$20 Library Fine

Check me out -- I gotta library card!

What's the big deal you say? I've actually had this library card for 10 years. It's been in my wallet for that long. (Actually, it has been transferred to various wallets over the years.) I remember getting the card and I remember not renewing for some reason. Well, now I know the reason. More on that in a second, but first some background info ...

I have friends who frequent the public library. I used to LOVE going to the library but somehow in the past few years I've developed a phobia of used books. I have an active imagination and when I see a library book (or any used book for that matter) I picture the foulest person taking that book into the bathroom while they do their business and pick their nose at the same time. I'm sorry -- it's just how I picture it and therefore library books gross me out.

So in an effort to get over my phobia (NEW books are EXPENSIVE AND you can check out CDs!!) I went to renew my library card on Saturday. It was then that I learned that I had a 20 dollar fine for a video called "The Art of Communication -- or Persuasion or Conversation" or something like that. It was a video about making telephone sales. Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I hate selling stuff, I'm not a big telephone talker, and I can't stand telephone solicitations. Why in the world would I have checked out that video? I try to explain this logic to the librarian. I would pay a fine (begrudgingly) if I knew it was my fault but how can I fight a fine that is 10 years old when neither of us has any proof that I checked out this video? I told the librarian that I have a communications degree, 10 years ago when I apparently accrued this fine I had a paying job in the field of communications ... I would never have checked out a video about making sales calls. Finally, she agreed to reduce it to 5 dollars. I thought that was fair enough -- so I paid it. I'm now an official library card carrier. whoo hoo!!

When it was all said and done, my friend Jodie said, "Do you think your sister could have checked that video out with your card and lost it?" Hmmm ... I hadn't even thought of that. And then it all started to come back to me. One of my sales-loving siblings very possibly could have checked that video out and lost it. My first guess would be Nicole, but I'm having a faint recollection that it may have been Lance. Whoever it was, your library sin has been absolved. You're welcome.