Earning Her Keep

I am not sure if it is wrong to use one's tiny baby for personal gain, but if it is, I don't want to be right. Yesterday, the wee one beat a parking ticket for me, thus earning my love, devotion and a certain awed revery. Who beats a parking ticket in Boston?

Yesterday she and I took a stroll to the parking office to fight a ticket--typically a futile task. I should have known we had a shot when she was all smiles in the hearing office, which was full of young-ish college students and the kinds of people you see in the park at noon, holding "will sing for food" signs. Ah, the company you keep after earning a shiny, new $100 parking ticket for an alleged snow emergency-- Just what we need with a new baby and a near second mortgage already in unpaid parking tickets. I swear this city employs more meter maids than teachers, cops and firemen combined. But I digress.

Two seconds into our hearing, Samara began cooing and smiling. Two minutes later, our ticket was dismissed. "If it buys her more formula than I have done my job," quoth the magistrate. Yee haw. My baby is such a charmer. Next up, it is off to the gas station, now featuring free gas for precious babes. A girl can dream...