Confessions of a bad borrower

I have to admit that when it comes to borrowing things, and by things I mean books, I am a terrible borrower. I once borrowed some books from the Salt Lake City Library in Sugarhouse and misplaced them. I got all of the notices and couldn't find the books. I had no idea where I had put them. I just thought I would find them eventually and then return them. It didn't happen and suddenly months had passed. Then we moved from the area to West Valley and as I was packing, I found the books in some strange place. I thought to myself, "I will put these in this box where they will be safe and then return them when things have settled down." It has now been 9 years since I first borrowed the books and they are still sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be returned. Now that I have admitted this, the FBI will probably show up on my doorstep to haul me away and force me to return them. In spite of all the guilt I have felt over this it didn't teach me much of a lesson. I decided in December 2006 that I was a changed person and could be responsible enough to again borrow books and return them when they were due. I took my kids and we checked out a few to start out. I wasn't quite ready to jump back in with both feet. We read the books. We enjoyed the books and then I forgot to take the books back. I again got the notices in the mail. Thankfully, I still knew where the books were this time around, but I didn't remember to return them right away. I started getting the automatic phone calls telling me I was a schmuck and to bring back the books. I didn't remember to do it then. Finally, I got a letter saying that I just had to pay for the books if I wasn't going to return them. That was enough. They had finally scared me enough to return the books. Unfortunately, because of my bad borrowing habits, I still had to pay a big fine and by big I don't mean $10.00. It was enough to finally teach me a lesson. Since that time I have been almost fanatical about returning the books we borrow on time. (I also don't want to hear Ryan say that I'll never remember to take them back. I'm going to show him!) We were successful throughout the summer, but we haven't really been since Peyton was born. Last week we went to Hunter Library and borrowed several. So, the point of all of this is this: I am reminding myself that I have library books due on 4/22/08.