25 January 2008

Amazon Rocks: Part 2

One more reason to be thankful for Amazon...

This morning we received an e-mail that sent me into a full-blown panic. An application we are submitting requires we provide our full addresses for the last 10 years.

10 years! Do you have any idea how many places that is? It involves 2 countries, 5 states and 7 actual addresses. Most of them apartments. And that's just me!

Do you think I kept a record of all of those places? No indeed. Why would I have done that? When would I ever need to know that information? Ugh!

After desperately searching my paper and electronic records, Google Map, online tax records and my memory, I had only come up with a couple of the required addresses.

Then GLH suggested Amazon.

Whew!

I placed my very first order with Amazon in February of 1996. And there in my online account they have every item I have ever ordered, plus shipping and billing addresses. That gives me 12 years worth of addresses.

I am so relieved that I am not even upset that all that information is sitting out there, waiting to be hacked by some pimply-faced, socially-maladjusted teenage boy with nothing better to do.

Thank goodness that GLH has not been anywhere near as "transitional" as I. It took him 5 minutes to gather his addresses.

Note: I decided against totaling up how much money I have spent on Amazon in the last 12 years. That is too scary. But it perhaps explains why they periodically send me little "thank you" gifts...

5 comments:

Jul said...

2006 was 12 years ago? Damn time is flying... :)

It would be painful to come up with 10 years of addresses, especially those from abroad (to which I haven't ordered anything from Amazon... maybe I should start).

Global Librarian said...

Opps! Meant 1996! Fixed it.

Probably wouldn't hurt to track, especially depending upon what types of things for which you may need to apply!

Jul said...

I just counted... last 10 years = 8 addresses in 4 countries and 7 cities (not including the 4 temporary apartments, which now that I think about it would probably have to be counted for official purposes...).

Good luck with your paperwork and its results! Can't wait to hear an update...

swissmiss said...

A friend of mine had to do this for a Bar (to practice law) application. Not even her mother had all those addresses, especially from her year abroad that involved 3 countries. But I did since I just kept adding them one after the other in my address book. Good old friends are another good place to go when you need old addresses. Though maybe less so now that everybody just send emails...

Global Librarian said...

My address book is on my computer. When someone sends me an updated address, I delete their old one. I wouldn't be a good resource.