The case of the missing glasses.

Two things to report from this past weekend (there was more this weekend, but I only have twenty minutes until Antiques Roadshow comes on, so I'm trying to make this uncharacteristically quick). The first - we visited Jipty and Chris and their one month old son (already!) on Saturday evening. Little Ely Michael Armstrong Therrien is an adorable, adorable baby, and so well-behaved! Babies traditionally make me nervous because they can't talk and I have no idea what's going on behind the eyes. They're also squirmy, and the fact that for a good while after they're born they can't hold up their own head, which makes their neck something like a tetherball rope, does little to ease my nerves. Ely, however, didn't really make me nervous. Jipty and Chris looked wonderful for being new mothers with very little sleep, and the kitties and doggies all seem to be adjusting well. Mad props to the new family for making it all look so easy, and mad props to Jipty who labored for over 65 hours! The result was worth it - a healthy baby, a healthy mommy, and a birthing story to rival all others. This first photo is of Chris, Jipty, and their son, and the second one is of me, finally getting a hang of holding the little bundle of baby joy.

Second item - I had my first dealings with a kleptomaniac on Saturday. We were meeting Marieke and Curt for brunch in JP at 10am, so I tried to make a quick trip to Curves, only to be thwarted by a would-be thief. I had walked to Curves, so I put my giant coat and hiking boots into the cubby closet (the cubbies are just egg crates). I don't like to work out wearing my glasses, so I took my glasses off and put them into one of my boots. Just as I was closing the closet door, I said to myself, "You shouldn't leave your glasses in your boot - you'll forget they're there, then stick your big foot into the boot and squish them." Smart! So I took my glasses out of the boot and placed them in the crate right near my boots. I worked out (I'll admit to skipping a few of the resting stations in order to keep to my tight schedule), then went to the cubby closet to put on my coat and boots for the walk back home. I open the door and look into my little cubby space and see my boots, but no glasses. Hmmm. Maybe I left them in my boot after all. So I check my boot. No glasses. Check the other boot. No glasses. Look to see if the glasses fell through the holes of the egg crate. No glasses. Look all around to see if they somehow (?) got into someone else's egg crate. No glasses. I then decide that something is wrong with this picture, and go wave my tag under the scanner to officially end my workout. In my head I'm seeing dollar signs - it's not in the budget right now to get a new pair of glasses! How will I see? What will I do? And what would someone want with my glasses? It's not like they'd be able to see out of them. Part of me is thinking I should just leave and then call Curves to tell them to keep an eye out for my glasses, but then another part, the part that is trying to be more assertive, decides to do some more investigating. I walk over to these two empty chairs where someone's bag and shoes are, and out of the pocketbook I see the arm of my glasses. I know they're mine - I can tell. So now I have a conundrum. Do I reach into her bag and take my glasses? I know who the woman is - do I go up to her and tell her to give me my glasses back? What to do! In the end, I decide to just raise my voice above the obnoxious Curves music and ask if anyone has seen a pair of brown glasses that were in the cubby next to my boots. I do this, and the woman immediately comes over to her bag and gets my glasses, telling me that she's sorry, she thought they looked like the ones she usually buys at the Christmas Tree Shops. I play it off, "Oh no problem, easy mistake," I say, and then leave, but even if they were like the ones she got at the Christmas Three Shops (which I doubt they are), how does that make it right for her to take them? These glasses have Gucci engraved on the side. Since when does the Christmas Tree Shop sell Gucci eyeware? I do believe the lady simply saw them in my cubby, decided they looked like a nice pair of glasses, and decided they should go home with her, no matter what prescription they were. A klepto! At Curves! Touching and taking my glasses! The violation! Anyway, my glasses are back, so all is well, but I'm reluctant to go back to Curves. Apparently what's mine is not mine at Curves, and that doesn't make me happy.

Two minutes to Antiques Roadshow. See ya!