Four years ago today, on a Friday the Thirteenth, I met one of the best friends I’ll ever have. We met at a job interview. He interviewed me as a pre-screening, and for some reason felt the need that I was whatever they were looking for, and sent me in to the Big Boss. Over the next four months, we became good friends. Chris used to bring me my lunch every day. I took on other tasks to put in overtime, which escalated our project’s outcome. We were promoted twice, and fired at the same time for the same thing. Over the next few months, we went to class together with the same major. Chris went to my wedding. He was there when I had my boys.
Suddenly, in January of 2008, he became ill. He slept a lot. He had nose bleeds. He vomited for no reason. He just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until March of 2008, after our trip to Texas, where we had a slight falling out, that he went to a doctor. His blood tests revealed that he wouldn’t be returning to class in August: He had Aplastic Anemia, probably induced from our work with tritium while making gel DNA runs for electrophoresis. We never wore masks or gloves. Tritium isn’t supposed to be able to penetrate the skin, but I think there were more isotopes used in the ingredients.
By June of 2008, Chris was gone.
Chris refused treatment, claiming that he’d seen the effects of immuno-suppressed people and he didn’t want to be in that boat. I wonder if there were some other reason he chose to not accept treatment. I wonder why he chose that he chose.
Chris was who I thought I saw last month in the ‘haunted lab’. It certainly looked like him. Though by now, I’m probably sounding crazy. I’m no longer sorrowful that Chris is gone, but happy that he was my friend for as long as he was. Through Chris I met Matt, got my iPhone, and learned that I’m not completely hopeless.
Speaking of my phone, I had a little talk with USC. My information, including the stuff on my memory card, was sent to someone else’s phone. While USC admitted they made a mistake, they won’t just wipe the info from that person’s phone. The best they can do is get in touch with that person and ask if they deleted it. Pretty much, I am at the mercy of some stranger whose Blackberry is just one digit off of my phone’s serial number. I never should have gone back to USC. AT&T was bad about coverage and customer service, but they never lost my information like that. The icing on the cake is when I asked why they couldn’t just wipe that person’s phone, I was told “That would be an invasion of privacy to that customer.” As if sending said customer my information in the first place wasn’t! USC knows they’ve screwed up, much so that they offered me six months of unlimited talk time, to waive my current bill, and not even contact me for any payments until July–if I signed a waiver that they are not responsible for accidentally giving my information to another customer. This person has my full name, photos of me, text messages, emails, email addresses, email accounts, some MP3s I love, my nursing software, pharmacology e-books and reference books, chemical calculations, my themes, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, the numbers of people I have called. All because a USC customer tech didn’t read the serial number right when transferring the information. I declined signing that paper. If my identity is stolen, I think USC is financially responsible.
Other than that, I can never, ever get my information back. They claim they can’t tell what data on that other person’s phone is mine and what is their own data, so I just have to grin and bear it. So if you’ve called me in the past two years, and you get cranks from some stranger, it’s not my fault. Also, I need all my contacts back, so feel free to call me again or text me.