Confession: I stole

Let me start by saying that I returned what I stole and that it was probably worth less than $0.25, but it was on my mind for the duration of my time down under.

One of my first personal rules of travel that I've developed over the last few years is Always Carry a Pen. Pens are useful for many things, such as writing down phone numbers, but especially for taking notes. My second rule of travel is to Always Carry a Notepad. In fact, I had my trusty "Rite in the Rain" notepad from REI in my pocket every day in New Zealand (most useful thing I own that costs less than $4) and I enjoyed making notes of interesting things I'd seen and various stuff I'd done along the way.

Unfortunately, on March 1st I somehow left my house without a pen, much to my dismay. I wanted to acquire one as soon as possible (i.e. at the airport), but, having done exactly that in the past, I knew that the first rules of airports is to Charge As Much As Possible For a Pen. I've probably spent about $5 on a pen on multiple occasions when I broke my first rule of travel and had to find one ASAP. In South Africa I ended up with a ridiculous wooden elephant pen on just such an occasion.

Here's the thing: lots of shops have pens lying around on their counters for people to sign credit card receipts with. You know, the cheap ballpoint pen made by Bic, sold in packs of 10 (or 20), and I reasoned that no one would miss that particular pen if it walked off, especially because it had a twin sitting next to it on a counter.

So it did indeed walk off with me, fly to Australia, New Zealand, Australia, and then back to Seattle. And I did indeed return it to just the spot I found it in Seatac airport at the Discovery Kids store, right next to the cute greeting cards.

Here's the other thing, though: the more I try to rationalize this, the more ridiculous it seems to steal something. But really, what are you going to do when what you really need is something that you can't buy (I didn't want to buy 10 of them and I really just needed a simple ballpoint pen) and is lying right there in front of you? You know that if you ask the woman behind the counter if you can have the pen, she'll try to sell you something that really isn't what you want, and if you try to pay for it, it will boggle her mind; after all, they don't sell those pens!

Mom, to save you the trouble of telling me that you didn't think you raised a daughter who goes out there and steals, I've already sent myself an e-mail expressing that sentiment, signed "Mom."

And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my iPhone that went walkabout from the Brisbane Airport will be returned by someone who decided to steal-and-return it, just like that pen. I just need to figure out how to pick it up...