Uggh…It has BL on it and its mine.

I walked by this handkerchief on our street sidewalk three days in a row and each time thought, maybe its mine, but I’m not going to pick it up. Yuk!  But something told me today that it probably is mine and I faced my germaphobe fears and grabbed it by the edge and sure enough it had the obvious BL monogram.

Bedrich Lebl, my wonderful father-in-law, who passed away a few years back had left behind his massive collection of brand new monogramed hankies (or ‘kapesníky’ in Czech). I resisted the idea of using hankies for years and teased my husband about the fact that we do have Kleenex now in modern times and its much more hygienic. I would wash them, but I wasn’t going to stoop to the level of ironing them!

However, a while back I decided I would try them and have begun to embrace the convenience of always having one on me. Especially living here where I either have seasonal allergies, cold weather drip, or oddly enough a running nose when I am nervous (which is all the time)! I realized it was much better than having shredded tissues in my hand or bag.  No, I don’t use it for major illness. Thats just gross.

So even though I may lose one or two of them while I’m out walking or in the forest, I plan on using them forever. Or at least until there is a magic drug to stop running nose all together. In the meantime, I’ll put up with the looks and stares and the occasional crap my pilates group gives me about being from the old days.

And yes, this is definitely part of my journey in becoming an old czech man. Last week I let Michal put sandpaper on my shoes to keep from slipping because we can’t find the stick on things to put on the bottom of shoes. I suppose this is further proof of my czechiness.