Journal of a Sabbatical

September 5, 2000

productive book shopping

Today's Reading:Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg

Today's Starting Pitcher: Pete Schourek

I drove Nancy home last night after the festival because I didn't want to have to worry about her catching the 8:00 bus with the concert not getting over 'til 7:00. I conked out and did not even hear her leave for work this mornning.

When I finally did wake up it was a little after 9:00 AM. Fortunately I had no appointments today, so I could linger over coffee and a bagel at Cafe Zog. Having time to linger there is a good thing because the guy there takes ages to smear cream cheese on a bagel, let alone toast it. I ordered sundried tomato cream cheese but he was out of it. I settled for chive and onion. This added to the delay. I think if I actually had wanted it toasted I'd still be waiting for it.

I stopped by the Brown Bookstore and found Dream of the Red Chamber (aka The Story of the Stone) in the Chinese literature section among the text books. I thought it would be cool to read the classic of Chinese literature on my way to/from China. My friends who think I'm way too serious have been trying to convince me to read Harry Potter on the plane instead. However, I'm a sucker for long family sagas of other cultures. Flipping through the pages of Volume 1, I found this is a pretty engaging story. I sprung for the first 2 volumes (even at the used textbook price all 5 volumes is a big chunk o' change).

Natalie Goldberg's new book Thunder and Lightning has finally shown up in bookstores now too, so I grabbed a copy from the new books table and then waited in the long lines of students buying textbooks. A productive morning of book shopping.

I'm reading Thunder and Lightning in Starbucks when Tom comes in. He's gotten a haircut. The Fabulously Successful Eric is in town with the kids so Tom is in Grandpa mode. He tells me Eric was filming a movie at the Democratic convention. No word on what the movie is about.

Today's big news is the unexpectedly cold gorgeously blue sky. The autumn days people move here for have arrived.