Unemployment Day 7

The thing is, I've been going to the library. They've got Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, see, and, well…it's hard to job hunt when you're catching up on wonderful literature.

[I also read some Edgar Rice Burroughs (did you know he was American? I had no clue until I was looking at stamps one day. Thank you US Postal Service.), The Hound of the Baskervilles, the play Peter Pan; and I'm about to start MacBeth. (I'm quite behind on my Shakespeare. I've read none of the Kings except Lear, and only…well, more of the comedies than I had thought: Midsummer's, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, that one with Denzel and Keanu, when Ken & Em were married…Yea, I still have much to catch up on.)]

Now, my local library has all of main Sandmans (there are 10) except for A Game of You. And I'm trying to read them in order. So this past weekend I searched the Alameda and Contra Costa county library catalogs and found the book. In Fremont, Hercules, and Walnut Creek.

I wasn't going to go, but I don't want to buy the books yet, and I do want to read them in order, so

After breakfast and a shower, I headed out to the Walnut Creek library. The last time I saw the place it was the size of a double wide portable.

As Captain Von Trapp said, "That was very very very long time ago!"

I missed the turn for the library parking lot. So I turned at the next major intersection and then took the next right (which happened to be parking for the park next to the library and

Ended up about a minute's walk to a library entrance.

The place is gorgeous. There is artwork on the walls, hanging from the ceiling. The children's area is bright and red. Lots of metal plaques indicating who gifted these bookshelves or that artwork. There are chairs with little tables, should you need to rest you coffee cup or laptop. And a café. And big cushy chairs by windows.

But no ottomans.

Another thing that seemed lacking was the number of stalls in the first floor bathrooms. One is just a giant room, but the other only has two stalls, like the Kansas City airport. Still, it has this sink:

I know, right?

I read A Game of You in a big chair tucked in a corner by a window on the first level.

I hadn't thought about the second floor until I glanced at a map on my way to the bathroom. And since Fables & Reflections wasn't due back to my local library until the 19^th, and it was there on the shelf. . .I decided to read it. Upstairs.

Where there's a teen section, with a purple sectional curved in an 'S' and a computer area (replete with a bunch of teenagers. Magazines and non-fiction are housed there, along with cushy chairs and chairs with little tables. I opted for the collection of comfy chairs in the magazine section and came across this:

I know, right?

Of course I settled by the fire with my book. All I was missing was an ottoman and a cup of hot cocoa.