To Knit or to Read, that is the question...

I didn't have a library card for years and years. There's no good reason for this as I love books, I love reading, and I am all for public libraries. I always thought that I needed to own books, in case I wanted to read them again, and this former English major also likes to write in them sometimes.

Then I met Pete, and one day, we went to the library to look at DVD's. We checked out a PBS special about partying Amish teens, and I thought "This is cool. I should have a library card." I promptly filled out the forms and was presented with my own purple St. Paul Public Library card. For over a year, I checked out and read book after book after book. I had at least ten books in my request queue at all times, and I knocked quite a few titles off my Amazon Wish List.

Then I learned how to knit.

It consumed all my reading time. A year and a half later, I still have not been able to strike a balance between the two interests. The click of the needles overcame the rustle of the turning page.

Now that Finn is here, reading has stepped even farther back into the shadowy recesses of HobbyLand, along with sewing, drawing, and general craftiness. There they all sit, grumbling, their pale eyes glinting out at me. "Remember us? We are the two shirts and three skirts you cut out two years ago. We are ready for the machine!" The comic book cover ideas are mouldering in a dank cupboard in the back of my mind, as is the calendar of maps I have wanted to complete for years.

While I did manage to catch up on my National Geograpics for a while there during breast pumping, even those have started to accumulate again. I can't seem to start a new book because my attention is constantly being diverted to the small being who needs to eat and eat and then eat some more and OH BOY he's eating again. I was perusing a lovely tome about maneating beasts, but I had to lay off of that as well because I found I was retracing my steps and forgetting what had happened in the preceding pages. I finally picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and started the series over again because I know what happens, it pleases me, and I can pick it up and put it down at random.

So I have been watching movie after movie as well as the entire Monty Python box set, and knitting while Finn sleeps on me (in between eatings). I guess I could be reading during those times, but for some reason, I prefer the voices in the films to the silence of the house, at least during the day. Pete has started bugging me to take walks because he can't sit in the house for more than a few hours without feeling claustrophobic. It's a good thing he's not me. But he's right about the walks. It's a good idea, it would be good for me, and the Little Man and I can get out of the house.

We walked to the library. Finn's not supposed to have a great deal of hand to hand contact with the outside world, but as long as he is in the sling and kept close to us, a few outings are fine. The library is just a few blocks away; long enough for a good little round trip jaunt but short enough so that we are not gone too long. I picked out some movies, paid my late fee, and Finn's alarm went off. That was awesome. It was a "loose lead", the one that sounds like a high pitched fire alarm. It just keeps going and going until you turn the damn thing off. One long, unbroken, brain-augering tone. When we got home, I switched out his lead wires and electrodes. I also logged into my account and requested a load of movies and TV programmes for my viewing pleasure. I am still not reading, but at least I am using my library card.

(Many thanks to Finn, who slept in the sling while I typed this)