you got served

I just checked out an ebook from the library on my phone, Total Memory Workout: 8 Easy Steps to Maximum Memory Fitness. I thought the memory workout might help, because my mind is like my DVR, bookshelves, and closets: all filled up. 

The last several months I have been doing all kinds of crucial, life-saving, incredibly dry and boring business stuff. Registering an LLC, finding a fiscal sponsor (a nonprofit that will lend me their nonprofit status so that I can accept tax deductible donations and grants), putting together this website, researching insurance, writing grants. Right. Painful. Nothing you want to make space for in your brain. 

My business is real! Here's my record from the inter webs.

Today I went to file some more paperwork with the state --and I almost fell for a Nigerian-prince type scam. I got a letter that looked a LOT like a letter from the government, and since I knew I owe them some more money, I was literally on the verge of writing them a check. egads. 

Doesn't this look like an official document?

When I went to pay for REAL bill, which you CAN'T pay online, I ran into another question: the form asks for your "registered agent." This is the person who is designated to accept the papers you get served when someone sues you… Ya know, like on TV all the time. It turns out that this person is supposed to be available during business hours at their address, and if they aren't, you don't get your papers, don't know that you have to show up in court, and so you lose by default! So even if you do NOTHING wrong, someone can file a totally fraudulent lawsuit against you and you might not even know til you get the bill. This American Life did a show about this and I didn't understand why the people didn't show up for court. Now I do. 

So the solution is to pay a business to be your registered agent. What did people do before the internet? I found a place in the Haight that for $50 will get served for you, and will accept and scan all of your mail so you can get it online. I figure $50 is cheap insurance against predatory lawsuits. Yes, I am paranoid. Our crazy litigious society has made me so. You should be, too. 

So now I have a login and password for the registered agent, for the Franchise Tax board, for weekly and twitter and Facebook but also for Sparkwi.se, the dashboard that tracks all of my social media activity --and how is a girl supposed to keep all of this stuff straight? Hence, my memory exercises. If any of it works, I'll definitely let you know about it.