Now that's what I call a good time

Ok, I'm boring.

I just had a lovely weekend doing one of my favoring things - a whole lotta nothing. No, just kidding (although I like doing nothing, too). I spend the last few days alternating between my favorite bookstores and my favorite parks. Aahhhhhhh.

First off was The Strand. Lucky me, there's one within walking distance of my job so I went after work on Friday and spent the larger part of the night wandering the stacks. My only complaint was that they don't have a very good air conditioning system. I'd spent the ride into work reading-material-less and wasn't about to do the same for my ride back but look what happens when I get inside the Strand. I disappear for a few hours! I escaped with my life, three books and a bag.

The books were: one on fascism (figure I should read up on it as that's where it looks like we're headed), skin care through vitamins and such (I'm getting all paranoid already about my face falling to my knees when I get older) and a Storm Constantine book (heard about her from a yaoi site and I keep wanting to give her a try, although I've been getting out of the habit of reading fiction quite honestly). And then I had to get a Strand bag - pink on pink - so cute. There were a crayon box full of color combinations so I'll probably go back for some more. And at 5 bucks a bag wh0 can resist?

The next day was time for me to refuel my manga collection so off I went to one of my favorite places on earth, the used manga bookstore Book Off. Actually it's not just Book Off that I love - it's on the street off the Public Libray (ok, this is also my favorite place on earth) with several Japanese grocery stores and cafe's and such. So after filling out my collections and picking up a few interesting new titles I went over to the grocery store to get some mugi-cha and Japanese mayo (been eating lots of eggs recently and Japanese mayo in the tube is the best!) Then it's off to the cafe to get a slice of strawberry shortcake. Japanese SSC is sooo good - soft cake, creamy cream. Yummers!

I went to enjoy my booty in Bryant Park, behind the library, yet another of my favorite places. Then it was up to Kinokuniya to pick up a couple of titles Book Off didn't have and home I went. Unfortunately, or fortunately, one of the new titles I'd picked up was the new series by the "Hana Yori Dango" mangaka, "Cat Street" and I knew I had to get some more, so back it was to Kinokuniya's on Sunday.

Getting there was a fairly trauamtic experience - weekend train fuckups, of course. But there was a street fair I got lunch at (italian sausage and peppers on a roll) and that was good. Street fairs are always good. I finally made it to Kino's and got the second volume of Cat Street (only two out so far - waah!) and volumes 34 & 35 of Hana Yori. Got pretty sick of it with all Tsukushi's whining - what I loved about her was that she wasn't one of those whiny "poor me" girls - but Cat Street piqued my interest again. Plus, I only had 3 more volumes to go until the end (whew). Topped it off with an ice cold coffee from Starbucks down in the basement of Rockerfeller Center and boy did I need it - another damn hot and humid day. Alth0ugh I probably should have kept my reading for the train - it was yet another project just getting home and I finished reading all three books long before I got to my station. Well, live and learn.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to use eBay - I'm going to need to unload some of these eventually. They've already taken over about half my book shelves !