So it looks like Wednesday - Thursday is going to become my 'weekend.' Which I guess is alright, it means date night will be extra cheap (weekday matinees!) the grocery store won't be nearly as crowded and the library not so clogged with wee ones. Not that I have a problem with wee ones, but the library is totally my zen space for an hour or so every three weeks.

I've felt this urge to read the classics recently, but I also have an ever evolving list of new-ish books that I want to read so my checkout lists end up being rather.. erratic. This week I'm re-reading Finnegan's Wake (which I believe may be my nephew-to-be's namesake <3!), reading some Edith Wharton, Paul Auster and Hermann Hesse. I may also see if the next books in the Harry Dresden series are available (edit: they're not, must remember to request them) and I've requested that Anthony Bourdain's book, Kitchen Confidential, be brought out of storage for me. Like I said.. erratic. Another edit; I also picked up a collection of American poetry, a collection of stories from NPRs National Story Project and a Knitting for Dummies book.. This is why I love the library, it's like an impulsive shopping spree, with no guilt, ever. Read the first sentence and question your motives for even picking it up in the first place? Take it back, try it again!

I guess this particular post is to remind myself that no matter how much everything else kind of sucks, I have a rather inexpensive recipe for bliss.

1 pot coffee / tea + 8 to 12 new books + gray weather (which is free in Michigan) + 1 to 1.5 cats perched on my lap = the time I most look forward to every month. Throw in the bonus of a loaf of bread or something else delicious in the aroma department baking in the oven? It just slays me.

We are also going to see the live-action broadcast of This American Life at the movie theatre tomorrow, so this is turning out to be a pretty exciting midweekend for me.. This American Life is what I look forward to during the first hour of my work weekend, among other NPR programs, so this is a pretty nerdy guilty pleasure for me.

Next midweekend I think we're taking it on the road to Coldwater to the Capri Drive In movie theatre, or perhaps Dearborn to the Ford-Wyoming drive-in, if it's in summer operational hours by then. It's totally worth the hour drive, for $7 double feature, lax policy on coolers and snacks and overall a MUCH more preferable alternative to sitting rigidly upright and silent in an overly air-conditioned yet still stuffy movie theatre. Yeah, I'm at the drive in, I'm taking my shoes off, hanging my foot out the window and joking loudly with Ben at the terrible pre-show music and trailers. Hell, I'll take my pants off if I want to, who is going to see me? Maybe I'll get out of the car and dance. (well maybe not those last two bits - but who knows? who cares?! it's the drive in!)

So it's about 3 hours after I started this post, and I'm back from the library. I've got a stack of books exactly as high as the re-usable grocery bag I brought in which to carry them. I've got some work to do. I think the order of the evening is a pot of tea, a couple loads of laundry, some banana bread in the oven and going through the arduous but rewarding process of deciding which book to begin first.

While at the library, I also walked past a pair of people at one of the study tables, talking quietly. Both adults, mid-40s to 50s. His voice calm and steady, hers halting, hesitant and unsure. I was buzzing around in the aisles around them looking for my books, and as I got closer I realized what I was hearing; he was a tutor, and he was teaching her how to read. How brave of her, how remarkable. And how rewarding the rest of her life will be now that she's made this incredible step. It was very humbling to me to imagine, since for me reading is like second nature, a trance I can slip into without thinking. Imagining the ways in which her life will open up to her after she's mastered this skill.

hmm.. That gives me a thing or two to think about.

edit: I love love LOVE that my four tags for this post are unwittingly perfectly sequentially alphabetical. Nerd love.