Ok, let's be pleasant. My last few posts weren't pleasant. Let's make some pleasantness, shall we?
Recognize the title of the book in this picture?
It's ok, I'll give you a little time...or a little more time...
Remember now? Ok, here's the exciting conclusion:
Last Thursday I took a day to explore a couple of the libraries in the City. I was homesick for the library experience I had at Carlsbad and I wanted to curl up again and read in a library. I've never had that kind of experience at the libraries in the City because, well, usually there's either someone there who doesn't speak English who's ignoring the "sssshhhh" rule, or there's a homeless person leaving a odorous print on the environment, or some such thing that sets me off.
It didn't happen this time. Now, it probably helped not having a traditional job--I could slow down and enjoy my library time, which I did. I didn't enjoy it in the same way as I did in Carlsbad, but I enjoyed it all the same, giving me a chance to say to myself, "hey, why don't we try a new one every week?" I fell in love in a hesitant way with my local one in the Sunset (there was some chatter in Cantonese, but it passed quickly enough when the ladies found what they wanted in the new fiction shelves), and after reading there for a couple of hours I even crossed the street and tried a new hotdog joint called Underdog, which was tasty and exotic, in its own organic way.
Then I took the train down to the Main Branch of the library and explored the other floors after donating five books and checking out two (I'm never going to win this "no new books" struggle, am I?). Normally when I go into this branch it's a quick walk around the first floor fiction and then checkout and go, so I was completely unaware of the study rooms on the third and fourth floors, as well as the breath-taking periodicals room with the spiraling staircase to the sixth floor. (Shockingly enough I have taken the elevator to the sixth floor before when the museum they have there had a display on Harvey Milk. Completely bypassed all the other floors. Yes, I'm a jerk.) I spent some time on the international floor and general collections writing in my journal (where everyone was quiet as mice, English or no), wrote for another hour in one of the study rooms, and walked the rest of the building slowly.
Then it hit me...I wonder if "Desert Solitaire" is here.
It was listed as there, but it wasn't in the racks in the general collection or in the "new books" by the Page Desk, which is where the location listing was. Sigh. Ok, fine. But it was also at another library.
I'll give you three guesses on which one it was at. And the first two guesses don't count.
Yeeees...the Sunset branch.
No problem, I thought. It's early, 2:30 p.m.--I'll put it on hold now and pick it up tomorrow.
It took them TWO DAYS to put the thing on hold. What's so funny about this is I am used to Grainger picking an item in stock and putting it on hold for a customer in no more than thirty minutes. So you can imagine why I was stir crazy. But they finally had it, and Saturday I walked into the library and picked it up in the holds section and just stood there, with a huge grin on my face, trying not to cry. Abbey, you bastard, I found you. I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through the fields, and HERE...YOU...ARE.
And now, to pick up where I left off in Carlsbad. By the way, if you can get a copy, it's worth the search.
Onward to the next quest, dear reader.
P.S. - This song is where today's post of Life For Rent comes from. It's the first song I thought of when I walked home with the book. The heart is indeed a bloom.
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