A Hat and Some Books
So, my sisters and I had a nice time going to the mall together, though Zoe was a bit... sullen? glum? Anna had been wanting to take us out to brunch, so she bought us all Heidi's on our way out, which was delicious. I didn't know that there was a Teavana in the Maine Mall, but apparently there is, so I stopped in to look at tea balls. They didn't have too much of a selection and I didn't end up getting one, but it was fun to go inside and smell all the wonderful smells and see the elegant teapots. The only loose tea I have is the fresh wintergreen that I picked, so I'm not exactly in need of a tea ball yet anyway. In Forever XXI, there was a really cute hat that was straw with a black ribbon in the style of the 20s. It looked something like... actually I think this is probably the exact hat, since the site is forever21.com...
Actually, this isn't the hat, but it's kind of close. The one I was so tempted by had a wider (longer seems more appropriate since the brim goes down) brim and the ends of the ribbon were fixed at an angle that was vaguely reminiscent of feathers. Anyway, I looked adorable in the hat and I almost bought it. I don't have any hats that look good on me, really. I have hats I wear for function. And this one really complimented my new haircut. But in the end I decided that it wouldn't look good with my normal clothes. I just happened to be wearing the one dress I own that was perfect for it. It was really the ensemble that I was in love with, and I couldn't justify buying a hat to go with one dress. Even if I liked the hat. A lot. It wasn't very expensive (something like $12), but it wasn't cheap enough to justify a real impulse buy when I knew that it wasn't going to be versatile enough for me. So, between not getting the ~$12 tea ball and the ~ $12 hat, I conserved about $24 dollars. :-P
My real destination for the day was Borders. I had my reading list in mind and a whole stack of gift cards. Normally, I don't really enjoy bookstores. I never have. But having a list in mind of books that I was excited to read made the bookstore a wonderful place. I loved finding everything on my list and watching the pile in my arms grow, since I knew that I wasn't concerned with the prices. I didn't end up having quite as much on my gift cards as I had remembered, but there was more than enough to make my book-shopping splurge guilt-free. And none of the cards were rejected at the register, which was nice considering that some of them were probably close to 10 years old. They looked like they were, anyway. So, I turned my $100 pile of books into a $35 pile of books, which made me very happy. Actually, one of the books was Anna's and it was $15, so I only had to pay about $20 for all seven of my new books! And I used some of my recently acquired baby-sitting money to pay for them, so I feel like they were essentially free since babysitting is practically getting payed to play with kids or read if they're asleep. I might have conceivably gotten them for cheaper online, but that would have been a lot more hassle for used books and I didn't have Amazon gift cards - I had Borders gift cards. I don't think I could have done much better than $20 online for 7 books in good condition anyway.
Dad already had "Heart of Darkness", so my summer reading list was just completed with:
Life of Pi
Brave New World
Slaughterhouse Five
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
the Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix)
I have no idea how much of that list I'll actually end up getting to this summer since my co-workers are awesome, I'm going to be pretty tired by the time I get off in the evenings, and I have an extensive art project that I'm working on.
Oh yeah. And another essay. A research essay. Can't forget that. :-P
Actually, I've already promised myself that I'm not going to read any of my books until I've written that paper. Except maybe for "Heart of Darkness" because I've already started it. I also have my two Shakespeare plays to read (I've started Merchant of Venice). We'll see how this all works out.
I convinced Zoe to go out on a boat ride with me before she went off for dinner with her friends, but it ended up being a bit anti-climactic. Since no one has tried going out in our rowboat for who knows how many years, we found that both of our oars were rotted out to varying degrees, so we had to go fetch kayak paddles. However, that turned out to be a moot point when we found that there was a hole in the boat. Alas. All the frogs and turtles and other flora and fauna in our pond will have to continue on without disturbance for a while longer. ;-)
I'm off to camp tomorrow!
Actually, this isn't the hat, but it's kind of close. The one I was so tempted by had a wider (longer seems more appropriate since the brim goes down) brim and the ends of the ribbon were fixed at an angle that was vaguely reminiscent of feathers. Anyway, I looked adorable in the hat and I almost bought it. I don't have any hats that look good on me, really. I have hats I wear for function. And this one really complimented my new haircut. But in the end I decided that it wouldn't look good with my normal clothes. I just happened to be wearing the one dress I own that was perfect for it. It was really the ensemble that I was in love with, and I couldn't justify buying a hat to go with one dress. Even if I liked the hat. A lot. It wasn't very expensive (something like $12), but it wasn't cheap enough to justify a real impulse buy when I knew that it wasn't going to be versatile enough for me. So, between not getting the ~$12 tea ball and the ~ $12 hat, I conserved about $24 dollars. :-P
My real destination for the day was Borders. I had my reading list in mind and a whole stack of gift cards. Normally, I don't really enjoy bookstores. I never have. But having a list in mind of books that I was excited to read made the bookstore a wonderful place. I loved finding everything on my list and watching the pile in my arms grow, since I knew that I wasn't concerned with the prices. I didn't end up having quite as much on my gift cards as I had remembered, but there was more than enough to make my book-shopping splurge guilt-free. And none of the cards were rejected at the register, which was nice considering that some of them were probably close to 10 years old. They looked like they were, anyway. So, I turned my $100 pile of books into a $35 pile of books, which made me very happy. Actually, one of the books was Anna's and it was $15, so I only had to pay about $20 for all seven of my new books! And I used some of my recently acquired baby-sitting money to pay for them, so I feel like they were essentially free since babysitting is practically getting payed to play with kids or read if they're asleep. I might have conceivably gotten them for cheaper online, but that would have been a lot more hassle for used books and I didn't have Amazon gift cards - I had Borders gift cards. I don't think I could have done much better than $20 online for 7 books in good condition anyway.
Dad already had "Heart of Darkness", so my summer reading list was just completed with:
Life of Pi
Brave New World
Slaughterhouse Five
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
the Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix)
I have no idea how much of that list I'll actually end up getting to this summer since my co-workers are awesome, I'm going to be pretty tired by the time I get off in the evenings, and I have an extensive art project that I'm working on.
Oh yeah. And another essay. A research essay. Can't forget that. :-P
Actually, I've already promised myself that I'm not going to read any of my books until I've written that paper. Except maybe for "Heart of Darkness" because I've already started it. I also have my two Shakespeare plays to read (I've started Merchant of Venice). We'll see how this all works out.
I convinced Zoe to go out on a boat ride with me before she went off for dinner with her friends, but it ended up being a bit anti-climactic. Since no one has tried going out in our rowboat for who knows how many years, we found that both of our oars were rotted out to varying degrees, so we had to go fetch kayak paddles. However, that turned out to be a moot point when we found that there was a hole in the boat. Alas. All the frogs and turtles and other flora and fauna in our pond will have to continue on without disturbance for a while longer. ;-)
I'm off to camp tomorrow!