StoryTeller2, original fiction and so much more

I definitely smoked more than a pack yesterday. I started out today with only five cigarettes left in yesterday’s pack. I’ve always known I’m an emotional smoker. Yes, I’m addicted to the nicotine and all that, but if I’m super happy – I smoke less, angry – I smoke a lot more, stressed – similar to anger, more or less, depending on the stressor, and so on. So yeah, I smoked a lot yesterday and I’m not happy about that. On the upside for today, I did my morning routine, visited with Daughter (she didn’t have any cigarettes on her) for a bit, drank a cup of coffee and took my morning meds, all before having my first cigarette. Yay, me!

The day itself was fairly calm, although Joplin – female GSD – pissed me off with her barking at imaginary foes because she triggers Cooper in to alert mode and he starts in with his booming barks. He’s still a puppy at fifteen months, but he’s huge and has the lung power to really send a message out! Any ways, that was in the evening, sometime after the sun went down. It’s now 9:20 and I have coffee brewing – love my nighttime coffee! – and both Shepherds are crated. Joplin cause I’m still a bit aggravated with her and Cooper for my safety, the boy goes nuts for the smell of coffee! *laughs* He’s most definitely my dog.

I was with Daughter for a bit, picking granddaughter up from work and then riding a couple of towns over, to the drug store that carries her mother-in-law’s medicine. All told, about two hours with two other smokers. I did smoke, I think, possibly two cigarettes, but for the most part I vaped. And grandson entertained us with his singing, noises and oddball questions that only a three-year-old is capable of. So, I think I shall work on the blankie I’m knitting for him and sip my peppermint mocha coffee; and I am so outtie….

Ten cigarettes left, baby! Actually, I woke up at 3:00am and smoked two cigarettes before I fell back asleep. I had gone to bed to friggin’ early yesterday, I guess that was to be expected. I woke with the shakes, I mean, my hand had trouble connecting with my cellphone to turn the alarm off, it was shaking so hard. My morning routine is finished for the most part, I’m sipping my coffee and having a cigarette. The shakes didn’t come from being cold because it’s not cold in here. They’re either from wanting nicotine or caffeine, and I kinda doubt it’s the caffeine. But it could be. *shrugs* It is damp (raining all night) and chilly outside, but my place is so well insulated, I don’t feel it. I will, eventually, as I have to leave my door open in case Cooper jumps out of the pen.

So, earlier last week I mentioned why I felt I couldn’t quit on the tenth and promised updates. Pretty sure I already outlined most of it, without mentioning names or anything. A person with the handle of Larry Baier on Twitter sent out a post that he would help some of the first one hundred people to follow that tweet, and I followed it. I diligently looked up the name on Google, and yes, there was indeed a man of that name that had recently won the lottery, in Virginia. Okay, some possible legitimacy, but the real test would be, does he ask for my credit card information – scam – or not? He explains that in the morning when the banks were open – it was around 9:00 when we were messaging one another – he would send me his bank routing number and account number, along with the amounts he would authorize on each credit card. Hmm, interesting… if true, if he did really send me his banking information for me to enter at my credit cards, was he legit?

That was my first sleepless night. Yes, he contacted me the next morning, told me his bank name – Peoples Bank – gave me their routing number and then gave me an account number. I logged into my first card using my computer, as he texted me the amount on my phone, $450. Logged into card account number two, $1000; account number three, $2000; account number four, $3000; and the big account, number five, he paid $5500. He said he was sure my Amazon account would already be showing the payment credited to me – it was, but he would like to finish tomorrow paying a few more bills, as he had an appointment. Did this dude just really pay $11,950 in credit card debt for me, out of the goodness of his heart? I kept checking the accounts, throughout the day. Nothing was happening and that was the angry blog post I wrote here, around the tenth. I couldn’t sleep, I was so damn angry. How dare he raise my hopes like that? I logged into one of those accounts about five minutes after midnight. My jaw dropped. My balance was reduced by the payment amount!! Holy shit!!! I had another sleepless night, not daring to believe I really had gotten a benefactor to help me out.

