bell - a verbalization of consciousness

Ahh, Nostalgia

So, I was sitting in my “History and Systems” Psych class today, and during a fit of boredom, mixed with a side of ADD and sleep deprivation, I looked over to my neighbor’s half of the table and happened to pay attention to her books. This was already more exciting to look at than my half of the table, which was decorated nicely with a pen that I found on my walk to school and a piece of paper that I ‘borrowed’ from some dude at the start of class. So, I’m looking at these books of hers — all neatly stacked upon eachother, and perfectly lined with the corner of the desk. She’s paying attention to the lesson, and I’m pretty much staring at (and thinking about) her situation. [To be honest, I don’t have books for the class (yet)… my goal every semester is to try and weasle my way through the course as long as I can before I succumb to the pressure and … commercialize (yeah, it’s a new verb I made up). I’ve only made it through one class without buying books, but I gotta keep the tradition alive during my last semester, ya know?] So, I start thinking, where is this girl from, what is she all about? I mean, she’s seriously listening, she’s taking rigorous notes and her books are all orderly, and then, BOOM, I saw it —- the second book in the stack (of three) was covered in what appeared to be a thick, black, lycra lining. I took a double take. Sure enough, it looked like that same size and shape book as the official book for the class. Everyone else had the same book on their desks, but without the fancy covering. (I thought about all of this in between the two glances of my double take).

I took a closer look, and it seemed as if this was a fairly expensive covering. Strong material; durable. Black, so as to absorb heat and keep your hands warmer on a cool, NW morning. It perfectly fit the book - so they must come in other sizes, presumably in packs of 3 or 5, so the purchase may be more expensive one would expect - possibly from some book specialty store.

Seriously, I thought, who is that concerned with their books that they go out of their way to buy (no less) coverings for them? I mean, it’s college… you’re either going to keep the books forever, or return them at the end of the semester, what’s the big deal? I even thought, “How dumb.”

But then I had a flashback. I remembered a 3rd grade version of myself sitting on a sunday morning at the kitchen table with my mother, cutting and taping newspapers or grocery paperbags to fit all of my texts. At the time I felt so special. I had new books! I was with my favorite person in the world! And we were doing a project together! (and maybe when we were done, we would do a really super-duper hard puzzle for adults or watch “Anne of Green Gables” for the 5th time that month). And when we were all finished making the book covers perfect, I could color them, and write all over them and maybe even put cool stickers on them. That was the best.

What a great feeling! I was all smiles, and still am. I’m so glad I saw that book cover today. I seriously think I’m going to cover all of my books when I get home. Big thanks to that girl in my class!

[Oh, and by “cover” I mean “buy,” and by “when i get home” I mean, “and then go home and cover them.”]