Once Upon A Time

Something I love but don't get to do often is go to the bookstore. I'd really rather just check books out at the library than go buy them but it is nice to once in awhile treat yourself & go buy a couple paperbacks & relax in the quiet of a Barnes & Noble. So I thought.

Sunday night I decided I had really better take a break before Ithe Mommy broke & couldn't be fixed. Since not much is open at 7pm on a Sunday night & I'm begining to hate trips to Wal-Mart in my old age, I thought I'd venture out to the bookstore. I hadn't been there in a year or so. It was rather appealing with it's aisles & aisles of self-help books, mystery novels, biographies, & discounted books about things you just never thought you needed until it was marked down to $5.
Oh I was looking forward the closer I got to the store for the peace & quiet, the scent of coffee wafting about & the rustling of newspapers from the few people in overstuffed chairs. A faint melody of classical music in the background, the warm feeling of seeing that many books in one place could at one time bring tears to my eyes. It still was a rich memory & one I was looking forward to more after each stoplight I passed. I was really going to be in an atmosphere to let go of the kids voices in my head, giving into the indulgence of reading more than just the blurb before I bought the book & sitting somewhere to just soak in the ambiance.

Well, it seems in the year or so since I've been, Barnes & Noble has become more of a hotspot for an ecceletic group of people & more of them than I had anticipated. There were hardly any parking spots, and after I pushed my way in, the amount of people & chaotic noise from the "coffee bar" was rather off-putting. By the laughs coming from over there I was wondering to myself if they had replaced the coffee with a tad harder beverage. Not one to be discouraged I plowed through the discounted books, found a couple & kept browsing. There WERE a rather quite a few of chipy happy to help sales people that became annoying after awhile but I did press on.

The Christianity section was very mislabeled & contained books on politics, there were hardly any chairs & what were there were piled with the most toothless, half clothed people I've seen in a bookstore in awhile. That along with the blaring Bob Dylan music wasn't promoting a comforting atmosphere in the least. Oh and the children! What crazy people take children and let them RUN around the store while they browse & ignore them. Yes, things have changed and I AM old. In my day you didn't have to take children everywhere just because you gave birth to them and if you did, they had to behave or you left. Now people don't hesitate to drag their kids ANYWHERE & EVERYWHERE. And no one seems to care what the kids do or don't do. But that's a different blog for a different day.

As I wondered around some more I came across a book I wanted to look through extensively. But the only place I could find to sit & peruse this book was a stepstool. One with rubber indentations that eat into your butt & make it go numb after about 3 minutes. Payless shoes has more comfy footstools! As I'm sitting there thumbing through the book, I get to see the gaggle of people (mainly men) flowing in & out of the restrooms. One young man carried a book in. I don't think he saw me as he went in, but when he came out 15 minutes later, I KNOW he did. He seemed pretty smug till he saw me. We exchanged the "I know where you just took that book" look. At least he had the sense to look embarrassed. (In that moment I had a George Castanza/Seinfeld flashback. He was in plaid pants, I was pretty sure security could track him down to flag the book.)

My mood bubble busted I put my book back & started over to my favorite & last section, the mysteries. I saved this for last like you would a dessert you'd been craving. This was supposed to be the cherry & whipped cream of my venture out to relax. However, my hot fudge cake experience was melting all over the place so far. I would have made it fine except for the "gang" of four "goth" boys that were playing TAG down the aisles & kept almost knocking me over, yet having the decency to say excuse me every time. Thank God for small favors, is that how the saying goes? After one of them "passed gas", I was done.

I think I had gleaned all I could from this experience & what it had to offer. I was done. I couldn't say it had been relaxing but it HAD been an experience. Next time I'll just go get a drink at Sonic, buy my book at Wal-Mart & sit in the library parking lot. More peace & less gas.