Well, We Did It!

I got to work early to put on WQUN to listen to the Inauguration. In a surprising turn of events, my boss, who was out of town until today, will not be back until tomorrow. With only half a file left, tissues in hand, I took the headphones out of my transcription machine and plugged them into my computer. Then I went to CNN.

CNN had a brain fart, so I F5'd. I got kicked out: too many people were on CNN, and I had to "wait for a spot." I went to NBC/MSNBC. By this time I was already crying and coughing in a most unladylike manner.

Unfortunately, MSNBC kept stuttering when Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in, and I finally went back to the radio to hear President Barack Obama sworn in.

When he gave his speech to us, I moved from my desk and stood in the sunlight.

I kept the video on, with my radio in the background, and saw the sea of people covered in lavender.

Lavender is what you get when you swing a red, white, and blue flag with glee. (Is glee something like peanut butter?)

And when you've got a camera focused on a section of half a million Americans with half a million American flags, you've got a sea of lavender.

It sure looked pretty. I was glad I'd worn red, white, and blue today.


Lee Greenwood's "Proud To Be An American" was on the radio when I drove to work. I'd have stood if I could. I cried when I stood for America. (And I loved Aretha Franklin's hat!!)

What a glorious day. I hope that President Obama has a good sleep, because we're sure gonna need him tomorrow.

The horrid story about the poor owl was the only bad thing all day. I hope it was like that for everyone else.

Whether it was shopping at Rita's [long closed] brick-and-mortar bookstore where even the science fiction was alphabetized! or going to Barnett Books [OMG I can't believe THEY are closing!] and running into Amee, unplanned, every time, there was nothing like the thrill of finding a long-desired treasure that no one wanted, for pennies! I'd leave Rita's and then go onto amazon.com and run all the ISBNs and see how much I saved. Best, I think, was $125?

I've been shopping online since I first used Webcrawler in the early 1990s. [First purchase may have been those Emergency! VHS episodes I watched at Meen's...] Rather than reselling books, mainly because I'm too lazy, I either keep them or, more recently, donate them to be resold for charity.

This article really hit some sensitive spots, not unlike fibromyalgia trigger points. I'll blog this but, for anyone who hasn't added my blog to her RSS feed... Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It

By DAVID STREITFELD