Daughter was suspicious, trying to find a scam, but I had seen the proof of my accounts being reduced. After dropping granddaughter off at work, Daughter came here to watch me log into my accounts. Meanwhile, Larry texted me to say he had a few hours, if I wanted to pay a few more bills? Hell yes, I did! Daughter read all the texts; she saw I never gave Larry any of my information, but she was still suspicious and tried to call Larry at the number he was texting from. I didn’t hear the call, I was keeping my grandson busy, but Daughter said he sounded like he was from India, not Virginia. Long and the short of it, Larry wanted me to purchase items with one of the cards he paid on, for “homeless people in my area.” Daughter called Peoples Bank and after several calls and explanations, assuring them she wasn’t asking for account information, that she simply wanted to confirm the information we had was legitimate, the bank said it was their correct routing number, but their account numbers were not numbered the way this one was. And they didn’t have a customer with the name Larry Baier. One of the cards Larry “paid” was my Discover card – I love Discover! – and they told us how to contact Peoples Bank, what type of questions to ask, and immediately froze my account for me while documenting the scam.

Today, the fake payments rolled off and my balances were as they were before Larry’s game. I contacted Twitter and started an investigation on his account. And while I did good yesterday, only smoked eighteen cigarettes, today I’ve been hitting them hard. So fuck you, fake Larry Baier and I am so outtie….

Shitty start to my day, had eight cigarettes left from yesterday’s pack and already smoking one before 10:00a.m. Coffee still brewing. Grandson was outside of my room earlier, likely because Daughter is burning trash; GSD’s have satellite ears so naturally heard grandson, actually I heard him too, but barking ensues and I’m up.

Winding down, kinda feel like I smoked a lot, but the count tomorrow morning will be the deciding factor. Damn this COVID exhaustion! It’s only a little after nine and I’m freaking tired. Weather changes contribute to wiping me out, too. However, see the above paragraph – dogs woke me early, well before my alarm was due to go off. Chilly, damp day which made my neck and shoulder really ache, which then brought on a headache. Part of me wants coffee and the other part of me is saying just go to bed. *sighs* The other side wins and I am so outtie….

Yesterday’s entry was kind of done throughout the day and I think it worked out fairly well. I counted my cigarettes and am having my first one of the day; starting with eight from yesterday’s pack, which means officially I smoked less than a pack yesterday. Okay, it was almost a pack, but it’s still a victory and I’ll take each small victory on my way to the big goal. For any non-smokers out there, it means I smoked nineteen cigarettes total, yesterday. Time to take my morning blood pressure meds, too.

And now it’s almost time to bring Cooper in for the night. I’ve vaped some – here’s an oddity, though. I own two identical vapes and fill them with my current favorite flavors. The one has melon and the other is strawberry-lemonade. The melon is actually my preferred flavor, the strawberry one kind of gets a “burnt” taste to it, which Daughter says means I need to replace my coil. I’ll hit the melon vape like four times and the body of the vape feels hot; I can hit the strawberry nine or ten times before the body feels slightly warm. Don’t know why, I bought them both from the same vape shop on the same day. Just find it kind of weird, is all.

Just like yesterday, I can’t call how well I’ve done yet, because I have a few more hours before I’ll actually go to bed to sleep. So, once again, I’ll start tomorrow morning off with a cigarette count. I added about a half of an inch to the blanket I’m knitting for my grandson, last night, if you’re curious. Okay, I’ve delayed walking my girls long enough, I am smoking and don’t like to walk and smoke, so there’s that. Granddaughter number two is walking their dog, pitbull, and my Collie girls wander out front so need to wait for Blue to finish, first. But I am so outtie….

