Enemy of Entropy
It Was a Lovely Day
Please note: Yes, I am referring to today, the 12th, which is my birthday. Those close to me know that I generally hate my birthday, as it’s a reminder of multiple miscarriages and other nasty things happening around this time several years in a row.
Sam and Katie managed to make #41 very nice, though.
Sam and I went out Saturday evening to Barnes & Noble, but I just couldn’t make a decision. So many choices! We went over to OutWrite, too, which is always fun. I saw lots of adorable trinkets there, and plenty of interesting reading and listening material, but still couldn’t make a choice. I really liked this mug, and it felt great in my hand, but I couldn’t find out if it’s microwave safe. (My favorite coffee cup was broken recently, victim of my unreliable grip. Thank you, fibro/arthritis/CMP!) Have any of you tried a Quotable mug? How did it hold up?
Oh! On the way home, we started to drive past Krispy Kreme and Sam had a sudden need for donuts, so we popped in there to satisfy that. I’ve never done the drive-through there before, but things were really crowded in the store. The car line was long, too, but we had the advantage of privacy and good company while waiting in it.
We enjoyed being out, but I came home without having chosen anything but donut fillings. Sam threatened to pick for me if I didn’t make a choice on Sunday. I have a lot of trouble spending any money on myself, or asking for presents, and he thought that’s why I hadn’t chosen anything.
So we went out again on Sunday — leaving the house two days in a row is very unusual for me any more! I had finally decided on exactly what I wanted, and we tried to go get it, but found the place closed for Veteran’s Day. My man insisted on taking me to Borders and buying Kim Harrison’s A Few Demons More, promising that we’d also go to The Place again on Monday. Then he took me to Steak & Shake for dinner, because when I saw the sign I had a serious craving for their mushroom-swiss burger. (Don’t bother with the new Portobello mushroom burger, as you get far fewer mushrooms that way!)
Katie and I (she’s home from school, sick) had a very nice, low-key day Monday, and Sam and I set out again after he got home. This time, success!
I asked for something that probably seems odd to most people — a non-resident library card so I can access the best library system in Georgia, Gwinnett County Public Libraries. But I’d checked, and they have 95% of the books I’m really wanting to read, and past experience says they’ll continue to carry the fantasy and science fiction I love. They have a far better selection of everything than Dekalb, where we live. (Okay, Gwinnett has stopped carrying music CDs, because so many went missing. Big deal.)
I wanted the card instead of a few books, because this way I can read all of them! And, in fact, we came home with nine books that have all been on my wish list for some time, and two or three graphic novels for Sam.
Now I have a whole pile of new-to-me books, and A Few Demons More! They’re all way too tempting to a girl who still has homework to do, including a SWOT analysis that’s due for my management class this week.
Thanks to all of you for the birthday wishes via Facebook, email, Twitter, LJ, etc. 
7 Comments »
Happy Birthday.
I’m so glad you had a good birthday
And I totally understand the desire for a good library card. My local library has spoiled me delightfully.
Not only do we have awesome libraries, but ours right down the road from our house is only a year old and has tons and tons and tons of great audiobooks. They also carry all the manga Spidey could ever want to read, have an awesome reading room with stuffed animals for Boo, and every computer game a kid could want. We loves it.
Precious, at first I thought you were talking about Wackyville, then I remembered where you now!
Thanks, Shirlee & Hope!
Since I was tiny, I’ve dreamed about living close enough to a good library to walk to it. We’re close enough for Sam or Katie to walk to a branch now, but it isn’t a good one. If we don’t move to where we want next year, maybe I’ll reconsider life in the ‘burbs with better libraries.
Happy Birthday!
You can’t do interlibrary loan thru your local library? I get a lot of good stuff that way.
I was the Queen of Interlibrary Loans when using other library systems, but this county makes it damned near impossible to place them. I interact with the library almost entirely online, since I’m essentially homebound, and Sam picks up and returns books for me. They won’t set up a way to do the requests without going to the branch and painfully spelling out each field of the request slip to a clerk. (I can’t believe those people are librarians. I refuse to consider it.) You can’t request anything less than a year old (the better library has a 6-month age limit), and the few requests I’ve submitted have just disappeared into the ether. When I try to follow them up, I’m told they don’t track them. I really think they throw them away.
There is a library system that most of the state’s libraries are part of, PINES, and it’s pretty darned good. None of the major metro Atlanta county systems participate, though. They apparently see it as subsidizing smaller systems, even when their own sucks rocks.
We were closer to a PINES branch than to anything else in our prior home, out in the exurbs, so I used them a lot. They expected most things to be done online, since their patrons are all over the state. It was wonderful!
I’m not TOO far from that PINES branch when I go see the pain doctor each month, but since Sam is already taking time off work to drive me there, I feel guilty about asking him to make a library stop, too.
My current public library is the first I’ve known to offer ILL service. A couple other NC libraries do it, but I think they might charge for it.