Isn't it glorious....

And the trees are great too! Today I want to tell you about my love affair with the library. As long as I remember I have loved the library. I loved the librarian who knew the books I liked and saved them for me. I loved the comfy chairs that I could sit in and read. I really loved riding my bike to the library, going next door to the little pharmacy, buying a box of Lemonheads for 10 cents and "sneaking" them into the library. I usually read at least one or two books before I carted an entire backpack home. I loved checking the same book out over and over. My favorite copy of A Little Princess had certain stains that came from me. I finally told a fib and told them I lost it so I could buy that copy. (The same copy my daughter just finished, I might add.)

On some special Saturdays my mom would drive me to the downtown branch. We are talking three floors of books. It was always exciting. It was there I participated in my first book club. I got to be in on a book club that chose new books for the library. I felt so important.

But, the geekiest part of all? Yes, I admit to supreme geek-ness. I had my own library I took index cards and put little cards in the back. I carefully typed the title on each little card. I took a piece of masking tape and put the call numbers on the spine. I had them in alphabetical order. I was a geek. If only I had had my own date stamp, I would have been in bibliophile heaven!

To this day, I love the library. The nice librarians read stories to my kids since they were literally babies. After 6 years I am still in awe of the fact that I can put books on hold from my computer from any library in our system and pick it up within 3-5 days. If our library doesn't have it, I can get it for free on interlibrary loan.

And right now they have some of the prettiest trees around.