Academic

So yesterday at about 5:30 p.m., I'm feeding the almost two year-old, and a woman rings the doorbell.  She's young, attractive, wears glasses, has a backpack, and is riding a bike.  She tells me that she is from Estonia and is a university student surveying moms.  Being an idiot, I think she is doing an actual academic survey and am polite to her.  I tell her I am feeding the baby, and she says it will take 5 minutes.  Four minutes later, she's still asking me small talk questions.  I tell her this is taking too long, and she says it will only take one more minute.  Then, she asks me what sorts of children's books we have.  A lightbulb goes off.  "Are you selling books?"  Yes, of course she is, so I tell her that I really have to get back to dinner, thank you very much.  I then find out that all my neighbors had the same experience, and that she was selling an educational book "program" that is very expensive.  I figure that there's a white slavery ring involved here somewhere, with some slimy guy holding her passport until she works off some imaginary "debt."  I call the police.  (Champaign has a very strict permit policy for selling door-to-door, so the police didn't think I was off my rocker or anything.)

Then today, some guy rings the doorbell and tells me he's from Hickory, NC with a load of furniture that a designer has stuck him with and did I want to take a look in his truck?  He had an 18-wheeler outside my house.  Why, no, thank you.  The other ladies on my block and I exchanged notes this evening, and no one went in the truck.

I can't wait to see who comes by tomorrow.