Yesterday for my "get out of the apartment" excursion, I went again to the Barnes & Noble in Westport. I spent a lot of time there a few years ago during the months between apartments when I camped out on sofas at a couple of friends' houses. I've also been there frequently during my 15 months of unemployment. Yesterday I had a mission. I went to the travel section and started looking through travel guides for the DC area.
I have a new list: Places I want to visit once I'm settled in. Some of them are places I've read about for years, like Mount Vernon. Others are places I've been once or twice, like the Smithsonian. Some are close to Alexandria, and others, like Williamsburg and Jamestown, are further afield.
In the midst of all the turmoil associated with relocating and preparing for a new job, this is where my mind has gone. A whole new regional history to learn and explore. A Connecticut Yankee in Robert E. Lee's back yard!
While I looked at guidebooks, I didn't buy any. I knew what faced me at home. Three two-shelf bookcases of books, some of the shelves with two rows of books. Last night Rachel gave me some boxes, bubble wrap, and clean newsprint sheets, so I could start packing. This morning I filled three copy paper boxes with books. No matter how much I purge the bookshelves, I always seem to accumulate more books. But there are still a lot fewer for this move than I've had in the past both because I've continued to give away books and because what would have been an additional shelf of books are e-books stored on my Kindle.
I don't know what it is about me and books. I suppose it's because I've been reading since I was five, and we made weekly family trips to the library when I was growing up. Or because I'm a lifelong learner, and books are a source of information on almost any subject one can imagine. Or because they provide short escapes from the everyday.
So I have about a third of my books packed. That means six or seven more copy paper boxes just for books. How many will I need for my depression glass and ceramic mug collections...
One of my favorite places to go when I lived in DC was Mt Vernon, invest in the annual pass because it is worth it. I loved sitting on the hill behind the house and just staring out into the distance. It brought me a sense of calm that little else in that place did.
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