Tag Archives: writing

Japan: Day One

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So did I mention I was going to Japan? We were trying to get clear of all the eviction stuff before we left, but of course that continuance means coming back to it. Oh well. Gonna put it out of mind for now.

Because, we have LAUNCH! After a couple of fun misadventures last night, we are at Baltimore Airport, wearing masks and enjoying a quiet morning coffee.

Since you ask, the misadventures began when Amelia, my traveling companion, discovered that the best gift you can bring someone in Japan right now is a Trader Joe’s tote.

Seriously. Well, okay, she scored this private visit with a famous potter who is a friend of a friend, so we dutifully found the TJ closest to our hotel and detoured. This turned out to be a wonderful drive along the snowy Potomac through colonial bits of America.

We decided to buy cheese and crackers at TJ because I had an 8 pm Zoom storytelling circle to run, so we wanted to eat while driving. The sweet checkout clerk helped us find a tote, and back in the car….

two bags, two girls, two weeks: JAPAN HO!

my bank card was gone. Three terrible minutes before we realized it had slid down between the seats. We laughed, absent minded academics on vacation, and I zipped it into a pocket.

The hotel could best be described as “downmarket.” We risked our lives crossing a five-point intersection to get good coffee at a Dunkin’, and Amelia bought a vape at the shop next door. She’s been quitting for awhile, but sometimes a girl needs a pick-me-up.

She put her coffee and vape atop the car as we got our luggage settled back at the hotel parking lot, and I reminded myself to remind her to fetch them before we left.

Well, she got the coffee, but even now someone back in that parking lot is enjoying a Georgia Peach vape. It was still in the box. She is taking it as a sign from God that it’s really time to quit. (They don’t sell vapes in Japan.)

I am taking it as a sign that we are going to have to be very careful in our adulting these next two weeks. And also that we are going to have a good time blithely jettisoning flotsam and jetsam as we fill our bags with small, light souvenirs. Like yarn….. :]

We fly today, and arrive tomorrow, which will be today, in Japan. Keep you posted!

Define “Theft”

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Is it stealing if you take back things others took from you?

Dude and his girlfriend got into an argument out at her place. Dude called- yes, really- asking me to come get him so the cops she called wouldn’t take him to jail. Then he called back that he was staying there for the night and leaving in the morning.

In the morning he sent a polite text that he was packed up and ready to go, but thanks anyway for my help.

I texted back asking if the stuff missing from my property was in his packed car.

He didn’t answer.

When they left my house on the final eviction notice, they took almost all the furniture (except an old couch the dog puked on, gosh darn it) and quite a lot of artwork. I sent through my attorney a list of things I wanted back “or else” there would be a criminal prosecution.

Then that phone call came, and suddenly I had her address. Well……

A friend and I drove out there. Yep, half my worldly goods were sitting on her front porch. So we did what came natural. I have back all but two of my important artwork pieces, the big rocking chair that Jack’s friends gave him, our expanding ladder (and essential piece of homesteading equipment), and assorted other goods that make me happy.

The one thing we did not see was the large riding mower, known as a Zero Turn. The one thing girlfriend reported stolen was the Zero Turn. My lawyer called to ask me if I had reclaimed it. Said they were “tracks in the snow around where it was kept.” Which cracked us up because girlfriend’s first attempt to reclaim my stuff from it being taken away from her was to say she knew we had been there because there were footprints in the snow.

Yes, dear. Okay. So anyway, of all the things we took, they reported something that we didn’t take (that wasn’t there in the first place) as stolen. So now my lawyer says we won’t prosecute for theft if they return the remaining two sentimental paintings and produce a police report saying they reported the zero turn stolen.

I asked his logic for this and he said, “Because lying to the police is in itself a felony. Leverage.”

Ah. My lawyer is very smart. So is my friend who went with me to reclaim stuff. We successfully tied that very long ladder to a not-that-long car and as we drove away with everything (confidently heading in the wrong direction for five miles before turning around) she said, “Two academic women can still manage a ladder. Score one for the girls.”

Yep.

We technically have court tomorrow, so I’ll let you know if anything happens because somebody stole something, and who the court decides stole from whom.

Meanwhile, I am rehanging some artwork.