Having fun isn't hard...

... when you've got a library card.

I'll explain that in a bit.

I finally got to get to the Multnomah Library on 10th to get my card. This is an activity that has happened once before in my lifetime, and I remember it quite clearly. It was probably a Sunday and I was around 6 or 7. The place was the Walnut Creek library and I can clearly remember awkwardly being pushed forward by my Dad to ask the Grandmotherly looking librarian about ascertaining a membership card (and knowing my father and his propensity for saying words that are far too complex to me as a kid, he probably did say ascertain). I remember its flimsy orange quality, and hands-down the worst signature of mine on its back. This was before learning cursive and right about the time that my printing was still fairly awful if it was not at least an inch tall and especially if there were no top, middle, or bottom guidelines. So it became what I thought at the time all those grown up signatures I thought were. Complete scribble. Well, two pieces of shaky 6 year old scribble running of the tiny white section of the card. I used that same card for ten years. I think its still in my desk at my parents with other various old membership cards, but wow, I don't think any of them held the weight and importance that this little orange piece of plastic did. At the time, it was a complete "now you're in the big kid club" moment. You've got people of all ages in this yellowed old library and all these books on shelves way too high with all these weird white tags on the spines with numbers on them. At the time I figured it was something that would always be beyond my understanding, but at this point, I'd like to think I've mastered the Dewey Decimal system. (I immediately thought of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8 when I wrote that).

Anyways, all library nostalgia aside, I've been wanting to get back into reading for a long time and getting this card now is definitely seeming like a good step. I can't believe it was college that killed my will to read for fun, but I'm beyond letting that be an excuse anymore, and having a nice big city library within walking distance from the apartment is quite nice. I'm also a fan of the architecture and vibe of the place, while I haven't been to too many, I didn't really appreciate the UCSC libraries, the Walnut Creek one hadn't been fixed up yet, and I've really only been to the San Francisco city library after its resurrection (not a fan). This library has the nice classical architecture, mixed with the bricks and just has the right atmosphere for wanting to find a stack of books to bring home.

Cozy and scholarly looking huh?

Well back to the quote at the beginning. "Having fun isn't hard if you've got your library card".

When thinking about what to write about today, I was thinking about the card and I just kept hearing a song in my head, only to realize when I looked it up on youtube, I realized why it felt like an obscure song.

Arthur. Arthur and his sister DW and that pesky rabbit friend, Buster. I know I was a little old for watching for when this was popular, but when you grow up without cable, and are bored as hell at the age of 12 whose only form of entertainment was PBS, you become familiar with this aardvark. Anyways. I'm not too embarrassed about it now, but at the time if you'd ask if I had even heard of it, you would gotten an "Arthur? You mean the King?". But I'm actually kind of proud now and completely understand why this kind of stuff gets made. The adults that made it must have had fun thinking about the exciting things about that age and that a library card was indeed an exciting thing to have. I mean with all the other media they have there as well as books, its no wonder kids would probably still actually be that enthralled. Even if they can only focus on something for about 30 seconds.