Order In The House.
When I was eight, I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up.I thought this would be the best job in the world, because it involved two of my favorite things: Books, and orderliness.
Now, maybe it wasn’t natural for a child to hang her Barbie clothes by color, or line up her days-of-the-week panties in her top drawer in descending order, from Monday to Sunday. In the years since, I have let down my standards quite a bit: My spice rack is not alphabetized. My driveway is covered with leaves. But at eight, order still ruled.
Which was why every book I owned was listed in a card catalog by subject, author, and title. And if someone wanted to borrow it, I filled out a little slip with a due date and paper-clipped it to the inside flap. And if my friends dared to return these books a day late?. . . I fined them a quarter. I know: what a little bi--h, right?
Luckily, I married a man who appreciates order almost as much as I do. And who would never leave a wet towel on the floor * Shudder *
Last year, after painting our living room, I decided to re-shelve some books by color. The result, after a few hours’ work, was beautiful: the yellow spines gave way to cream gave way to white: green to turquoise to blue. When I wrote each morning, I could look up at those books and take in the beautiful rainbow.
About a month ago, I came home from the grocery store and noticed, with horror, that the books had been rearranged by height, from shortest to tallest. The rainbow was dead!
You guessed it: The hubby did it. And oh, how I wanted to fine his a—.
3 comments:
LMAO! This was great! I love how you fined your friends for late books - I have tons of books I lend out to people too but I've never given them a date to return them, so far it's worked out alright, but maybe I'll consider a small charge if the books come back damaged haha
I have never considered arranging the bookshelves by color before, but wow that WOULD be really beautiful and interesting to see! Although, I think part of me would have a hard time not putting books by the same author together, or series in order.. (maybe I do have a bit of the organization bug in me too..LOL)
Thanks for making me smile today!
April @ My Shelf Confessions
This would explain that horrifying moment with the cupcake wrapper at Libby's party, when I failed, completely, to remove the waste, and you did it with a dancer's grace.
I love the young you. And look who she grew up to be.
Aw, thanks guys! I was a weird kid who grew up to be . . .a weird adult!
Post a Comment