My Cardboard Balcony

Special Delivery by Belinda Roddie When you order a pizza, you should not expect a baby to be sitting in a box on your doorstep Nor should you be planning to birth a child in the hospital, but wind up with a hot pizza pie Because there's absolutely no boost to your appetite from a cheese-drizzled infant with anchovies on the side And though pizza is not what a new mother would like perhaps the old midwife would care for a slice

Is it too much to ask for me to be independently wealthy, when I have been profoundly poor for most of my life? I spent my first three years out of college being a dishwasher at a rundown Italian restaurant, milking each penny for all it was worth. I ate ramen and drank warm tap water and lived with six other people. Now I get to drink a beer sometimes and live with only four other people. Yeah. My affluence is staggering.