A month of thanks: DAY 5

(It's day 5 and I'm still goin' strong baby! woo-hoo!)

I'm thankful...


1...for tiny, ghetto, old school drug stores! The "S.O.S" Drugstore in Springville is hands down my favorite "local find" of the year. (with "Estefany's" Salvadorian Restaurant coming in at a close second...mmmm....Pupusas...anyway, I digress). Sharese was the first person to tell me about it, and I am so glad she did. --S.O.S. is totally the drug store you went to as a child (at least I did anyway...) It has a dirty floor, rickety old metal shelves stocked with penny and five cent candies, a pharmacy at the back end of the store, and (our most favorite part of all) an ice cream bar! They serve up fresh, delicious, old-fashioned ice cream, and the experience is made complete with super old, retro bar stools and the original, stainless steel 50's appliances. Kortland wrote a letter to me today asking if I would please go on a date with him (a date which is always to the ice cream shop). How could I refuse an offer like that? It just gives me great memories of growing up in Monroe. I would get my $2.00 allowance, hop on bikes with Annie and Vickie Chaston and book it to the local drugstore to O.D. on red swedish fish and chalky suckers. Good times.
2...that the proposed Bond for a new Springville Library passed! Yaaay! It will cause a $60 (give or take) raise on property taxes for the next nine years or so, but I can't help but feel that it is TOTALLY worth it for my son (okay, AND the community at large) to have a 50,000 square foot facility filled with books, and programs, and numerous opportunities for people to learn, grow, and better themselves. I must say, however, that our library's true value lies in the utter amazingness of its employees. You would not believe the summer reading programs and activities they organize each year, and their service and organization are second to none. Every time I'm there I find helpful clerks, orderly shelves, and a big, wonderful smile on the face of whoever helps me check out. There is such a great energy in the old, dilapidated, understocked building, and that is one thing that I hope will never change.
3...for Great Literature, and just some "good reads" as well. I just started reading Daphne Du Maurier's fantastic novel "Rebecca" for the hundredth time today, and I'm amazed at how I never tire of her descriptive, delicious little world. I don't read many books twice, (let alone 7 or 8 times) but something about this one just does it for me. I have also loved the Twilight series - I was very pleasantly surprised by the fast-moving, fun developments in Breaking Dawn(which I just got around to starting and finishing). Very fun. Some of my other favorites have been: Anything by Jane Austen, Memoirs of a Geisha -by Arthur Golden (soooo good), Brave New World, and Home Comforts(a gigantic house-keeping manual written by a lawyer who literally has me waxing poetic about the glories of housekeeping before I've turned the third page. Anyone who can get me pumped about cleaning my bathroom and folding sheets is a literary genius in their own right.) I'm so grateful that we have libraries full of books and knowledge at our fingertips. We live in an amazing time.