Barnes & Noble: Thank you for today

As my days of being a housewife are coming to an end, I feel like this last week of 'freedom' needs to be utilized doing things that for whatever reason I fear I won't have time to do once I start working full time nights at the hospital, which lets be honest, we all know I will have plenty of time to still do things for a few reasons:

1) Starting next Wednesday, Pete will be gone for a month and then starting in April he will be gone for a year so that alone leaves me with a lot of free time and a void that will need filling...

2) I only work three nights a week which again, leaves a lot of free time on my hands

3) Pete is leaving for a year (I'm not sure if I have mentioned that one enough in this blog or not...) and rather than worry myself crazy and gray it will be important to maintain some hobbies.

Today I decided I would go back to the good old days of high school with Ashley where we wandered around bookstores just trying to absorb the wisdom (or interesting facts) of all the books by just browsing all of the shelves.   I went to the store without a plan, or a timeline and just decided to wander.  I love the way Barnes & Noble makes me feel.  Almost as if I truly can accomplish anything and it motivates me in so many ways: to be a better cook by looking at all of the clearance cookbooks, to be a better friend and write people more often after looking at the beautiful stationary, to keep up a journal (however my handwriting is horrific therefore blogging is much more my speed but spending 1.5 hours in Barnes & Noble actually had me reconsidering and picking up a pen and journal...), to become wiser about American history and read all of the biographies of such interesting people that I haven't even heard of, and just to read a good old fashioned book that you can't put down.  After an hour and a half I had a basket full of goodies and I was convinced that I would be able to conquer the world, and then I sat and looked through my basket (which had 2 rolls of clearance wrapping paper for only $2.00!), and realized that I really don't need to buy any books because for Christmas I was fortunate to receive a Kindle from my brother and sister-in-law, and Pete has an Ipad so we have amazon books downloaded however there is just something really nice about holding a book and reading it.  I put all of the goodies I found back and wrote down the names of the books that I found on a list so I can be sure to download them and left with only a clearance book for $4.99 and two rolls of wrapping paper all for under $10.00 and walked out with a pep in my step and a new found motivation to read more, write more, and to be a better friend by actually utilizing the stationary I already own.  It was a much needed 1.5 hours and I am happy that I know I have a 'secret' place that I can go to refill my tank as needed.