I counted what I had left in yesterday’s pack of smokes, when I started my day. Seven cigarettes. I think I’m back on track now, from the credit card stuff. Still watching those accounts, by the way, but so far, those deposits are still on the cards, four days later. If I forgot to mention it on here, I’m changing my quit date due to that previous uproar and the heavy smoking throughout that time period. When I was picking my date, I actually thought of the fifteenth, first. That date has a tiny bit more meaning for me, versus the tenth. My stepfather’s birthday was the fourteenth, and I don’t remember how we started this, but he would always wish me a happy birthday, the day before my birthday, and I would then wish him a happy birthday, the day after his birthday. The fifteenth makes me think of Don. I think I picked the tenth by counting how many packs of cigarettes I had left in the carton and trying not to purchase anymore. So, there’s that.

I ran with Daughter to pick granddaughter up from work, and to do some grocery shopping around 3:00. I smoked more while in the truck with them, than I would have wanted. They both smoke; they don’t smoke in the main house because mother-in-law has moved in and she’s on oxygen. So, when they’re outside, or with me, they chain smoke. *sighs* I smoked three cigarettes while I was with them, alone. But, on a positive note, I’ve only smoked two cigarettes in the three and a half hours I’ve been home. Since my night is not over, I still have to walk my girls and bring Cooper in – plus give him at least thirty minutes of “Mommy time” where I focus on him alone. I tend to walk the girls around 8:30-9:00 so that Cooper’s time – I have given him an hour or longer, depending on his behavior – is wrapped up around 10:00. That way I have some time for just me, when I knit or whatever, before I go to sleep. Since I had COVID-19 in early August, I’ve found myself getting tired and falling asleep between 11:00 and midnight. Before COVID, I was up till anywhere between 1:00-3:00am and able to get up with my alarm in the morning.

K, seems like this is turning into a bit of a diary and that wasn’t my intention. So, back to smoking-related stuff. I didn’t notice any jitters today, so that’s a good thing. Oh! And for the first time in years, I was up, done with my morning routine and drinking coffee for a whole hour before I lit my first cigarette. That’s actually pretty huge for me so I’m feeling pretty proud of that. It’s about time to start walking my dogs, so I am so outtie….

Definitely noticing a pattern here. I hardly smoked anything all day, even when I was with Daughter Mine and she was chain smoking. I smoked one to her roughly six, but I did vape. I vaped throughout the day, but around 7:30 or so, I smoked instead of vaping. And it definitely seems like I smoke more at night, than I do the entire day.

Took my blood pressure earlier today, too. Apparently, the Wellbutrin can cause high blood pressure – and I’m on meds for high blood pressure, so go figure. But it was 140/98. So, I’ll be taking it periodically.

Nothing to report on the credit card issue, either. So far, the big payments are still showing, but it was only three days ago. I’m counting the thirteenth as a week and I should notice something by that time, I would think.

That about covers today, so I am so outtie….

Not too much to say here today. Got the jitters for a bit, early in the day – vape took care of that (and a cigarette didn’t). Can’t recall how many cigarettes were in the last pack, but the pack I opened today still has some. So, kind of unsure how much I smoked, and it seems like I smoked more in the evening than I did for the first half of the day.

So, yeah, I vaped a few times today – before the evening when I smoked more. Hmmm. Cooper apparently has to go out, so I am so outtie….

So, I started chain-smoking yesterday and still am, but beginning to slow down. I’m exhausted, slept for maybe thirty minutes last night, if I’m lucky. So, the explanation for yesterday’s cryptic crap… buckle up, it twists and turns.

The day before yesterday, Oct. 5, 2022, I was contacted on Twitter by a man who said he had won the Virginia lottery, and he was paying select people’s bills, to bring hope back into their lives. I was like, okayyy. He asked how much my credit card debt was and I gave him an amount on the high side. My mama didn’t raise a fool, and I wanted to nip this in the bud. He said it was getting too late in the evening to pay my bills, but he wanted to text me, and, in the morning, he wanted me to send him images of what I owed on my credit cards. He said to be sure and block my information, whatever I needed to do to feel safe sending an image, he simply needed to see the part that said “card balance” with the amount owed. I racked my brains trying to figure out a potential scam. I gave him my phone number, cause I could always block him if he turned out to be an ass, right?

