Ever since I begged my credit card company to give me my first credit card last year, I've been getting credit card offers non-stop. A couple days a week, I open my mailbox and find a few notices for "pre-approved" credit cards. It's nice to feel wanted and accepted, and fan mail is fan mail. It felt good.

But now I'm officially sick of receiving credit card stuff. I don't like them anymore. A few days ago, I received an invitation to request my "pre-approved" CITGO Plus Credit Card by Kendall E. Stork, the President & CEO of Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. Only it was not for me; it was for someone whose name oddly resembled my own and happened to live at my address. The first initial was Y and the fictitious last name some bizarre-looking amalgam of other parts of my name. Now, when I received this, I pondered the implications for a while. I thought about this person magically brought into existence by some data glitch somewhere. He (?) is honoured with a personal letter from the head of a multi-national corporation, able to not only get a credit card but also quality petroleum products from CITGO and cards for other household members, the car and family also undoubtedly wrought through the same error. Am I as cherished and valued to them only as much as some make-believe person, the figment of some confused data?

I guess I've realized through this whole encounter with the good folks at CITGO Plus that credit card companies don't really like me after all. All the effort they exert in sending me little letters--with their nice flashy stickers, their colour inserts and their no-postage-necessary return envelopes--amounts only to callous solicitation casually adorned with felicitous verbiage ("Congratulations!") and cluttered with disingenuous statements of concern ("Don't miss out!"). I am a little disappointed at my realization, but I suppose it isn't the end of the world.