~Tuesday~ I was up before the alarm this morning, which most certainly is unusual, particularly since I’d only had about five hours of sleep.
It was a beautiful, sunny, 69° spring morning with the smell of fresh-cut grass in the air, remnants of fresh-cut grass on the pavement, and the sound of fresh-cut grass becoming such.
The city bus arrived at 8:23 with Hot Mess Driver at the helm. Not an iota of air circulated aboard nor was there a single window open to entice one to do so.
I sat on pins and needles—figuratively not literally of course, as I’d checked the seat before sitting down—waiting for someone to be called out for pulling on that stop cord outside Hot Mess Driver‘s narrowly-defined and acceptable window of opportunity to do it.
At a subsequent stop a “piggy-banker” boarded, and I didn’t hear if she asked for a day pass or not, which is to say that I’m not sure if she paid $1.00 or $2.00. What I am sure about is that she broke into her piggy bank for either 20 nickels or 20 dimes, and we waited for each and every one of them to reach the bottom of the change trough in the fare machine before it slopped out her ticket.
I had my weekly staff meeting with my boss, which was uneventful, which is just how I like them. We’re both very busy, and that’s not about to change any time soon.
Right after that, I had a meeting with three of my favorite colleagues—Sarah, Nick, and Twanda—and we worked on updating the FAQs for the employee migration to Goggle project that our organization is currently spearheading.
I met my friend Susan Katz for lunch at Sadlack’s, where I used the second of mine, and the fourth of our combined, Groupons that we have for the place, and which are expiring in June. As usual, we had good conversation, the food was delicious, and David (behind the counter, and my friend) was entertaining.
I was walking toward the Wolfline buses to catch one home when I remembered that I’d taken the city bus in this morning. Fortunately, it was close to a time (every 30 minutes) for the city bus to arrive, so I walked under very dark, ominous clouds over to the city bus shelter, where I thought I might run into Ann, since it was a little after 6:00. No such luck, though. I imagined her elsewhere, still lugging around whatever it is she has for me, and about which I’m still quite curious.
I had a brief instant message conversation with Robert while I waited for the bus, and it started pouring just before it arrived. There were two adorable little girls sitting in front of me on the bus, but they were a handful—nonstop everything.
That little one, who was one year old, cracked me up a couple of times. She was eating some kind of little sour candies and made the funniest faces whenever she put a piece in her mouth.
I worked on updating and cleaning out my “Last Wishes” folder and my “Legal” folder. As part of my last wishes paperwork, I updated my personal identity file, which contains information like:
- Personal identification numbers (e.g., Social Security, Employee, Passport, Driver’s License)
- Estate planning
- Information about the attorney who prepared my documents
- The whereabouts of these documents:
- Last Will & Testament
- Declaration of Desire for a Natural Death (a.k.a. a living will)
- Post Incompetency Durable Power of Attorney (including financial power-of-attorney)
- Health Care Power of Attorney
- Five Wishes (from Aging with Dignity)
- Cremation arrangements (I have a completely pre-paid policy with the Cremation Society of the Carolinas.)
- Email accounts (work and personal)
- Real Estate (Current home value, mortgage loan balance and with whom, and who I’m leaving it to)
- Vehicle (Plate number; VIN; Title number and location, since it’s paid for; and who I’m leaving it to)
- Bank accounts (name of bank, account types and numbers, and snapshot of current balances)
- Investment accounts (name of holder, account types and numbers, beneficiaries of each account, and snapshot of current values)
- Insurance policies (who they’re with, what kind they are, and their policy numbers)
- Credit card accounts (who they’re with, what kind they are, and how they get paid)
- Utilities (who to contact to cancel my electricity, Internet service, water, and phone, the account numbers, and how they’re paid)
- My frequent flyer accounts (with which airlines and the account numbers to try and transfer them to someone still alive.)
- Pending executor duties (I’m listed as the executor of at least three estates that people have told me about; they’ll need to be notified to pick someone else)
When going through my legal folder, I came across the paperwork from my divorce with that simple little final document (which in our case listed Donna as the plaintiff and me as the defendant), and poof, just like that, a 16-year covenant dissolved by signatures.
Anyhow, it feels good having that will-related information updated, as I updated my will in 2009 and a lot of the stuff was out of date.
Not to mention it would have totally undermined the whole point of having things “in order for my executor” if there were references to (and copies of) two different wills, beneficiaries that have changed or no longer are, as well as references to and copies of paperwork of now-defunct accounts such as any accounts associated with IBM or to an insurance policy that I surrendered in 2010.