November 16th, 1975

Sunday afternoon. Richard and I have spent a gorgeous Fall afternoon in old-movie, lazy champagne and beer and frozen TV chicken dinners bliss. Doing nothing. Richard hasn’t even dressed today. Lynn and I went to mass this morning. Beautiful. Beautiful day with my lover.

Last night was Maryjean’s surprise birthday party. Jan and everyone was charming and sweet. They had a bartender who did nothing but keep your champagne glass filled all evening. Maryjean’s parents are visiting from Nebraska. Her stepfather is from Missouri. He used to work for the Empire bank. He knew exactly where Franklin and Sunshine streets were. I mentioned the Springfield Drive-In and he knew where I meant.

Richard and I are in the midst of a crisis and metamorphosis. Lynn also. For the past two months, the three of us have been writing bad checks on defunct checking accounts. Lynn has written about $700– we about $300.

In September the three of us went to Yesteryears Farm in Maryland. Lynn wrote bad check for $50 some dollars and we wrote $80 dollars for a set of old dishes.

We got caught.

Both checks were turned over to the Montgomery County Police Department with a warrant for our arrest. Lynn had to go last Friday. She was photographed, fingerprinted, booked, politely arrested. Richard has to go in tomorrow morning for the same thing. Lynn has a court date set for December 15th. Richard is going to see a lawyer tomorrow. All of us are sick with fear and anxiety over what may happen. A jail sentence? An unbelievable fine? How is this going to affect our lives?

I am going with Richard. I can’t let him go alone. I feel so guilty that just because he signed the check that he is going to have to go through all this.

But how this has changed us. The past few months (the past year, in fact) our financial situation has been insane. We’ve had absolutely no control over our spending. Our checking account has been a total mystery. We never keep track of our checks. Months behind in our bills.

I can’t even write.