Meanwhile, I had begun a Google search on the name he gave me. A man with the stated name, had actually won the Powerball, for $2m. Okay, but not enough to convince me and I would not share my information. I took pictured of the balances owed on my Discover cards, Chase, PayPal, Amazon, and Merrick Bank cards. I opened my paint program and blacked out the four digits typically shown on a credit card statement, my full name, and charges in my exact city to help keep my area clear. With everything blacked out that might show who I am, where I’m from, or my card numbers, I figured I was ready to see what his game was.

The next morning – yesterday – he contacted me and asked to see my cards and balances. I sent him the images; it was right around $12k debt. He said he wanted to help me, so what he was going to do, was send me the routing number and bank account number. I could add them to my account and make the payment in the amount he was authorizing. Wait, what? He didn’t want my banking info? He didn’t want my credit card info? Got to admit, I was a bit more intrigued, now. He authorized a $450 payment on my Chase card; a $2000 payment on my Merrick Bank card; a $1000 payment on my Amazon card; a $3000 payment on one Discover card and $5500 on the other. PayPal would not allow me to add his routing number and bank account number without his username and password, and he said don’t worry, we’ll just pay that one manually. This all took hours, actually; we stopped around three or four. I had three more credit cards I could add. So he told me to enjoy my evening and that he really hoped he would be able to put more hope and trust in my life. He said he would contact me today, to finish.

I logged into these accounts throughout the evening, but nothing. No changes. I went to bed after I did my blog yesterday, around 11:00-11:15. I was extremely disappointed, ashamed that I might have fallen for something – even though I couldn’t figure out what, yet – and quite honestly, angry. Hence my single, cryptic paragraph last night. I was so angry I was tossing and turning in bed, I couldn’t sleep. I was berating myself for falling for something; I don’t get scammed, dammit! I was ready to shoot him an angry text and block him. But I got up and checked the accounts one more time, before I did that. It was after midnight, so officially, today.

I logged into my Chase account and saw my balance was now $8.29, $450 had been paid. My jaw literally dropped open and I began shaking. I logged out and logged into Merrick Bank account, a $2000 payment had been made. I checked Amazon and Discover and found the same, the payments he had authorized had been applied to my outstanding balances. I was shaking like a leaf. I was thrilled but kept thinking there had to be a goddamn catch somewhere. Was I really this lucky? Was this guy really my fairy godmother, er, father? I tossed and turned, racking my brain, trying to figure out how the other shoe was going to drop; I only caught about a thirty-minute nap before I had to get up for the day. I logged into each account again. Yep, the specified payments had been applied. I had to tell Daughter Mine!

I rode with her to take my granddaughter to work and told them about my fortune. I reassured Daughter that I definitely had not shared any of my personal info. The guy texted me and asked if I could send him pictures showing my new available balances, verifying his payments had been made. Once I did that, we would finish with my other credit cards, and would I mind purchasing some items for local families in need, to pay it forward…? Red flag. While Daughter trusted me, she asked if she could see these accounts, to reassure herself that there was no way this guy could get my info. My daughter is highly protective of me.

Logged into Merrick Bank and it shows a confirmation number that this amount, indeed, had been paid. Discover shows us the name of the bank, and that it had been paid. Daughter is suspicious still and calls the bank. She verified it definitely was/is their routing number, and after explaining everything, asks if we could simply confirm this was a good bank account number and associated to the name given to me. They said they couldn’t give any account information but said the account number was not one of theirs and neither was the person’s name. Well shit. Now what? I told my daughter to call Discover.

