So as many of you have read, I was robbed several weeks ago. I am just dandy and it could have been much worse. To sum up that situation, this is what's been going on with me:

My wallet was stolen on September 9, 2011. I was able to cancel my 2 credit cards and debit card before anything was used by my evil robber with the help of my mom (shout out to Franny- love you!) Amex was very helpful and patient with me while Chase was a pain in my ass. They hung up on me twice. My cards arrived in Maryland in due time and my cards (and a purple sweater) were mailed Priority on Saturday, September 17, 2011 (shout out to Stan the Man- thanks!!). In the meantime, I had about 20 Soles to my name ($8). The $20 tip from the Americans helped a lot and I got 3 more Soles in tips- 2 from a Canadian and 1 from an American- which is 3 times as many tips as my bar manager has gotten since he's worked here for the last 2.5 months! I suppose it helps havin 'the ladies'. So I waited 13 days for my new cards to come, borrowed some money from my wonderful Irish bar manager to do some laundry as I was down to my last pair of underwears! Gotsta have clean underwears. My cards FINALLY arrived yesterday and the first thing I did was activate my cards. Amex was easy- set that shit up online. My debit card would be activated once I used it at the atm- something I was somewhat nervous about considering it's a brand new card being used for the first time in an atm in South America. Although I notified the bank of my international travel, knowing my luck, my card would be snatched on the first attempt to withdraw some much-missed dinero. I walked to Metro, the supermercado, nervously gave my plastic buddy to the atm machine and cautiously proceeded. "INVALID PASSWORD" is what I devastatingly read on the screen in front of me. No biggie- I'll use my credit card even though they want to charge me 2.7% on every freaking purchase- ughhh. I get my essentials: bananas, peaches, cubed gouda cheese and a bottle of vanilla yogurt. I stand in line for 10 minutes behind someone who bought enough cilantro for a small army, go to pay, and I am asked for my ID. Of course I didn't bring my ID because I figured I'd be using my debit card to get cash then breaking up my big bills. I even showed the cashier my second card with the same name on it but no bueno- I needed my ID. I left my beloved produce and headed back to the hostel to fetch my passport. I looked and looked and looked for my passport and it was not where I recollected leaving it. After starting to sweat a little I remembered the ONE place I didn't check in my locker at the bottom of a purse! Score! I leave the hostel to walk back to Metro and recalled placing a $50 bill (again, shout out to the best parents in the world) in my bra- the safest place I could think of for such a coveted treasure. I headed for Metro, waited in line for another 15 minutes behind the people with 38474 bags of produce and paid for my shit. So now my Amex card is hunky dory- but I still don't have my freakin pin for my debit card! I communicate this with Franny who loves me so much to call my bank regarding my pin. "We mailed you a separate envelope with the new pin which arrived with the card" customer service tells my mom. No you effing didn't, ho! She was on hold for 15 minutes after asking 11 different ways for permission to set my pin. "We'll mail you a new pin which will arrive in 5 days" nooooooo. I need access to cash. now. This is getting to be such a pain in the ass. Mom drives to the bank branch closest to her to try to set the pin in person and they basically said she was SOL. So now I will wait 5 days for my mom to tell me my pin so I can use the atm. Coulda been a good week...