BAM

Sometime in the past month a new bookstore has invaded our town and set itself in the shell of what was Borders: Books A Million. My first impression of Books A Million wasn't great; the only Books A Million I've been to was the one in Dupont Circle. It was a tiny place with not a big selection of books.

The other day I found myself walking into the new bookstore that had roosted itself where my former hang-out spot was. My expectations were low. My friend who I met in there texted me earlier that she could cry from the unfamiliarity of it all.

As I found my friend in the back, I noticed the placing of the different sections. Borders had it's quirks with its design. The college books were right next to the cafe, which was perfect for us. My friends and I would joke about how the romance section was taking over the science fiction section. Here the sci fi was separated from the romance novels. From where the sci fi section is now used the be the World War II section, where we would sit in the chairs and spy on the piano teacher from our school who we would see from time to time perusing the Harlequin novels. Next to the WWII section was the religion section, which were shelves of bibles with one row dedicated to such heathen pursuits as the Kama Sutra.

Our favorite section to hang out in was definitely the psychology section. It was 3 tall shelves set closely together forming a horseshoe. On one side were the self-help books, another side had gender studies, and the third side had books about relationships. They had 2 chairs placed next to each other.

The cafe area was filled with junk had yet to be configured. Instead the college books were in the back. The WWII books were now a single row on a mainly empty bookshelf in the back. The non-Christian texts were replaced by bible covers. The psychology section was no more. The only chairs to be seen were 6 neatly arranged next to the music section.

When I looked for a book that I swore I saw in the sci fi section, I realized sadly that I was thinking of Borders. But this was no Borders. The people here weren't the same people who came to Borders. At Borders I once helped a man with his algebra homework. Another man once trusted my friend with plugging his iPod into her laptop.

I suppose I'll learn to love it as I must in order to keep the memories of Borders alive. But I'll be frank, they better have good chai tea latte once they get their cafe together.

Happy Halloween

This past week was quite eventful with the combination of spirit week, my birthday, and Halloween.

The first day of spirit week was nerd day. I wore a t-shirt with the numbers of pi shaped into the letter pi while everyone else wore suspenders and glasses without lenses. The second day was decade day. I went as the 60's and wore corduroy bell-bottoms that were striped dark green, orange, and brown with a Beatles shirt. Halfway through the day I changed into a blue skirt suit I bought at Goodwill for my Halloween costume. A lot of people went as the 80's. Third day was mix-match day. I didn't do anything for this except not brush my hair in the morning. Meanwhile people went all out with different shoes and layering shorts over pants. A lot of people looked they did for decades day. Thursday was character day. I had no set character in mind but I went as someone out of character as me. I wore a short dress with fishnets and heels. By the end of the day my feet were killing me.

Finally it was spirit day. Freshmen wore white, sophomores wore yellow, juniors wore red, and seniors wore black. Throughout the day you could see girls applying eye black with black eyeliner or writing their graduation year with red lipstick. We dismissed two hours early to attend the pep rally in the stadium. There were floats by the separate classes, different sports and clubs walking with banners, and performances from the cheerleaders, poms team, and marching band. There was beauty pageant between the teachers where male teachers dressed as women and vice versa. There was also a battle between the classes, where the freshmen won against the seniors in the tug-of-war because the seniors celebrated a bit too early so they ran from the rope cheering while the freshmen kept pulling. Although in the end the seniors still won the most spirited.

On Sunday it was my birthday. It wasn't the best birthday I've had since I was suffering through a combination of a bad reaction to something and a sunburn on my face. The day started with a treasure hunt to find my first present, which was My Little Pony toy. Later I got the most awesome sweatshirt ever with a man carrying a Victrola on the back of it. My grandparents came over and gave me a steamboat necklace and a ring of mine they fixed. My mom made lasagna and blueberry pie and I opened more presents. I got a pair of headphones, a new mp3 player, and a card I can insert into it so it will have more space.

On Monday I went to my friend's house after school and put together the final touches of my costume. I was a Pan Am stewardess, and had the blue skirt suit and the heels I bought from Goodwill, nylons I borrowed from my mom, white gloves that were my great-grandmother's, and a paper hat and wings that I printed off of the internet. I even had "Persian Melon", the official lipstick of Pan Am. My friends were the witch from Left4Dead, a lumberjack, a nurse, a soldier, and a creepy jester. After trick-or-treating I tried to watch The Blair Witch Project, but had to stop it once the people heard noises in the woods.