My new card

I have lived in Los Angeles since August. I have lived approximately three blocks from a public library for over nine months. I didn't have a library card -- until today!

I'm pretty excited. I walk by the library on Olympic and Muirfield almost every single day. And when I don't walk by it, I drive by it. It's this beautiful old brick building with moss growing on the sides and a playground/park out front. I like watching the little kids play on the swings when I walk by. But until today I'd never ventured in.

I did a mid-day run to Angela's school a few minutes ago, her migraine's back full force and she is having a crappy day. Kids out of uniform, parents showing up unannounced to complain that - gasp! - their kids have homework, etc. And she told me when I went out to prune the money tree in the backyard, if I found a frozen yogurt pond to bring her some. So I did the next best thing, I kidnapped her and took her to Yogurtland just down the block from her school. We ate some yogurt (mine had blueberries and raspberries! Yum!) and then she got a dish for the school secretary and we went back - 20 minutes door to door. So on the way home I drove past the library again and thought, "STOP!" You have nothing pressing that needs to be done right this minute. You have been trying to figure out how to get more audiobooks without paying the ridiculous itunes fees, go to the library! So I did...

I went in and was immediately greeted by a friendly staff member who took my drivers' licence, asked for a signature and gave me a card. Easy as that! And then I got to do my favorite thing - browse.

I grew up going to the library, sometimes several times a week. We'd go for story hour, we'd go for books, we'd go to watch the Saturday afternoon movie. When I got a little older Angela and I went by ourselves. I think I read every single book in the Young Adult section several times over. We did the summer reading programs, we went for homework, we rented movies there. I loved the library.

And then I moved to Kalamazoo. They have an awesome library there - it was recently rebuilt and had won awards. I loved that library and I knew it well. I went every week for research when I worked for the Kalamazoo Gazette. I checked out audiobooks by the suitcase when I was commuting from Jackson to Kalamazoo. And they had the coolest children's room - complete with a castle on the wall.

Needless to say I'm excited about my new library card. I'm excited about the three audiobooks I checked out today and the novel I've been wanting to read for a year. I almost bought it last week at the bookstore but knew I couldn't afford it so didn't. And it was one of the first books I saw today! And I'm excited because there were people in there, reading, researching, enjoying books. And to me, as a reader and as a writer, that's a pretty cool thing to see.