It’s a simple request.

Mary: Please save bottles with tops or lids. We’re having a Harry Potter party for my daughter’s birthday, including potion-making.
Tata: POTION-MAKING! Before high school?
Mary: Yeah. Wine bottles would be helpful.
Tata: I’ll get right on that.

Pete and I save bottles for special projects like infused oils, vinegars or vodkas. It took about a week of soaking and peeling to get the labels off and the aroma of adult libations past out. Yesterday, I told Mary I was ready to contribute to her container collection and I’d bring the bottles to work. I wrapped them in brown paper for adorable, scurrilous effect and stuffed them into one of my bicycle paniers. It weighed a ton. The ride to work this morning was more work than usual. Thank Ishtar I am strong as an ox and no one cares if I smell like one.

Tata: You sound glum. What gives?
Mary: Fighting with a vendor.
Tata: Need me to beat up someone for you?
Mary: No, but it’s so sweet of you to offer. I have to wait for a conference call. Can you send those bottles by campus mail?
Tata: As Queen of Bubble Wrap, I will!

I wrapped the bottles up in all sorts of packing materials, addressed the box and forgot about it. Half an hour ago, the mailman was slinging boxes from a table to the floor. I bolted across the room, but the box addressed to Mary was already gone. Then I made the most unpopular statement of the day.

Tata: Should I have mentioned that box was full of glass?