I'm a nerd.

A few months ago, I rediscovered how awesome a local library can be.

I've always loved libraries. When I was in elementary school, I read every single book in the 5th grade list of the extracurricular reading program. The school offered incentives for reading; a book marker for reading 2 books, a cool pencil set for 4, a McDonald's gift certificate for 10, you get the picture. By springtime, I had read so many books that I earned every single prize on the list and the librarians had to come up with other stuff to give me. I would tell my classmates that I read for the prizes, but the truth is that I could care less about them, I just loved to read. One of the first devastating moments in my school life happened when my sister Yoli got mad at me and ripped a library book that I had checked out to shreds. She didn't just rip it, she individually tore sheets out then ripped the sheet into 5 or 6 squares. I remember frantically searching the house for tape, only finding masking tape, and then carefully putting each page back together with tiny strips of masking tape. I walked into that library with such shame that I could barely look the librarians in the face. I held back the tears as I waited for them to say that I would be losing my library privileges, and the tears poured out when they simply said it was ok.

In Middle school I discovered the local library. It was one of the only places that my parents allowed me to go to by myself. I loved spending hours looking for biographies, classics, and all the teen magazines.

In High school I was pretty busy having a social life and reading books for my advanced English classes to go to the library anymore. In college, the study lounges became one of my academic downfalls. The Liberal Arts library was notorious for being a hot spot to meet and hang out with friends. If it hadn't been for hanging out with the Engineering students and making the liberal arts library off limits, I would have flunked out instead of deciding to just not go back.

A few months ago, I decided to take Aimee to our local library. I am so glad that I did. The free toddler class they offer is AMAZING and Aimee loves it. After the class, she loves picking the books she wants me to read to her, arranging them on the toddler sized tables, and then putting them on a toddler sized shelf when she's done. She can't wait to visit the pet mice and corrects any child who, after seeing the new Disney movie Ratatouille, calls them rats. "MICE! MICE! MOUSE!" she'll get up in their face and yell until the kids either walk away or stop calling them names that start with the word "rat"...."Ratatouille, Ratfink, Ratilda".

Their selection of kids music CD's is pretty good and it's really nice to check them out and then RETURN THEM. Same goes for their Video/DVD collection. I almost thought about getting rid of our VCR until I realized how impossible it is to get a hold of a Wiggles DVD at the library, videos are a little more available, but according to the librarian, they are so popular that unless you reserve a particular Wiggles anything, you almost have to take it off of the shelving cart to get it before everyone else does.

We went to the library today for a little while and judging by the shriek of joy Aimee let out when she saw where we were going, it looks like she may have a little bit of nerd in her too.

They found a way to get to me

Our neighborhood Dominick's grocery store has undergone a major transformation. I'm going to assume that all of their stores are doing the same thing, but since I only know what MY Dominick's is doing, I'll describe it for you just in case your Dominick's hasn't transformed yet. Dark mood lighting, fancy hardwood floors, a wood burning oven for baking bread, take home meals like what you'd find at Whole Foods, and an outrageous number of fancy looking sample tables in every aisle during the evening rush hour. Brian says that they are trying to look like a Whole Foods.

None of these gimmicks have really gotten my attention enough to make me want to go there on a regular basis because I know that I'll get a lot more groceries for my buck at the ethnic grocery store than I ever will at Dominick's. Not even the outrageously low price of $1.99 for Rainier cherries (they usually run for 6-7$ a pound) or the rock bottom offer of 4 huge boxes of my favorite breakfast cereals for $6 was enough to turn me into a fan. But earlier this week they got me. An emergency doughnut craving that I had been fighting for days made me stop in at the store for 1 or 2 of their bakery doughnuts and what did I find? Small cute pink pastry boxes for all to pack their bakery items in. No extra charge, free for everyone.

Dang you DOMINICK'S! YOU GOT ME!