These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

So the transition to San Francisco has not been easy. While all the elements are there, I’m still making plans, no real spur of the moment excursions. It’s been 5 months and I still feel like a bit of an east coast transplant, a foreigner in a foreign land. But I sort of anticipated that and before I even arrived, I had set myself some markers and things to look forward to in order to get me over the proverbial “hump.”

One of those markers was the largest West Coast book fair. Ever since I was a kid, the annual library book sale was one of my favorite activities. It always ended with my mom finding me sitting under a table surrounded by towers of book and looking the happiest. While in NYC, I took advantage of the nearby Barnes & Noble on rainy days, the public library system and all the used book stores.

While the book fair started on a Wednesday, I wasn’t able to go until Saturday. It was amazing—a giant warehouse full of the written word. Just hundreds of rows of books, thousands and thousands of copies and even shopping carts! I brought my wheelie and packed it full on Saturday. I was in heaven and bliss. But I wasn’t through yet, on Sunday, I met up with Anne in the afternoon and spent another 4 hours at the book fair. We went through all the foreign language books, and I got a bunch of hardcovers. Best part? All books on Sunday, were only $1. Eee!

So now I have book lined up on my staircase, since I have yet to clear out my bookcase, but everyday that I walk in, I smile at my little stacks of books—all those pages waiting to be turned, all those stories waiting to be read. I can’t wait for the one next year.