Evil Late Night Computer Gnome

I usually hate trying to do anything fancy on bank sites--like redeem my "reward" points. But Christmas is almost here and my money isn't, so when I saw that my bank (without notifying me) switched my card to a rewards card, I checked out the situation.

It looked so easy. They said I had many, many points. They said I could get a $100 gasoline card at a major oil company. They said just sign up here. So I did. And signed up, and signed up, and signed up.

I filled in the info, clicked to place the order, and was sent back to the beginning. The first time I thought, "OK, I missed something." The second time, I got irritated. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss something twice. By the third time, I began to feel an overwhelming urge to yell at someone or eat a pint of ice cream (I really shouldn't do these things late at night.) Unfortunately, no one is here but my little dog and me--he's sleeping and I'm out of ice cream.

I realized someone was messing with me when the screen displayed the information I'd entered. It looked very official. Just one little problem: tiny red letters proclaimed that I 'd entered my phone number incorrectly--not enough numbers, too many symbols that don't belong, yadda yadda. I checked. I double checked. I looked on my cell phone. Yep, that's my number, all right. Ten digits--entered correctly and in the right order. I suspect a computer jockey somewhere in the bowels of the bank activated an endless loop--to keep customers busy without actually accomplishing anything-- after the supervisors left for the day. I can just hear his evil laugh as he rubs his hands, crunching Fritos and guzzling Mountain Dew.

You will not beat me, Evil Gnome! It may be my bedtime now (well, it was an hour ago when I began this fiasco,) but as Scarlett O'Hara said, tomorrow is another day. I will have that gas card, doggone it!

C'mon, Toto, let's hit the sack. (Oops. Wrong movie.)