I love the library

I really do. It's been a while since I've been there, but yesterday I went to ours to donate the rest of the books from the yard sale that didn't sell and also to get my new library card with my new name and address--yes, yet another place I need to change my information. Where I live now the library is practically around the corner, especially compared to where one was in relation to my old house. I can't wait to visit it more often.

Anyway, when I go to the library I get almost the same thrill I get when I go to a bookstore except it may be even more because I know I can get any book, any book in the whole place, that I want and it's free. Usually this euphoria consumes me and I get overcome with potential and high goals. Sure, I can read 7 books in the one month's time they give me, no problem. Yeah, I can watch 4 videos in a week, why not? Truth be told, I've returned more than a few books unread and several videos unwatched, but who cares? It's free. I did recognize this tendency in myself yesterday so I only got 1 video and 2 novels. Still, there's no way in hell I will be able to read 2 novels in a month's time. Sure, in reality there's plenty of time to do it in, but in actuality, it ain't gonna happen. Still, I am aiming high and hope springs eternal. I'll let you know.

Speaking of things I love, I love stationery. Stationery of all kinds--notepads, note cards, invitations, sheets of paper, sticky notes, post-it notes, cubes of notes--you name it, if it's paper and it's got cute little designs, I love it. I have a kind of sick addiction to them, some might say. I sold a bunch of notecards in the yard sale. I had them priced at 25 cents each or 5 for $1.00. Some woman took all of my notecards and offered me $3.00. I thought $5 was a fair price because, lemme tell ya, she had a lot of them. In the end she won--$3. My heart was a little sad at parting with those notecards. Granted, they were mostly all cards I'd received as "gifts" from organizations I donate to regularly and many had cats on them--which I don't care for even if they are notecards--but still, my notecards are gone. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton left and it's true, I hardly write notes to anyone anymore what with email and all, but still, my notecards are gone.

Maybe it's my English major background that cultivated my love of things written and the potential of a blank page. I've always enjoyed writing and I treasure heartfelt, handwritten notes and cards more than anything else I receive. Especially in this day and age of computers and emails and blogs, hardly anyone takes the time to send a card or a note or God forbid, a letter, to anyone else. I miss those days.

In college, the letters from home and friends were my lifeline. I looked forward to checking my mailbox in the dorm with immense anticipation--would I get a letter today, would I get a card today, would someone think of me today? I have boxes of cards and letters that I've received over the years. I save them all every year--Christmas cards, birthday cards, welcome spring cards, Valentine's cards, letters, no-reason cards. Every now and again I like to look through them. Some of the people are no longer in my life--friends that tend to slip away along the road of life. Some are still in my life and these letters give me a snapshot of our friendship and their life at that moment in time. Others have passed away. I treasure the letters my great-grandmother wrote to me in college, in her crooked, sometimes illegible handwriting. But she wrote it, took time to sit down and express whatever she was thinking at the time. It's like having a little piece of her still with me. That's what cards and letters are--little pieces of our hearts in an envelope. Maybe that's why I love them so.