To all my Lawrence readers: if you could have a dream day in Lawrence what would it be? I finally had mine Friday. After my early class ended, I headed to Mass St. to roam. It’s my favorite place to wander. I had called The Dusty Bookshelf earlier to check on a book, and Josiah answered ordering me to come by and hang out. Carless and desperate, I had Ferrell drop me off and escaping the bitter cold and vicious flurries, I opened the door and started perusing the stacks. I tried my hardest to find the section I was looking for without any assistance, but alas I failed. Tyler, another Dusty Bookshelfer, set down her duster and guided me straight to the travel section. In less than a second, my eyes had jumped to the shiny blue spine reading: The South American Handbook 2006 edition by Fodors. I went around the corner to the neighboring nook with bookshelf walls of different genres. This nook houses the comfy green felted arm chair, referred to by some as “Alice’s chair”. Alice is the store cat with giant eyes.


After getting the evil eye from Alice a few times, I moved to the floor and sprawled out with my paper and note-taking utensils. Josiah stumbled upon Alice and me in the middle of a staring contest (I won) and offered me some tea. YES PLEASE! I responded. He asked what kind I would like, and without hesitation I requested my favorite, peppermint, which he wasn’t sure they had. Minutes later, Josiah returned with two steaming mugs, one smelling particularly of peppermint. Yum! So there I sat, planning a dream trip to a foreign place, drinking peppermint tea and picking Josiah’s memory about his past trip to Peru, hearing about places I “just have to see.” I wrote notes about every country south of the equator, falling in love with the idea of visiting each one and dreaming up future memories I have yet to make. Another snowy winter day escaped!

Oh, and I get a discount at the Dusty Bookshelf now, because of my new job at Acme.

Livin the dream.