hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2011-02-22 07:55 pm
hummingwolf) wrote2011-02-22 07:55 pm
from the wiles and the sponsors of the bush of the dharma
Well, Sunday began badly, with my body deciding to start the day in a thoroughly obnoxious manner. I'm sparing you the TMI; but I did call my doctor's office, did not spare the doctor on call any TMI, and accepted her guesses as to what might be going on with me. Since she said it didn't sound like an emergency, I planned to call the office on Tuesday to make an appointment to deal with the unpleasantness then. (As it turns out, I didn't call the doctor today because of other, more ordinary unpleasantness. New plan is to make an appointment for a couple weeks from now, if I can. Sometimes bodies are not fun things to live in.)
By three that afternoon I was feeling able to go out and face the world, so I took an amount of money I felt I could comfortably spend this month and acted on my earlier plan of going down to the L Street Borders to take advantage of the store closing sale. Except for magazines (40% off) and deeply discounted bargain items, everything seemed to be just 20% off. The store was fairly crowded with a mostly cheerful crowd picking through everything that looked remotely interesting. "Hey, did you know Flannery O'Connor wrote a novel?" one young woman said to her friend. After reading from the cover description, she said, "This looks interesting, but it's still pretty expensive. I bet we can find it a lot cheaper on Amazon." (This, Borders, is one reason why business is going so badly for you.)
So, without any major discounting going on yet, I decided to buy some things I'd wanted for a while, but hadn't wanted to pay full price for. By the time I was done browsing, the long line at the registers had shortened to the length of a typical busy weekday at the store, and I was met at the front by a tired-looking but basically good-natured clerk. Not an ideal shopping experience, but not a bad way to spend my Sunday afternoon. If anyone is interested: Yes, I looked everything up on Amazon.com; and if you assume free shipping, then the price I paid for my late-winter presents to myself was, well, maybe a couple dollars more than I would have paid on Amazon. Shopping online would have meant missing out on the crowds, though, so that's a plus for the store-closing sale. (I am not kidding. I'm weird enough to enjoy happy crowds.) On the other hand, searching for items online gives you enough information to discover that you should have bought a different translation of the Poetic Edda and a boxed set of Prokofiev's seven symphonies with a different conductor, giving you plenty of chances to indulge in buyer's remorse before you've even had a chance to enjoy what you just paid for--that is, assuming you trust the opinions of random critics with unknown qualifications and questionable tastes!
Sunday evening mostly seemed to be spent talking to the landlord about the furnace, though I'm pretty sure I was doing something else before he showed up.
Monday: In spite of continuing bodily annoyance, I had both enough energy and enough coordination to do some cleaning! Some much-needed cleaning and organizing was done!! Major feeling of accomplishment!!! In spite of the fact that my room is still a mess, I feel the need for even more exclamation marks!!!!! A remarkably good day.
Tuesday: As expected, I've been much more tired & dizzy than yesterday. Went to the most expensive local drug store to buy something because that something was needed and the most expensive store also happens to be the closest. Though I hated spending the extra cash, I knew I'd made the right choice when I got home, put my key in the lock, and wondered why the house was moving so much. Yeah. Aside from that brief excursion, I've spent the day reading (in short bursts) and listening to Prokofiev's first three symphonies (Orchestre National de France with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting, if you're curious. No buyer's remorse so far).
By three that afternoon I was feeling able to go out and face the world, so I took an amount of money I felt I could comfortably spend this month and acted on my earlier plan of going down to the L Street Borders to take advantage of the store closing sale. Except for magazines (40% off) and deeply discounted bargain items, everything seemed to be just 20% off. The store was fairly crowded with a mostly cheerful crowd picking through everything that looked remotely interesting. "Hey, did you know Flannery O'Connor wrote a novel?" one young woman said to her friend. After reading from the cover description, she said, "This looks interesting, but it's still pretty expensive. I bet we can find it a lot cheaper on Amazon." (This, Borders, is one reason why business is going so badly for you.)
So, without any major discounting going on yet, I decided to buy some things I'd wanted for a while, but hadn't wanted to pay full price for. By the time I was done browsing, the long line at the registers had shortened to the length of a typical busy weekday at the store, and I was met at the front by a tired-looking but basically good-natured clerk. Not an ideal shopping experience, but not a bad way to spend my Sunday afternoon. If anyone is interested: Yes, I looked everything up on Amazon.com; and if you assume free shipping, then the price I paid for my late-winter presents to myself was, well, maybe a couple dollars more than I would have paid on Amazon. Shopping online would have meant missing out on the crowds, though, so that's a plus for the store-closing sale. (I am not kidding. I'm weird enough to enjoy happy crowds.) On the other hand, searching for items online gives you enough information to discover that you should have bought a different translation of the Poetic Edda and a boxed set of Prokofiev's seven symphonies with a different conductor, giving you plenty of chances to indulge in buyer's remorse before you've even had a chance to enjoy what you just paid for--that is, assuming you trust the opinions of random critics with unknown qualifications and questionable tastes!
Sunday evening mostly seemed to be spent talking to the landlord about the furnace, though I'm pretty sure I was doing something else before he showed up.
Monday: In spite of continuing bodily annoyance, I had both enough energy and enough coordination to do some cleaning! Some much-needed cleaning and organizing was done!! Major feeling of accomplishment!!! In spite of the fact that my room is still a mess, I feel the need for even more exclamation marks!!!!! A remarkably good day.
Tuesday: As expected, I've been much more tired & dizzy than yesterday. Went to the most expensive local drug store to buy something because that something was needed and the most expensive store also happens to be the closest. Though I hated spending the extra cash, I knew I'd made the right choice when I got home, put my key in the lock, and wondered why the house was moving so much. Yeah. Aside from that brief excursion, I've spent the day reading (in short bursts) and listening to Prokofiev's first three symphonies (Orchestre National de France with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting, if you're curious. No buyer's remorse so far).
no subject
I was in Borders just before the bankruptcy announcement, looking around for three book selections. One, N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was just shortlisted for a Nebula today (and still is on hold at the library...) and is from a major publisher so the sort of book that should be there. Nope. They also didn't have Jo Walton's Among Others, from Tor.com, published January, and a book about religious sites in Israel that my mother wants. (And they never did have a copy of Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic Science Fiction, to mention the book I'm in, so, HUMPH.)
Barnes and Noble had all three, and of course the membership discount applies. Amazon has all three.
This isn't to say that I can't find things at Borders; I can, but, as you note, they're not as cheap as they are at Amazon or as available as they are at Barnes and Noble. And the local emphasis that Borders used to have appears to be gone: they used to have a fairly decent selection of books in Spanish, for instance, which is definitely a Florida thing, and not so much now - a decision made on a national, not regional basis. Meanwhile people are snatching up books in Spanish at Barnes and Noble, and so on.
I'm heading back to Borders.com because I got a gift certificate for them as a Christmas present and I want to use it while it's still being honored, but I'm not expecting any major discounts.
no subject
I've liked Borders ever since the first time I visited one, but it's true that they've been going downhill recently. Here's hoping the business can turn itself around: I like physical bookstores, darn it!