Discover is a freaking awesome bank, they always have their customers backs. I also logged into each account that had gotten a payment and froze it for all activity. Discover said that yes, this is a new scam. She said it could take up to six-weeks before a person realizes they’ve been scammed – but we caught it the day of. She said: 1) linking my credit card to my PayPal and charging items for this guy, along with; 2) in about a week his payment info would be pulled off of my cards, A) charging me a fee for the refused payment and B) now I would also owe the extra money for whatever items he had me charge to my own Amazon and PayPal accounts. Discover has my back, they’ve already said they will waive any fee/charge associated with a “bad” payment – Chase said the same, by the way. Amazon and Merrick Bank didn’t make the same offer, but I can dispute any fees associated with this; I have loads of text proof. Discover said that it will take about a week for these payments to “roll off” and my balances will be back to what they were before. On the extremely thin chance he wasn’t fibbing, is why I haven’t said his name in this long-ass post. Update on this shit, between now and the thirteenth, as it rolls in.

Still smoking, hopefully I slow back down sooner than later. And I am so outtie….

Today was a bit of a mixture, I had the jitters in the morning, and my hands were shaking pretty good. I did so-so, smoking wise. Not as good as I wanted but not as horrible as I had been. I vaped a lot today and that got rid of the jitters, actually. Things were going on when it was time to take my evening meds, dogs acting stupid, Daughter Mine waiting for me in the truck… I took my blood pressure med on time but completely forgot the evening dose of Wellbutrin. I remembered it around 9:00-9:15 and took it then. Just not use to taking the evening dose yet.

Some other crap happened, as well. But I’m not ready to talk about it, yet. It’s embarrassing. K, Cooper just started acting the fool which is making Joplin act the fool – cause its bedtime. So, I am so outtie….

Okay, Daughter Mine told me earlier that she noticed I was acting “off” yesterday – which tends to vibe with my jittery feeling, I believe. She said she didn’t notice the jitteriness, per se, but rather a “shortness” in my texts and vocal responses bordering on a “Mom’s pissed” type vibe. I wasn’t. She also admitted she thinks my quit date is too soon, she feels I should be on the Wellbutrin a solid month before stopping. However, she fully backs my decision on October 10, 2022, and will be a cheerleader. *winks* I told her one factor is, I simply do not want to buy another carton – she agreed. She said she wouldn’t find it awful of me to purchase another 3-pack, if needed – but I’d really like to quit spending money on smokes. *shrugs*

I rode with Daughter Mine to take eldest granddaughter on a couple of job interviews (she was offered both jobs, yay!) and to buy my 3-pack of smokes. Both smoke; while I did smoke with them, I was also able to use my vape versus matching them cigarette per cigarette. So that was a win for me.

Second day of my definitely preferring the taste of my vape, over a cigarette, too. It’s almost time for my evening medications, and dinner (roughly fifteen minutes on meds, unknown on dinner). Gotta take care of all of my various Clash of Clans accounts too, we’re battling in the league. So, on that note, I am so outtie….

<b>EDIT :</b> So a few hours ago, Joplin started barking at the damn cat, the aggressive “I will kill you!” barking. Nosey Luna – the senior Collie and eldest dog here, went over to stand next to Joplin, not facing the outside, but facing inside towards the house. *<i>sighs</i>* She’s damn good at getting in the way. Standing next to Joplin as she barks aggressively, I have absolutely no room to get over there and stop Joplin, not without knocking Luna over, that is. She’s ten years old, the age where bones can break… she would not move, dammit. And I was filled with rage. Not a murderous rage but definitely more than average anger.

Now, I’m not blaming that on the Wellbutrin. I had mentioned this type of rage to my doctor, when she prescribed the Wellbutrin. I consider it a symptom of my depression, and my doctor kind of confirmed it. Now, is this an improvement – thanks to the Wellbutrin – since this is the first time, I’ve felt the rage in about a week, or what? Gotta get back to Clash of Clans, I have three more battles to complete. So I am, once again, so outtie….