Half The Price But Twice The Fun!

There are many wonderful things about living in a city, and I will be the first to admit that one of my favorites is shopping. There are many fine stores here, with many fine things, all of which I want. I have spent much of the last few weeks going into such exotic locales as Super Target and TGI Fridays and exclaiming how wonderful they are, as well as commenting to everyone in sight that I haven't been anyhere like this for almost a decade. It is all very exciting and I'm sure half og Omaha now thinks I am a complete loon. Whatever. My new favorite place is the half price books store (called, I believe, Half Price Books, catchy, eh?). I have always loved books, and could honestly probably drop more money faster in a Barnes and Noble than I could at Neiman Marcus (if anyone wants to give me free rein with their credit card I would love to test that theory out). So this discount place has been tons of fun for me, because in it I can actually BUY THE BOOKS!! We went last week and got 10 books for $23 - not a bad deal. But the kicker is that they also take your used books - you bring em in, they give em a look and then quote you a price and you can take it or leave it. So this weekend, I finally decided that I'd open up the boxes of books I have still packed from our move, and unpack them, shelving the ones I will read again and taking anything I don't need to the bookstore so I can buy new stuff. I got $25!! YAY! And now, of course, I have been set into a frenzy of reading (so I can sell the stuff I just got back, haha) and wanting to unpack the remaining boxes so I have more trade in gold. I have also found myself getting much more strict about the requirements for staying - books that made the cut this weekend may not survive next week. The need to read is strong my fri ends. And the need to give old things away for small amounts of cash so I can buy other old things is apparently stronger. I should probably never go to a swap meet*, or we'll end up with new furniture every week.

*if indeed that is a place to go and swap things. Like furniture type things. I don't really know.