Who steals my purse steals trash....

William Shakespeare once famously wrote:

Who steals my purse steals trash...
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed (Othello III, iii, lines 161-165)

Since high school I have loved and appreciated this quote from the Bard, because it poetically conveys the bewilderment of why people engage in malicious gossip. And with such economy of style!

Of course, a person deprived of his good name has lost something very valuable. But what has the slanderer gained? Quite a lot, even if the benefits are somewhat intangible. Gossip makes people feel better about themselves, and has the added benefit of lowering the esteem in which the subject of the gossip is held.

However, someone recently stole something from my purse and it wasn't trash...it was a library card! And this person checked out $1,200.00 worth of books and never returned them.

When I noticed my library card was missing in December I immediately reported it stolen. The college age girl behind the desk re-issued me a replacement library card and assured me that the old card was cancelled and that there was no danger of anyone using it. So imagine my horror when I got a bill for $1,200.00 of never-returned library books that I had not checked out!

Somehow the thief managed to check out these books. There were quite a lot of them--he must have had a wheelbarrow to cart them around in. (LOL) Here are some of the titles:

Play Rock Guitar;
Cannabis: a history;
The Guide to Getting it on;
Strange Days: My Life with Jim Morrison.

Judging by the titles, these books are probably about sex, drugs and rock and roll. Sounds like a teenager checked out these books, doesn't it?

I just had a baby and I'm saving my money carefully. No way was I gonna pay $1,200.00 if I could help it. Chuck likes to say, "If you can talk, you can walk." I marched into the library on Saturday with my three-week old baby in my arms and prepared to do battle....or at least talk.

Luckily the clerk behind the desk was a sympathetic man. He checked my new re-issued card and said that the other clerk had not cancelled the old card correctly and then re-issued me yet another card and cleared all the charges from my record. I was so relieved!

I then proceeded to check out a few books about needlepoint.

Hopefully no one will steal my purse, anything from it, or my good name. But you never know...it's a good thing to keep one's eyes and ears open. If anything seems remiss, don't let it go unattended--it could be expensive! So glad I noticed my missing library card and reported it stolen in time.

Best Wishes,


Jennifer

Our Happy Little Family

Our baby is two weeks old and very healthy! We've had to cut his fingernails three times already. That must be a good sign!

He's beautiful and looks just like his father, which pleases me to no end.

Also, while I don't believe that anyone is truly easy-going (the wish of every lazy parent) our baby seems very good natured, which all of the nurses in the hospital noticed and commented on. At any rate, I'm happy I didn't give birth to a colicky, choleric baby.

My mother-in-law came to stay with us for a week which was a tremendous help for us, and I was just so glad to be in her presence even if just for a short while. She's so nice and so much fun. She found a cable t.v. station that plays the classic country music that we both like, and we sang along to our old favorites. We both cried when she had to go home. DH frowned on this display of sentimentality, but deep down I know he loves that we get along so well. :)

I tried to go back to work this week but it was too soon. I had to rush to the hospital where a kind doctor told me to stay home and rest. So I've been essentially bedridden for the last days, doing needlepoint, watching true crime shows* and silly, contrived dramas on Lifetime Television for women, only getting up to care for the baby and make lunch and dinner for DH. I do so love to cook, but going to the market is out of the question for me at this time, so I'm trying to be creative with what we have in our cupboards before I ask DH to go to the market for me. So much fun! Today it's going to be biscuits and something else. I haven't decided what the something else is yet...our cupboards are getting kind of bare, but I'll think of something.

The dogs also seem to love the baby very much. They're very protective and won't let anyone but DH, Grandma and me get near him. It's very cute! I suspected that they'd be nice to the baby, and I'm happy this turned out to be the case. They were a little obsessive at first, though, especially our latest rescue dog, Chacha, jumping over the baby gate and peering into his crib. But everything has calmed down now.

Since DH is mostly retired and doesn't meet with the public as part of his job, he's going to take care of our baby during the day when I'm at the office so there's no need for us to hire a nanny. We are both very happy that we can manage by ourselves. We would be so sad to leave our baby in daycare, though I suppose when he's old enough we'll enroll him in nursery school for a few hours a day.

In the meantime I have to purchase a diaper bag that's macho enough for DH to want to carry around during the day. I thought that when I'm well enough I'll go to the army surplus store and see if there's a sturdy canvas bag that I can stencil a design on to decorate it, but not make it too embarrassing for a man to carry around. All the diaper bags at the stores are clearly designed for women to be carrying around. And it probably usually is the case that women carry the diaper bags around--but not in this family!

Seeing the baby sleep right next to DH, with the dogs on the other side of the baby, is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. There truly are no words to describe how much happiness parenthood has brought me, or how determined I am to be my best self, now that I'm completely responsible for another human being.

Best Wishes,

Jen

*One of the true crime shows I watched last night featured an old high school teacher of mine as the victim. I was sorry to learn that Mr. Paul Gruber, my former Spanish teacher (no I am not a native speaker--I learned Spanish in school), had been murdered for financial gain by a jealous employee of his. Mr. Gruber was very inventive, worldly, and financially astute. I remember admiring his frugality. He saved his money carefully and rented out rooms in his house for extra income. And unlike most white people who teach Spanish at the high school level, he actually spoke Spanish (strangely, most of them don't) and regularly traveled to Mexico, showing a great interest in Mexican culture and art. Very inspiring! I'm sorry for his family's loss.