I would say I’ve single-handedly ruined Chip’s impeccable credit rating, but that would be inaccurate, and for a reporter, unconscionable. Rather it would be accurate to say we— me and the grapefruit-sized accomplice residing in my belly who regularly feeds on my brain cells—have ruined his credit rating.

I’m still not sure if I misplaced the bill or if it never came, but somehow I missed making the minimum payment on our main credit card last month. I discovered it as I started to pay our most recent bill and saw that the figure was twice as much as normal. Chip called the company right away and they seemed very understanding and told us to just go ahead and pay the minimum balance.

Well, today we got a couple of letters from the credit card’s parent company telling us that they have suspended our charging privileges on one of our cards and they’re reducing our available credit on the card for which I neglected to make the payment.

Chip says it’s okay but I feel sick.