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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people.

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« blur | Main | poll: reading frenzy »
Wednesday
Sep182002

dragonfly run






Yesterday, I took the subway to meet my friend Cathy for lunch, and I decided to release a book in the subway car: John Grisham's The Brethren. After I surreptitiously left a book on one of the seats, I moved to another part of the subway car just before a horde of lunch hour types boarded the train. A woman sat in the seat I had just left, noticed the book on the window ledge beside her.

I felt like I was at the cottage after having left a peanut out for a chipmunk, and was hoping it would take it. And she took it! Flipped through a few pages (not sure if she saw the sticker in front), started reading, and ended up taking the book off the train with her. Yay! It's true that I will never give away any of my most-loved books, but I do have a huge pile of books that I've read once or attempted to read once and will likely never read again. I am going to do some massive purging before we move anyway, so at least this way I'll get extra pleasure out of it.

I think I'll stick to releasing books in the subway rather than outside; people are less likely to be revolted by the idea of picking up a discarded book. Who knows why that book might have been left on that newspaper stand? On a subway, everyone's desperate for reading material (at least everyone who isn't dozing fitfully, their heads knocking painfully against the window or their neighbour's knobby shoulders). The trick is to leave the books without anyone looking, else some helpful soul might run after me, thinking I've forgotten it.

Our search for a new home continues. Because we're not in a particular hurry to move but are actively looking, it's possible we may not move for many months. Then again, we may buy a place next week (there was a non-zero chance we might have bought a place on Monday, but we decided to pass). Or we might decide that it's not worth the hassle, and to stay where we are forever.

I'm much more conscious of our neighbourhood whenever I go out these days, knowing that there's a good possibility we may be moving out of it. I've decided to start keeping track of what I'll miss and what I won't miss.

Something I won't miss: Dodging around smokers on the sidewalk when I run. Yes, I know that I'll find smokers everywhere, but I suspect that the concentration is much higher downtown. Sometimes I'll run along Front Street on my way to the Martin Goodman Trail and it'll be like running through the smoking section of a bar, especially if it's at the end of the day. *koff *koff...

Something I'll miss: The convenience (depending where we move). Everything's within walking distance: bookstores, coffee shops, grocery stores, movie theatres, live theatre, symphony halls, restaurants, video rental stores, interesting shops. From a tourist perspective, we live within minutes' walk of the CN tower, Skydome (my health club's in the Skydome), Air Canada Centre, Hummingbird Centre, Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thompson Hall, Princess of Wales theatre, Royal Alexandra theatre.





My mutant bananas still haven't ripened. Still no reply from Grocery Gateway, either.

Parki came over last night for dinner and three episodes of The Sopranos (thanks again for the loan of the DVDs, Scott!).

Finished The Hobbit, loved it! Starting Lord of the Rings now. See my reports.

A year ago, Jeff and I finally got home from Japan after 9/11.

Two years ago, we were keeping in touch via Kritter Cameras. Man, I remember how much I missed Jeff back then, when I was living in Philly.

Five years ago, my Sea Monkeys were dying.




Today's Blatherpics:







Every time I go for a run, even on exactly the same route, I find something new. This dragonfly art was embedded in a driveway.



Thanks to ScottM for giving me this souvenir Papal Mass Pass, leftover from World Youth Day.

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