TMI

I am your friendly neighborhood notary.

The only reason why I achieved this lofty status was to notarize work-related documents for my coworkers. At my company's request (and expense), I crammed for exactly 2 hours one day and took an online test, which qualified me to order a stamp that identified me as Notary Catherine. Little did I know that this hasty decision would ultimately lead to my downfall.

At about 4pm today, [by which time my brain was completely dead at work], I received a call--the caller id identified the caller as "Bank of America." Thinking that I'd be entangled in some strange work-related contract negotiation, I grudgingly picked up the phone. The lady identified herself as Barbara from Bank of America, and asked for me by name.

Barbara proceded to ask me if I spoke Chinese, then explained that she had two Chinese-speaking clients who needed something notarized. Barbara also indicated that she had secured my contact information from some Utah agency, and verified such contact information including my home address, cell phone number, and work number. [Creepy.]

She then went on to tell me that the two Chinese-speaking individuals wanted to make an appointment with me to notarize their documents. At the time, my mind missed the obvious question--why would two Chinese individuals, who allegedly have bank accounts with Bank of America and therefore some sort of ID, need a Chinese-speaking individual to verify that they are, indeed, who they claim to be? In any case, I provided my current work address and set an appointment for those individuals to come to my place of work on Friday for me to notarize their documents.

After I returned home, I recounted the situation in my mind and found it rather odd. I decided to do some research--I searched online for the Bank of America and looked for the phone number of the Highland office, Barbara's alleged place of business. Apparently, Bank of America has no offices within 100 miles of Highland. [Red flag].

My plan is to call the Lieutenant Governor of Utah tomorrow and ask him if my name and information could, in fact, be disclosed if someone were seeking a Chinese-speaking notary. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do after that.

I may not be with you after Friday. I have decided that I definitely need to get over this aiming to please thing. In a last effort to please, however, I have promised to give my new 46" Samsung tv to Wendy if I die.