh, the pleasures of being back in an office environment.