A Goodbye

When I was younger, I spent an uncalculatable number of hours in Waldenbooks while waiting for my mom to finish shopping in the mall. Because I hadn't yet become a library rat (I was only in elementary school), I read most of the new releases to my favorite series (Magic Treehouse, for instance), in Waldenbooks, and it was always a treat to go there. We never bought any books, as I wasn't really a go back and read over and over kind of girl, and so I always looked forward to going to the mall, if only because I could go to the bookstore.

As I grew older and I began spending more time in the library, on homework and such, I visited bookstores less, mostly because there were so many books I could read in the library (it took me about 3 years to exhaust myself in the public library during middle and high school, and even then, it was because I had more work to do than I wanted). I also became increasingly paranoid that they would find me reading in the bookstore and kick me out (bending pages! crinkling corners! you know that's right. what.). Of course, all my SAT needs were met in the bookstore, since the library was woefully inadequate in that department, and so, Borders became my go-to bookstore. There was one in Westwood, where mom worked and I could easily spend a day reading, studying, and sneaking a coffee.

Slowly by slowly, however, the Borders around us have begun to go out of business and close, which makes me extremely sad. Even more sadly, I got an email about a week ago saying that Borders was closing for good. And this, compounded with the fact that I pretty much just found out that Borders owned Waldenbooks, cuts pretty deep in my heart because that's where I spent so much of my childhood. I was a nerd first. I loved tetherball and racing, and I played hard, but I loved a good book more than anything. It just makes me a little sad. More than a little.

RIP Borders. May your fate not be that of bookstores everywhere. The end of an era shouldn't come so soon.

Membranes

I love hanging out in book stores. It brings me back to when I was a kid and I could just sit in bookstores and read whatever the heck I wanted and everything new was on the shelves and the whole world was at my disposal. Book stores like Barnes and Noble always have the huge windows that let all the light in so everything seems brighter and sunnier. That's one of the great things about living in California, I guess, because right now, everything is 70 degrees and sunny and, sitting on my couch looking out onto the tree tops, it's quite beautiful. I also get inspired in book stores, and, maybe it's because I don't have much to worry about in terms of running into people I know, but I tend to hang around and read insignificant and quite crappy books and I get inspired. I always want to write a novel when I'm in there because I always feel like I can write at least as well as some of the stuff that's in the teen section, or the romance section, or the fantasy section (murderous pixies? really?). And I never have enough paper or patience to finish everything. By the time I get home, the need to write has dissipated and when I look at my notes, I think to myself, "What was I thinking? This is just as crappy as anything that's out there." Oh well.

This morning, I peeled an egg and ate it for breakfast. For a long time, I didn't know eggs had membranes. Well, I knew unconsciously, but since I saw this, I didn't really know.



After that, every time I've peeled a hard-boiled egg, I have noticed the membrane, and usually, I am in too much of a rush to deal with it, so I just peel an egg like people do and nom it down. But these days have been quite lazy, so I decided to peel it while leaving the membrane on.

See? It's squishy like a hardboiled egg!

And then I peeled the membrane off...

And ate it. Nom.