Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Case of the Missing Girl Scout...

“On my honor, I will try,
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.” -The Girl Scout Promise

After yesterday’s tirade on Boy Scouts you probably think I’m about to lash out at the Girl Scouts today. But you’d be wrong!

I don’t really have any complaints with Scouts, Boy OR Girl. They’re both great organizations. My issue is more bewilderment that our church is tightly aligned with boy scouting.

But speaking of the Girl Scouts, this time of year always means one thing: Girl Scout Cookies! The cookie boxes get smaller and the price gets higher but that’s okay. It’s their annual fundraising push (and a successful one at that).

Today I’m trying to solve the mystery of the missing Girl Scout. Picture a milk carton with a photo and a “Have You Seen This Girl (Scout)?” write up on the side. Yes, I’m afraid there may be a MIA Girl Scout in Los Gatos. Troop number unknown.

Here are the facts: I buy Girl Scout cookies from any girl in uniform. It’s a self imposed policy similar to my vow to stop at all lemonade stands. So, with this policy in force I ordered cookies from four sources this year: a friend’s grandaughter, another friend’s neice, a neighborhood girl, and a unidentified girl scout who randomly rang my doorbell.

So far my cookies have been delivered from the first three sources, the girls I have a connection to. But the mystery Girl Scout has never returned. Granted I have not paid for the cookies, you pay upon delivery, but I’m perplexed. Could she have been abducted by Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster?

One theory is that she returned (possibly numerous times), found no one home at the Knudsens and gave up. But this is unlikely because I am home a lot. So much that sometimes my kids call me a “homebody."

Or perhaps my illegible handwriting on her order form has the Girl Scout still trying to decifer our address. This is plausible because I do have terrible penmanship.

It’s possible that I dreamt a Girl Scout came to the door and sold me cookies. But the dream explanation is a stretch because I don’t usually remember dreams so vividly. For example, this girl scout had 2 blond braids and I clearly remember ordering 3 boxes. My dreams would be too fuzzy on details like hair color and box quantity.

The whole exchange has me puzzled. It’s so uncharacteristic of a Girl Scout! They’re so dependable, so trustworthy, so entrepreneurial! And, I’m not worried about my cookies. Okay, I’m a little worried about my cookies. But, since I didn’t put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, with 4 cookie orders, it’s not exactly a crisis. I’m mostly curious to know what happened to that cute little Girl Scout. And, I’d kind of like to solve the mystery (and retrieve my cookies too!).

So, if anyone sees a suspicious Girl Scout sneaking Peanut Butter Patties from her inventory please notify me asap! In the meantime I promise to still save the boxes from Lori’s niece for Paige...since I know Paige might be worried, under the circumstances!