— sounds more mischievous than it is.

I am talking about books. I used to read tons, mainly library books, but I haven’t read either library or owned books in a while. As I mentioned before, I have one bookcase with five shelves full of unread books. But, perusing some reading journals where I cataloged what I read, I came across a few books I want to own and actually wrote on the page WANT TO OWN IT. And I still do. And shall.

Buying The Translator, The Almond Picker, A Hundred and One Days, Out of Africa, and a slew of CS Lewis 🤓 Joined the Providence Atheneum. Libraries, to me, are like gardens. Love them! I worked in NYC for a few years, adopted, not lived there — commuted from Rhode Island and traveled a lot. Yes, quite a story. Doubt I will ever tell. It took me some time to do more than work in the city, enjoy its everything. Besides going to museums,

i  became a member of the NYC Public Library,

and it became a favorite place to lose myself in and hide. Why hide? Don’t know, but I guess that’s what I did. I mean, I lived hours away, made friends with clients, but they were still clients, plus I always had so much to do. It was customary for me to work alone in the office until eight or nine in the evening. Only went to see the Yankees play once, and that because a colleague from Germany wanted to see a baseball game! It was quite interesting explaining the game. It was quite interesting explaining what we normally take for granted to my overseas colleagues. I enjoyed (most of) them so much! Then I realized that I should leave the job sooner rather than later, and I opened my eyes to the city! Would start a conversation with anyone, anywhere, if I were so disposed, with no problem.

walked everywhere,

seldom took a cab. I hear people state, with confidence, that NYC is rude and cold. 1) a city can’t be anything but a city, so they mean people in the city are rude. Would they say the same thing if they walk there? It would mean they are rude too. Whatever. And it is only cold in the winter. 2) we take what we give (except for the few times people spoke about me in Spanish without knowing I am fluent! But that has also happened in other places, not only in NYC. Yes, my look is not what people expect 

i so abhor expectations!

A woman once said to me, “Just because you were born there doesn’t mean you are one.” Yep. Keep calm and let stupidity or arrogance slide. It took all of five seconds to let it go, not something I’m accustomed to doing but which I am more adept, and thankful for it, than ever.) Wow, that’s quite a parenthetical statement!

super-digressed, this was about reading
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