I am most tired, from trudging about all day and from the shock of losing my wallet and then the greater shock of having it returned. What a day!

I drove my mother to Baltimore where we went to the aquarium. At the last moment, I grabbed my cane from the car. Boy, was I thankful for that impulse. Had I not done so, I would have had to be rescued before the exit path was finished, trapped inside like I once was at a zoo.

We walked about admiring the wildlife for three hours, then walked eight blocks to go to this "great" seafood restaurant so that she could have some fish to eat. After about an hour and a half, I started leaning heavily on my cane. At two hours, I was shuffling my feet. By hour three, I kept dragging the tops of my feet on the floor because I had not the strength to walk properly. The whole experience was sobering and exhausting. My back and legs ached. My eyes blurred constantly from the strain of shifting depth perceptions all off the place. And my hands trembled so much that many of my photos look like a 90-year-old woman took them. I did have the bright idea of taking a few video clips, with a result that was more than satisfactory...as you can see here.



Mother kept walking ahead of me, doubling back, and then walking off again. Her frustration with my slow pace was rather evident. Still, I held my ground in that not once did I try to keep up with her. Had I done so even for a short while, I am not sure that I would have made it through the day.

When I offered to go to the aquarium with her, I did not realize that there was a special frog exhibit, in addition to the one they already have in place. Needless to say, that circumstance was most felicitous as she is rather crazy about frogs...one of the few things we share in common.



We saw poison frogs and rare frogs and tiny frogs and fat frogs. Frankly, I am not sure if we might be on frog overload, but it is okay in my book to be suffering from such a condition.

One exhibit had a sign that challenged visitors to find the fifteen frogs that were in the enclosures. Try as we might, Mother and I could only find fourteen of them. They were appropriately named moss frogs.
Now, those of you who know me well and who have nodded politely as I drag you out to my deck to see my moss gardens can probably guess which frogs were my favorite ones!

The one photo I thought was fairly accurate were these two frogs. The one in the foreground is clear enough to see how they basically looked like they were made out of silicone, not froggy flesh and blood.

As to the shocks...as I reached into my purse after we had finished eating (I had grilled chicken salad, broccoli hollandaise, and fettucini alfredo), I discovered that my wallet was missing. Inside were: $53 in cash that I had just taken out of the bank for mother's visit, a blank check, my health insurance card, my car insurance card, Kashi's baby photo, this ladybug friendship token from my dear friend B, the first guitar pick I was ever given, a $100 gift card for a spa that I have been saving for too long, a Chico's gift card with $169 still remaining on it, and the parking ticket for my car. I was stunned that it was missing, but I could see that it might have fallen out one of the 10,000 times I took my camera in and out of my purse because I was too tired to just hang onto it.

Mother thought it was a complete waste of time, but I gulped back my tears, bit back my ready retort, ignored the near agony of my body, and insisted that we walk all the way back to the aquarium just to see if perhaps there was a security guard or something.

Part way across this courtyard expanse, I found a harbor policewoman and asked if she thought there might be someone still in the aquarium. After a brief moment on the radio, she walked Mother and I to a secure staff entrance and left us with an aquarium guard.

Now, this man has much to learn in the way of manners. He listened to me carefully recite my tale of woe, that we had been there from 1:45 to 5:15 and then had gone out to dinner, where I discovered that I had lost my wallet. I explained that I had it out at the information window right when we arrived so that I could have our parking ticket validated (we saved $3 that way), which was the last time I remember having it. I did go to pay for a porcelain frog that I bought for one of my plant pots, but my mother ended up paying for it. So, I might have reached into my purse to get my wallet and then forgotten it one the counter since Mother used hers instead. During my tale, my mother kept observing that I was most likely the victim of a pick pocket, but I disagreed because I had my purse in front of me resting on my right hip. Her alternate theory was that I left it in the locker I used for my bag of asthma paraphernalia, so she suggested that the guard check that too.

The man was quite frustrated to be handed my problem from the harbor police. He looked at his watch and asked why I was just reporting this at 7:00 PM. I replied that we just finished dinner and I had only discovered my loss as the check came.

He then asked me to describe the contents, which I listed for him, but was put out that I could not give the exact amount of money, even though I detailed a dozen other items.

He also observed that I seemed unsure where I lost it, even though I gave him three possibilities (the information desk, the gift shop, and the locker area) out of the huge floor plan of the aquarium. It is as if he did not understand the meaning of lost, as in I did not have it nor knew where to find it.

After more disapproving sighing and glares, he contacted his supervisor. To my utter surprise and mother's absolute disbelief, his supervisor soon rounded the corner and asked me if I had some ID to show him so that he could document the return of my wallet. I admit the tears started flowing freely at his remark.

My...was I glad to have that ladybug friendship token back! The rest was a bonus, along with the knowledge that I did not have to cancel my checking account or track down new insurance cards or having to pay the maximum parking fee for a lost ticket.

Mother immediately declared that I need to throw away my purse since it clearly is too small for my needs. Now, it is a VERY expensive purse that she gave me nearly 10 years ago, having changed her mind about it. I happened to like it very much, since it is a lovely small black leather purse, a vertical rectangle, that has brown leather trim. In my opinion, it matches everything, and holds what I would like without being bulky.

Granted, it is a bit full now that I have to carry an Epipen with me at all times and I choose to do the same with my tiny camera, but I still am very, very happy with my purse. Certainly there is no need to discard it.

Anyhow, the day is done, I have done the "tourist" thing for her, and my moss garden that I have been trying to grow on a piece of stone now has a replica of a very attractive poison dart frog.

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NOTE: An excellent way to remember where your car is parked in a multi-level garage is to simply take a photograph of the sign. That way, if perhaps, you were mightily stressed by much walking, dozens of frog species, and losing-then-finding-your-wallet, forgetting where you parked would not matter.