Whew

Now that the crazy busy rush of the holidays are over I feel like I can finally breathe (and count my gift card stash!) The gift card is the traditional teacher gift and I love it. Last year I hauled in over $100 in target cards. And boy did that check out lady hate me when I used 7 different cards to pay for my purchase. This year, the cards are more spread out- some target, some starbucks, some barnes and nobles.

I think I'm most excited about the B&N. You see I have a secret love relationship with B&N. It goes way back. In high school (although we didn't have a B&N) much time was spent grabbing coffee and browsing the latest selection of books. Somehow this tradition continued on with my friends even when we moved away. A phone call- I'm headed to B&N! Several followup texts- check out this book in the new arrivals! mmmm my mocha is amazing! theres a weird guy in the medieval arts section! A "shared" B&N experience from different time zones.

In Cali something happens with sunset. You see, it happens really really early (or so it feels) and once the sun goes down, heading to the beach is not the same (except for night beaching of course) As the sun went down, we grew hopelessly bored so we would trek to the local B&N. We tried learning foreign languages (not me really) tried to achieve New age enlightenment and enjoyed the variety of people watching that any place in Cali brings out.

My relationship with B&N solidified the years I only worked 4 days a week. (Well I did work a weekend day, so in fact it was 5 days) Every Monday I had off. While some Mondays I spent hours on end in my pjs, some Mondays I spent hours on end at B&N. I didn't have much extra cash then (not that I do now in my lucrative position as an educator) so I would traipse to B&N, buy a nice hot mug of coffee, find the book I left off with last week and cozy up in the overstuffed chairs. I had come to discover which B&Ns had the coziest chairs. Not the one at Easton. Here I devoured the latest Nicholas Sparks book, traveled around Ireland with a fridge, and dreamt of adventures to come.

B&N reminds me of my youth, my lazy days with no responsibility. How can I reclaim this? Well tomorrow I will be spending hours on end at the local B&N, we'll see what I figure out.