A Math Equation and a Trip to the Bookstore

The Equation:

5 days times 10-hour days at work minus all traces of caffiene equals one tired teaching girl.

So, I went to the bookstore today, before the oil-change that wasn't. I didn't just go to any bookstore, I went to the Family Christian Bookstore. I went for a book called "Dear Church." I love it. I'm only two pages into it, but already I think it will be something that will make my brain hurt in a good way. But that's not what I'm talking about. I had the pleasure of having no knowledge of what the title or who author of the book was, and since I'm allergic to asking for help of any kind, I searched the shelves for a few minutes for something even remotely like what I was looking for. I stumbled upon two discoveries:

1. The "Singles" shelf at the bookstore is shrinking. It's about time. I'm so over the gazillion different "how to be content at being single" or "how to find a date without looking like your finding a date" books. The Dear Church book talks about disillusionment. Well, I'm disillusioned with anything that relates the term "single" and the term "Christian". So, I'm pleased that there are less books out there that talk about a section of my life that is not as huge as everyone else seems to think it is.

2. The Blue Like Jazz section. It made me laugh, because when I came to buy the book to read (you know...back when we all walked to school uphill both ways in the snow barefoot) I had to again ask for help from the salesman, because they only had one copy, and no one had really heard of it. Back then, I was on a vacation to the beach, and I took that book, and his other book Prayer and the Art of Volkswagon Maintenance, which is no longer in print, and I got it for 99 cents in the bargain section. Hands down, best 99 cents I've spent in quite some time. When I took it on vacation, no one I was with (all three were Christians) had ever heard of it. Now, when my friend Mo found it in my trunk, she had read it, as had her fiancee. It just made me smile to think that I'd read the book back when there was only one copy hidden on the shelf, and now there are several shelves of his books.

Eventually I had to go to the girl behind the counter and say "I'm looking for a book that is letters to the church. It's called something like Dear Church or Letters from Twentysomethings about Disillusionment with the Church", which turned out to be almost the exact title. As I said, I've only read two pages.

I'll let you know how the rest of the book goes...