Skip to main content

Lost and Found

On vacation last week, my daughter was fully engrossed in her paperback.  She would take breaks from the dog-eared pages to cool off in the pool or swim in the waves, only to return to her lounge chair (and her book) with soggy, sandy fingers.  The book looked like it was on vacation too, with its crinkled pages sprinkled with sand.

One night she brought the book with us to dinner, eager to finish the last 10 or so pages.  You see, there was a sequel waiting in the wings and she needed to get to ending.  After dinner and meandering through the hotel gift shop, my daughter realized she lost the book!  We retraced our steps but to no avail.  Finally, that evening, we stopped by the "lost and found" desk and reported her missing paperback (title and all) as well as my light cotton sweater she also left behind somewhere.  The kind lady said she would contact us if the items were found.

My daughter asked if I would buy the book on my Kindle so that she could finish the last 10 pages.  I said, "No. When we get home, you can take it out of the library."

The next evening, while browsing through the gift shop for some item or another, I was looking at the shelves of books for sale.  There were some "best-sellers," some trashy magazines, and other assorted reading selections.  I was drawn to one book, something I'd seen on some "best book of 2011" list - so I picked it up and read the quick summary on the back.  As it did not keep my interest, I placed it back in it's spot on the shelf.

Glancing to the right of that book, I noticed a worn out-looking paperback, remarkably written by the same author of the book that my daughter misplaced the evening before!  I was shocked, what a coincidence!  But upon closer examination, I realized that it was the very same book that she lost -- it was her copy, crinkly and sandy and for sale in the hotel gift shop!

We told the salespeople behind the register that it was our book and we're not sure how it ended up on their shelves for sale, but we were taking it home with us.

Oh and by the way, they had my sweater too!

Comments

michele said…
No way! That's crazy! Was the sweater for sale also?
January 2, 2012 at 6:08 AM
Anonymous said…
It is just a variation on the Holiday concept of regifting.
January 2, 2012 at 8:10 AM
Julie Ann Klein said…
the sweater was not for sale, but it was in a cabinet near the checkout!
January 3, 2012 at 3:39 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Always Learning

One of the goals of my local library is to foster a lifelong love of learning.  While it's a lovely alliteration, it's also a worthy aspiration.  It's a concept that we should teach our children to embrace. Yesterday, while my 10 year-old daughter and I were together in the car, I taught her something new or advised her about something she didn't know about already.  Okay, so that sort of thing happens often, by virtue of her age and mine (!), and me being the parent and all.  At that moment I told her how much I love teaching her new things.  And she said, "Well, you're the mom, you should be teaching me things." And she was right.  But I quickly added, "You know, I've also learned so much from you -- you've taught me more than you'll ever know." She seemed to be very surprised by that sentiment.  But then she sort of nodded, giving it some more thought. You just never know what another person takes away from a conversation. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Honeysuckle

One of my sisters said I should “blog” more often.  I take that as a compliment, even if she is related to me.  So I decided to write about the Honeysuckle. Yes.  The Honeysuckle.  They are in bloom right now and if you pay close enough attention, soon enough, your nose will lead you to one.  When I was a kid, the summers were full of quiet time.  We didn’t go away to camp and barely went to day camp.   We played outside with whoever was home too.  We visited the town pool, with its icy, unheated water and biked home afterward. Right around this time, when the line between spring and summer starts to blur, I remember feeling like such a lucky girl.  My best friend, and across-the-street neighbor, had tons of Honeysuckle bushes lined up along her tall, wooden fence.  We spent hours picking the flowers and tasting the nectar found within the yellow and white stems.  It was dreamy. Just the other day I was playing golf with my mo...
2 comments
Read more

Kitchen Connection

Before the Internet, or at least the Internet as we know it, I used to call my mom to ask her questions as I started to learn to cook. To prepare meals on my own, as a newly married woman, as someone exploring the kitchen, deeper into it than boiling water and making pasta. I needed to know what cut of meat to buy to make a respectable roast beef. Or, how long to cook it. Do I season or brown it before roasting? Recipes were not at the ready. They were not a click away. But my mother was a phone call away. And always happy to hear from one of her young adult daughters, who lived on her own. She always had the answer. For how long should I parboil the potatoes? “Stick a fork in them and see how soft they are. Can you mash them?” Most of her suggestions or advice were obvious. Then I began to wonder if I needed her guidance, or perhaps I just wanted to know that I still needed her, and that she would always be there with the answer. So now I have two of my own “young adults” in college. ...
3 comments
Read more