Sunday, April 10, 2011

Culture Vulture


I felt a bit like a vulture yesterday, swooping down and into a local Borders bookstore that is closing and had a big sale on its remaining merchandise. I wandered the fiction and poetry aisles, lured by the 30%-50% off signs, and picked up copies of Yeats' The Tower, Gary Snyder's Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, and Lucille Clifton's Voices. Then I walked across the street and ate crispy onion rings dipped in barbecue sauce at The Waffle while reading Anne Roiphe's memoir Art and Madness on my Kindle (another blow to local bookstores) and then I walked across the street again to see the Danish movie In a Better World. I did all of this after breaking down in my house and running out the door in tears, leaving my children (one disabled, one covered in pox and the other just a pain) with the babysitter who had come to watch Sophie. I gunned my car to Hollywood with the accompaniment of violins, and after four or five hours came home, feeling only slightly chagrined and much relieved.
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18 comments:

  1. Ms. MoonApril 10, 2011 at 1:41 PM

    Sometimes you HAVE to get away. That's all there is to it. I'm glad you did it. You probably saved someones life.

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  2. Maggie MayApril 10, 2011 at 1:45 PM

    laughing at ms. moon
    so glad you got out!!!!

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  3. GbergerApril 10, 2011 at 3:02 PM

    I'm glad you got out too...you deserve to have quiet time to yourself! And, contrary to what Disney would like us to believe, a bookstore with good prices might just be the happiest place on earth...a bookstore, or a beach.

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  4. 37paddingtonApril 10, 2011 at 3:10 PM

    there is a saying: you can't give from an empty cup. glad you got to fill yours!

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  5. SECRET PEPPER PERSON:April 10, 2011 at 3:50 PM

    Yep you needed that. Good for you!

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  6. SeleneApril 10, 2011 at 4:40 PM

    OMG that sounds divine! I had the same feeling buying books from a local Angus and Robertson going out of business sale, but still got some great bargains.

    @karen, I'd like Disney to put a bookstore in, just for the parents! lol

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  7. AnonymousApril 10, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    So glad you were able to get some time to yourself. So important.

    I need to follow your example.
    xo

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  8. Lisa LilienthalApril 10, 2011 at 5:59 PM

    yay for you!

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  9. AnonymousApril 10, 2011 at 8:17 PM

    You are allowed to have breaks, without them, we do break. I remember once throwing a frying pan into the yard because I couldn't take it anymore.

    Sending a hug.

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  10. LeslieApril 11, 2011 at 6:14 AM

    You NEEDED that.

    And thanks for your more than kind words over at my place. I'd never read that poem before either... discovered it (on the iPad my brother gave me - what was that you were saying about local bookstores?) while waiting for my mom's heart test to be over the other day. It was like a gift. You know? When someone puts words to your life. And the poem encompasses all pain. Not just the physical.

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  11. MaryApril 11, 2011 at 7:13 AM

    Glad you got out of the house and filled yourself up with books and movies. Any chance you can manage that for a few hours EVERY day? Every few days?

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  12. karioApril 11, 2011 at 7:19 AM

    I'm with Mary. I see this as a regular occurrence for you. Here's hoping as time goes on you continue to feel less and less chagrined and more and more relaxed about giving yourself this space and time.

    And just to let you know what the Universe is saying about all of this, my word verification today is "light." 'Nuff said.

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  13. rebeccaApril 11, 2011 at 7:37 AM

    so glad you could slip away.
    xoxoxoxox,
    r

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  14. Tess KincaidApril 11, 2011 at 9:19 AM

    I swooped down on our closing sale at Borders, too. I chose just one book, "The Shadows of Sirius", a book of poetry by W. S. Merwin.

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  15. UnknownApril 11, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    I think you should have then brought your books to the beach and stayed there until the sunset..

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  16. Denise Emanuel ClemenApril 11, 2011 at 8:09 PM

    So glad you had a day out. A very good idea!

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  17. AnonymousApril 12, 2011 at 7:03 AM

    There's not much that onion rings and dipping sauce can't fix. Good work, Mama.

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  18. Maggie WorldApril 12, 2011 at 7:26 AM

    I can relate to this post. Except I don't like the dipping sauce.

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