Book Sale Bonanza

On Friday afternoon, as I was running several errands, I got a call from my sister-in-law who had an extra ticket for the Metro Library System's annual book pre-sale. I have never been to this sale before, but she told me that all hardback books were only a dollar and all softcovers were 50 cents. It sounded like a great sale, so I decided to go.

I didn't know what to expect, but came as prepared as possible, with a few canvas bags, some cash, and Jorryn's stroller, since I had her with me. I was definitely not prepared for the amount of people that were in the building for the pre-sale. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes after the doors had opened, we finally got in and were met by a sheer mob of people. Maneuvering the stroller was crazy, and yet I was still glad to have it, because Jorryn would have been trampled and it gave me a place to hold the books I was grabbing.

Keeping Jorryn entertained was pretty easy. There were books all over the tables and all over the floor, and Jorryn could easily grab the ones that looked interesting to her, and I also handed her some that I figured she would like as well. The children's book aisles were so full of people that once you actually got into the aisle, you couldn't get out, until the line moved itself along and you made it to the other end. There was hardly any room to bend over to see what was on the ground and the stroller was a relief in a way, creating some separation between me and the next person behind me.

After about an hour and a half of this, Jorryn started getting really stressed, she was barking at me and pushing me away from the stroller because she felt so cramped in. So we finally got in line and ended up spending $20, but walked out with a good 20 books, a music CD and a few kid movies. I thought I should mention that the selection was absolutely awesome! There were several books that we picked up that I had wanted for Jorryn, but could never afford to buy them new.

When we finally got into the checkout line, we had to circle the entire building, since there were that many people waiting to pay. By then, I decided to let Jorryn out, since she was tired of sitting and that seemed to make her quite happy. She could push the stroller and bounce around, and at one point decided that she wanted to dance. She said, "Mama, I want to dance!" So I said, go right ahead!!! I was amazed that after 3 hours of insanity, she could still manage to be happy and even find something to do with herself that she loved!