Sing a Song of Small Things

Did you know that there are these big buildings scattered throughout the city--and a cool big building with gargoyles downtown--that have thousands of books in them, and you can go in and borrow the books and take them home for free? Really! And, as Brazen Tart noted at one point (and I am too lazy to go find the post where she mentioned this), you can put them on hold using teh intertubes, and they'll send them wherever you want to pick them up. Well, whichever library building, anyway. The one I went to today has pretty slim pickings on the shelves (which didn't stop me from finding a stack to bring home), and they appear to be severely understaffed, so there are boxes of on-hold books waiting to be unpacked, not to mention a constant line of people waiting to pick up and/or check out their books. There's another branch that's really close to work, and I think I'll do that one instead, because then I can just run over at some point during the day.

So I got home and noticed that my door wasn't deadbolted--and I knew I had locked it this morning. Turns out there had been workpeople here today, who saw fit to cut a hole in my living room wall in order to get at my bathtub pipes. Well, okay, except it would have been nice to know that was going to happen, you know? And, by the way, LOCK THE DOOR WHEN YOU LEAVE.

I was also feeling grateful for Starbucks while I walked home tonight. Yeah, I know, we're supposed to hate them, and yeah, they could have displaced fewer small indy coffee shops. But they've done two very important things (well, maybe three, if you count benefits for part-time workers, and four if you think they've had any impact on fair trade coffee). First, they made brewed decaffeinated coffee commonplace. Trust me when I tell you that 20 years ago, it wasn't particularly common, and 30 years ago you got hot water and a packet of Sanka. For those of us who are naturally caffeinated, this was a real boon. Some restaurants were doing it, too, but your neighborhood coffee joint? Not so much.

Second, though, they dramatically increased the number of coffee shops, and, therefore, the number of public spaces where people could and would go and just hang out. Yeah, bars do that, too, but alcohol isn't for everyone, and you don't really want to bring your kid to a bar, and, really, you don't always want a drink, especially not earlier in the day. Between television and air conditioning, people were spending increasing amounts of time in their own private spaces; suburbs increased that tendency, too. People used to sit on stoops and porches and such--especially in the summer, when it was hot.--but there's less of that around these days. (Apparently, before air conditioning, people even went to sleep in the city parks--in New York, for sure, and probably elsewhere as well.)

But coffee shops turned that around--the beverages are reasonably priced, more or less, many places have some food but don't require that you buy any of it, lots of places have Wifi these days, and people actually have a place to hang out. (Yes, I know, the preponderance of people there with laptops kind of means people are bringing their private space along with them; they're still in public.) There are at least four coffee shops within a short walk of my apartment, and only one is a Starbucks; there are so many between where I live and where I work that I'd be hard-pressed to count them. It's true that there's a university in the neighborhood, which dramatically increases the market, I imagine, but still. I like to go to one once in awhile--though not any time recently--to do some editing, or just to sit with a book and read. Anyway, I think Starbucks should get some credit for bringing back the coffee shop.

I could tell you stories about work, but I don't feel like it. It's frustrating in an assortment of ways--but I'll still get paid on Friday, and I still won't have to lug flour, and it'll still be more money than the bakery, so it's still all good. I'm trying very, very hard to make my boss happy, but I'm also getting frustrated at the constant stream of "emergencies." They're not all emergencies, mind you, it's just that one of the higher-ups has decided that s/he wants this thing NOW, or, gee, can we submit a proposal for this thing, even though it's due in four days? Or, today, why haven't we submitted a project report on this funding? Hmmm; could it be because I had no fucking clue we had to write one? Could it be that it was due when I was trying to bring in the millions of dollars of funding for the organization? Could it be that I've never seen the contract, despite asking for these things? Whatever. My biggest challenge is not telling people to fuck off (politely, I mean; i wouldn't actually tell them that, but I fear that I am not always at my best when someone barges into my office all concerned about a report that hasn't been submitted when (a) I had no idea it was due and (b) I've never seen the contract).

So back to the libraries: perhaps one of the things I'll do when I win the lottery is fund more staff at the branches near me or something. It's getting to the point that I'm going to have to win a lot more money than I thought. I long promised my old boss at the substance abuse treatment organization that I'd build him a treatment center in the city of his choosing, with the only caveat that he had to name it after my sister in some way. I'd love to endow a chair at my alma mater (undergrad; I would go out of my way to spit on my graduate institution). I definitely want to send some cash to Sarah Fisher; Danica gets all the press, and maybe she's even a better driver (I think that's difficult to say one way or the other), but Sarah was there first, and she's formed her own team, and that rocks.* And she isn't posing in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, either. Oh--and I'd hire a masseuse, or even a couple of them, so I could get at least one massage a day, and then I'd send them off to treat my friends, because who wouldn't like that?

And I'd do things like set up college funds for my nephews and CK, and I'd pay off my brother's house, and I'd spread some cash around to my friends, and I'd throw a great party (or even a series of parties, which would be fun and would be an excuse for people to come hang out and eat good food and maybe even dress up, insofar as my friends could be said to be dressing up). But I really don't know how much of my essential lifestyle I'd change.

I was thinking about that today, too, on the way home. One of the things I do is look at the buildings past which I'm walking and imagine whether I'd like to live in them. You may remember the bitterness-inducing walk of last summer, past the big lakeside mansions; my current walk doesn't cause that, in part because, even though some of the buildings are out of my current price range, they're mostly lovely (or truly crappy) old apartment buildings, or six-flats, or even new condo construction, but not like the downtown luxe-boxes. There's an occasional street or two of single-family homes thrown in, and they're probably quite valuable, but it's not that kind of neighborhood so much.

The thing is, what would I do with all that space? Seriously--it's just me. An extra bedroom--even two, if I'm feeling super-extra-extravagant--and a spacious kitchen, maybe an extra bathroom. (But then I'd have to buy all that damned furniture to fill the rooms, which would be kind of a pain.) A washer and dryer in my unit. Some new small appliances, to replace things that have worn out. But a lot of space? Then I'd have to clean it all, and I have enough trouble cleaning the space I have, fer chrissakes. K and I were laughing about this the other night--what pathetic rich people we'd make. Not that I wouldn't want to try it, mind you--but mostly because it would be so much fun to throw parties for my friends.

And, finally, I killed off my domain name yesterday. I'd never actually built a website, and I couldn't think of an alternate use for just bite me bakery dot com, so I figured it was time to quit paying the $5 a month. Oh well; so it goes.
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*If Marco hadn't taken out his teammate at Indy--who then took out Sarah, possibly destroying her chances of racing in one of the other two races they were going to try to do this season--then she probably would have taken home more money from Indy.