Maybe I Should be a Librarian

The weekend before Memorial Day, I drove an hour out of town to visit my grandparents, N&P, at their lake house. Going to the Lake has always been a part of summers in my family. Many of my earliest memories are on the Lake: sitting in the boat, playing on the deck, walking on the beams of the house while it was being built, playing in the water.

I've always loved going to N&P's house, and one thing I thoroughly enjoy about being an adult is the freedom to go see them on my own. During college, their house was only 45 minutes away, as opposed to the almost 2 hour drive home, so I would go spend the weekend when I wanted to get away from College Station, but not necessarily drive all the way home. So when I found myself with nothing particular to do that weekend before Memorial Day, I called N&P. We spent time on the Lake and sitting around talking, but we also spent quite a bit of time reading. Besides always loving N&P's house, I've always loved reading, which has been another big element of my summers.

As a kid, my mom would take my brother and me to the library to borrow books during the summer reading program. I would always pick 4 or 5 out at a time, and sometimes we would have to go back multiple times during the week because I would finish so quickly. These weren't dinky 50 page books either, I was avidly into chapter books like Little House on the Prairie. See, even as a child I was a history nerd; one of my favorite books from elementary school is Number the Stars. Part of the reason I would finish books so quickly was probably because I would not go anywhere without my book. It didn't matter if we were going two minutes down the road to the grocery store- I had to have my book, because I would read while I followed my mom around the store. In fact, I remember one time at Sam's when I finished reading the book I brought with me and just picked up another one that was on sale to start reading...my mom wound up buying it for me :)

If you've hung around me long enough, you know that to this day I carry a book just about everywhere. What if I have to wait in a really long line at the post office? What if I get stuck in nightmare traffic for five hours like my mom did, pre-kids, and she was forced to read the car owner manual because she didn't have a book? I just can't take those kinds of chances.

In college, I didn't have too much time to do leisure reading, but I would always make up for it during Christmas and summer breaks. I've been moping about not having time to read now that I have a full-time job, but after spending so much time at the Lake and over Memorial Day at Mo Ranch reading, I've realized that I'll have time for reading if I make time for reading. Last Friday, I was unpacking one of my remaining boxes from moving and found some books that I couldn't bring myself to put in the attic at my parent's house, but hadn't made it onto one of the shelves in my living room, where my College Educated reading is. I sat down on my bed with this book (don't judge...) and stayed up until 1 am reading. The stuff on my DVR can wait; they're pretty much all reruns, and I'm looking forward to going home and reading my book more than watching a rerun anyway.