By Lee Kolinsky

Finding the proper day care for my child has been a challenge to say the least. We started about six months before our Julie was born. Even though our friends told us to start earlier because in New York you have to be on a list for about a year before you get accepted. And that's after you pay for being on the day care waiting list.

We looked for day care in the Union Square and East Village areas of New York City, as well as in Brooklyn/Williamsburg. This was our radius for being close to work and to where we live. Although we found a place in the Union Square, the price was $1650 a month. Not that that is the worst thing in the world, but it is quite pricey. But overlooking the price, we had to wait on the list for over a year before we had even got the call that a spot was available.

When we thought we found a suitable place in Williamsburg, we were soon told that we'd have to drop off Julie around 8 a.m. and pick her up at 2 p.m. Most working people I know have to be at the office around 8 or 9 a.m. and usually don't come home until 5,6,7, p.m. So that was out.

Our other option was to find day care through a (nanny or babysitter), whichever politically correct term you feel comfortable with. I didn't even know there was a difference, but from what I'm hearing there is one. In Williamsburg, a babysitter is the thing to do since day care centers are limited.

The search for a nanny began with going on web sites and forums. At the time we found a baby nurse for when Julie was born. We needed the extra help for the week to get situated. It should be noted that if you can find someone to help for a week, it would be the best thing possible. At least for us it was a blessing.

Our baby nurse (Sara) was great. She cleaned cooked and took care of Julie from the get go. She even taught us how to use the many baby items we received. When the time for Sara to leave was near we though that she would make a great nanny, so we asked and Sara accepted. Her salary was about $425 a week coming to a whopping $1700 a month. It is more than my rent and if we bought a place it would probably be a mortgage payment. But for our Julie price was no object, well it was actually.

The perks Sara was to receive included two weeks vacation, one being the week of Christmas when my office closed, and every other holiday throughout the year. Sick days were also included in this package. When I found out Sara was an avid reader, I provided her with many free books. I am in an industry where I receive them at no or little cost.

Sara began work four months after Julie was born. It was in September and it started off great. She took great care of our little one while we were at work. Sarah even babysat while we went out for dinner or the movies.

When the holidays started to roll around she asked us if her kids could come to work with her for the month of December. She didn't have anyone to baby-sit her kids while she worked. Sara is from Trinidad and her daughters still lived there while she was in America with her husband. Our apartment is quite small and we were worried about having two more children would crowd the place, we told her it would be fine to have them come over. Her daughters are 14 and 9.

It was great to meet Sara's children and we were happy to have them over. However, the 9-year old had a cough and we quickly became worried that our Julie would catch it. Sara reassured us that her daughter only had a cough and she was taking a West Indian cough medicine. It didn't seem to work, so we recommended a brand that we knew would keep the cough minimal.

Being concerned parents, we did tell Sara to try to keep her daughter separated from our Julie. It may be an overprotective parent thing, but Julie is our first child and we didn't want her getting sick.

As the month rolled along I came home a little earlier each day so Sara could leave a little earlier and spend time with her children. We didn't even go out on the town during this time. When the week of Christmas came around, we gave her the week off because I didn't have to work and our home seemed to be over crowded at this point.

After the New Year Sara's children went back to Trinidad and we were happy they had left our home. We wished her kids could stay in America, but we were glad that they were out of the apartment. Our home was ours again! Plus we were looking forward to a romantic night out.

But things got in the way. Sarah took a night job for two week and we didn't have a back up for babysitting. This would make it a month in a half without going out for some us time. We only have one pair of parents that can function with a baby and they live an hour away. Luckily they came out and babysat for the night.

With the two weeks coming to a close at Sara's night job, she got sick and didn't come in for two days. That meant we had to take two days off from work as well. We all get sick sometime. Sara finally came back after the second day and told us her father, who lives in Trinidad was sick.

He is a diabetic and wasn't in the best of condition. That weekend he went into diabetic shock. Sara told us she would be leaving for Trinidad and would be back in two weeks. She had asked us to hold her job.

Sara was great with Julie. They had a lot of fun and she was a nice person. We told her we would hold the position for her and that she should call us to let us know what was going on. In the mean time we interviewed a few baby sitters to help out while Sara was gone.

We didn't expect to hear from Sara the first week, but as the second week was flying by we were expecting a call. We called her on a Wednesday and then Friday. No word. Sara had told us her flight back was on the Saturday. We called her again on Sunday. Hearing nothing we eventually called Sara's sister, who lives in our area. She is also a babysitter and Sara had given us her number as a back up. We didn't use her for the two weeks because she didn't have the best of reputations and we wanted to save some cash.

When we called her sister, she said that Sara was still in Trinidad and may not come back for another two weeks. The sister also told us that Sara tried to call us, but something was wrong with the phone lines in her country. We figured that was malarkey.

Sara just disappeared from us. A phone call would have been nice. For her not to get word was simply not right. We probably would have held the job for her if she said she was going to be with her father longer. But that didn't happen.

Currently, we have been scrambling for new day care situation. We have some interviews coming up and I'm sure we will find someone. It's just a shame. I know it was probably just a job for Sara, but we let her and her family into our home for about five months. I think that qualifies for a phone call, not a disappearance.

A Little Like Jessie James

By Lee Kolinsky

When I was a kid, I always wanted to rob a bank. I guess it looked great in the movie Westerns. I know the endings for most of robberies weren't picture perfect, but I thought of myself as a Jessie James kind of thief. I even thought of a plan on how to steal from my local branch. All I needed were the trusty band of ragtag kids on my block. But it never happened and my fantasy of ending up in Hawaii with a margarita in my hand and a bunch of cash in my pocket was left to my dear friends in Hollywood.

Then almost a year ago, a large gift was deposited into my bank account. The gift of 20,000 appeared out of nowhere. It happened to be electronic mistake on the part of a teller. All of a sudden the dream of robbing a bank came flashing back to me, like when I was young boy.

Why did the money appear? Should I buy a car, a house, or make a run to Vegas? Should I close my account and go on the lam? The thought of telling the bank they made a mistake never even crossed my mind. I think that was wannabe bank robber in me. But the big question of going to jail if I took it did.

So I debated and spoke to a few people about it. Surprisingly enough, many of them told me not to take the money. "They'll find it," said People. "They always do." However, a few said that I should take the money and run. "They'll have to track you down," said Other People. "They'll never catch you." But no matter how many people I spoke to about the situation said to tell the bank they made a mistake.

I finally decided that the best thing to do was a finder's keeper rule. If the cash stayed in my account for a year, then it was mine for the taking and they weren't entitled to have it anymore. I figured out the mistake was due to CD I transferred. The teller transferred it twice.

As I waited, I started to take money out the bank that was originally mine. A couple of thousand dollars here, a couple of thousand dollars there. My idea was that if at some point during the year the bank actually found out about their mistake, they would be able to get all their money back without accusing me of stealing it.

With months in the bag and the one-year over the horizon, the market plummeted and companies started to go bankrupt and lose billions of dollars. I guess that's why the found it. For seven long months the cash was in my account. It was sweet to fantasize what I was going to do with it for that long, but it wasn't meant to be. And that ended my fantastical adventures of being just like Jessie James.