notjustamilitarywife

I hate to admit it, but I played the “Poor me military wife” card today. It involved a very overdue library book which I had forgotten about, and a threat to send me to collections.

In my defense, I wasn’t trying to get out of the charges.  Were they outrageous?  I think so.  But I was willing to pay them in order to avoid a hit on my credit.  I wasn’t really trying to buy more time, either, because they gave me the option to pay online that day.  No, I guess I was just trying to avoid some complete stranger thinking I am flaky.

I hate for anyone to think I am flaky.  I guess it’s a personal problem, because everyone is flaky at some point or another: it’s human nature.  I just can’t stand to admit to my occasional slip-ups on responsibility.

In the early fall of last year we found out, rather short notice (of course- we are talking about the military here) that we were going to be moving halfway across the country.  I want to say that we found out right at the beginning of September, and we had to be in Texas by the end of the month.  At that point, I was enrolled full time in graduate courses, halfway through my Master’s Degree.  Over the course of a month, I had to negotiate with all my professors at ODU to see if I could earn the credits through distance learning (I couldn’t), withdraw from my classes, fly out to Texas, find our first house, wade through all the paperwork of the mortgage and home buying process, arrange for TMO to come get our stuff, and move.   It was a hectic month, and during that period, I just didn’t get a chance to make the 45+ minute drive through the notoriously congested HRBT to return the four books on Toni Morrison I’d taken out over the summer term.  Frustrated, I told myself that I’d just pack them and send them to ODU once we’d settled in Texas.

I’m sure you can guess how well that turned out . . . .

Did you know that the movers hired by the military are supposed to UNpack for you each and every item that they packed up in your old home?  We didn’t know that, so consequently, it didn’t happen.  Unpacking myself, even with the help of my wonderful mom, took forever, and it was ages before those books surfaced.  When they did, only three emerged.  I looked everywhere for a fourth Toni Morrison book.  Nothing.  But then, all the business that comes with settling into a new place, starting a demanding full time job, taking graduate courses online, etc etc took over and I forgot about the book.

Which, yeah, was a little flaky of me.

Today, I received a bill for $100 ($80 replacement fee, and $20 in overdue fines) threatening to send me to collections.  FOR A LIBRARY BOOK!  Geez!  I immediately called, and it took over an hour to find someone who was compentent enough to process a payment for me so my credit wouldn’t take a hit.  That’s the point where I pulled out the sob story about the difficulties of military-wifehood and having to pull up stakes on such short notice.  I didn’t want anyone to judge me for my irresponsible library patronship.

Later, I looked a little harder at the invoice and realized the missing book wasn’t a Toni Morrison literary analysis at all- it was some tome regarding ethics in technical communications, which I don’t really remember taking out.  At that point I really felt like a flake, because chances are, as I was tearing through boxes looking for the “fourth Toni Morrison book,”  I probably came across this one and didn’t think twice about it, because I thought I was looking for something else.  And to go looking for it again could take forever.  I googled the title to see if a picture of the cover would ring any bells (like, “oh yeah, I just saw that on my bookshelf!”).  It didn’t, but I DID see that that particular title- which I just paid an $80 replacement fee on- is selling for $34.50 with free shipping on Amazon.

So, I think I’m going to call them back on Monday and bring this up.  I think a $45 markup is pretty ridiculous for a thin little manual on technical communication ethics.  I may have been flaky on this, but at least I’m not committing highway robbery, which is what I kinda think this is.  Thanks, ODU . . .

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