I wish now I'd bitten the bullet and hired someone to whom I could hand off all this crap, but I had some zany idea that it would be character-building, or somesuch nonsense, to learn how to cope with these things myself. Gah.

And the hell of it with Ameritrade is that everyone I've dealt with has been, basically, pleasant and friendly -- it's just that I have this sense that the entire office is being staffed by interns from the local high school DECA program.