The Shopping Habits Of A Thief.

I am an experienced traveler. I know when I travel that I need to call my bank prior to leaving and tell them where I will be going and how long I will be gone for.

Apparently, I need to also tell them that I will be doing all of my seasonal shopping in one go and spending large chunks of change... In order to prevent them from halting my card from accepting charges.

I had a busy day. I started at the Met to see Savage Beauty, the McQueen Exhibit. (I'll write about that later.) I bought a book there.

Then I went to Tiffany and picked up a charm for The Husband's goddaughter. She just got into a very lovely preschool here in the city, and we wanted to recognize it by adding another charm to a bracelet we bought her for her christening a few years back.

Next I went to J. Crew and picked up a black blazer for work. It's a boyfriend blazer and looks fantastic.

Then I crossed the street and went to Mecca. I mean, Saks. Saks on the Fifth Avenue. It is sale season, and I wanted to see if there was anything good to scoop up at a discount.

There was not.

But what I did find were some fabulous shoes. And when I went to pay for them, that's when my shopping buzz came to a halt.

Despite having called my bank a day before I left, their AI system (the artificial intelligence algorithm programmed to pick up on likely instances of credit card fraud) red flagged my activity as that of someone using a stolen credit card.

I shop like a thief. I binge like a person who has fasted for days and then caved in to the wonderful delights around them.

I got on the phone with the bank, they apologized. They let me move forward with my shopping. I paid for my lovely shoes and thanked the sales associate.

All was right in the world again.