Last February, I visited the Friends of the Library annual book sale at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds, and I came away with a ton of good books. Amos was off at a men's retreat, so he didn't get to go, but this year, we made a weekend of it!
On Friday, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed down the turnpike to OKC. We ordered sandwiches at my favorite deli and took them down to Lake Overholser, one of the reservoirs that provides water to OKC. We ate our sandwiches, watched the pelicans float up and down the lake in the wind, and endured the breeze.
Next we headed for the outlet mall. Tulsa doesn't have any outlet stores, so we made a point to visit these in OKC. We bought socks, replacement lids for our glass dishes, a rice cooker (the old one was ancient and would flood the counter with murky rice water), jeans, and a few other things.
Voss was up next! We visited Amos' old office and spent some time talking to his friends and old coworkers. Most of the guys are pretty nice, but Amos is quite happy with the Tulsa office. :)
Our next stop was our hotel, the same hotel we stayed in when we first moved to Oklahoma (they have a really good breakfast). We hauled our bags up to our room and watched a few episodes of House Hunters before we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.
After a restless night of too few blankets, searching for the fan button on the thermostat at 2:00 in the morning, and trying to relax on the hard mattress, we got dressed and hopped down to a breakfast of bacon, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs, fruit, coffee, orange juice, and yogurt.
We arrived at the fairgrounds and started looking! I headed to the cheaper book room first, straight for the audiobooks. I don't know where Amos went. ;) I collected a stack of paper books and audiobooks and left them in the holding area. The second book room held nicer, rarer books, and I was looking for a specific set as a present for someone. I found several copies of the books, so I picked through them till I had a full set, complete with crumbling dustjackets (at least the covers underneath the jackets won't be too faded). I chose a few more books, paid for all of them, and checked my bag in at the rare books holding section. Back to the first room to pick up my selected books and see if Amos had discovered any treasures. He came up with four CDs! No books! Out of 600,000 tomes, Amos didn't find anything. Whoa. I poked around a bit more, paid for my cheaper books, CDs, and audiobooks, and went back to the other holding section to pick up the special books.
They couldn't find my bag.
They checked through the shelves, they rechecked my number, they let me search through all the bags...
My books had vanished.
Nooooooooooo...
I was reminded of what Amos prays every day, that we would glorify God in what we say and do. He had prayed that at breakfast that morning, and I had thought, "And let me be patient with all the people at the book sale, because there are a lot of people and they are annoying." (The rooms are packed with people, some of whom think they are the only ones at the sale.)
With that in mind, I was able to stay calm. The head cashier took my name and number, refunded my money, and even offered to meet up with me if someone returned my books, since I had come two hours from Tulsa and wouldn't be able tor return for them.
Disappointed but resigned, we went to lunch at Earl's Barbecue and discussed what to do with the rest of our day. Suddenly I had the idea that we could go back and re-purchase some of the books I chosen, since there were multiple copies in the piles of books. Amos and I headed back to the book sale, and I ran in and chose a few books from the ones that were remaining; the complete set wasn't available anymore. :P
Our next adventure was visiting the Hinky Pond. (That isn't its real name; we used to live near a small park and pond, and we would often see the same limping goose. He always made a strange "hink hink" sound, so I dubbed him, and the pond, Hinky.) Amos and I collected our library books (brought down from Tulsa), folding chairs, and sweet tea, and trundled around the pond to a small spot of shade.
We read and drank our tea for a few hours, and then...
My phone rang!
Someone returned my books!
Yeaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Amos and I popped over to Walmart for some snacks and toll money then returned to the fairgrounds. Someone had taken my books home, realized she had the wrong ones, and returned them! She got her books and I got mine.
Overall, it was a very nice weekend. Amos and I had a good time hanging out, shopping, reading, and visiting a few people, I didn't go crazy on the people at the sale, and we got a lot of really good books.
Let's do it again next year! :)
On Friday, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed down the turnpike to OKC. We ordered sandwiches at my favorite deli and took them down to Lake Overholser, one of the reservoirs that provides water to OKC. We ate our sandwiches, watched the pelicans float up and down the lake in the wind, and endured the breeze.
Next we headed for the outlet mall. Tulsa doesn't have any outlet stores, so we made a point to visit these in OKC. We bought socks, replacement lids for our glass dishes, a rice cooker (the old one was ancient and would flood the counter with murky rice water), jeans, and a few other things.
Voss was up next! We visited Amos' old office and spent some time talking to his friends and old coworkers. Most of the guys are pretty nice, but Amos is quite happy with the Tulsa office. :)
Our next stop was our hotel, the same hotel we stayed in when we first moved to Oklahoma (they have a really good breakfast). We hauled our bags up to our room and watched a few episodes of House Hunters before we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.
After a restless night of too few blankets, searching for the fan button on the thermostat at 2:00 in the morning, and trying to relax on the hard mattress, we got dressed and hopped down to a breakfast of bacon, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs, fruit, coffee, orange juice, and yogurt.
We arrived at the fairgrounds and started looking! I headed to the cheaper book room first, straight for the audiobooks. I don't know where Amos went. ;) I collected a stack of paper books and audiobooks and left them in the holding area. The second book room held nicer, rarer books, and I was looking for a specific set as a present for someone. I found several copies of the books, so I picked through them till I had a full set, complete with crumbling dustjackets (at least the covers underneath the jackets won't be too faded). I chose a few more books, paid for all of them, and checked my bag in at the rare books holding section. Back to the first room to pick up my selected books and see if Amos had discovered any treasures. He came up with four CDs! No books! Out of 600,000 tomes, Amos didn't find anything. Whoa. I poked around a bit more, paid for my cheaper books, CDs, and audiobooks, and went back to the other holding section to pick up the special books.
They couldn't find my bag.
They checked through the shelves, they rechecked my number, they let me search through all the bags...
My books had vanished.
Nooooooooooo...
I was reminded of what Amos prays every day, that we would glorify God in what we say and do. He had prayed that at breakfast that morning, and I had thought, "And let me be patient with all the people at the book sale, because there are a lot of people and they are annoying." (The rooms are packed with people, some of whom think they are the only ones at the sale.)
With that in mind, I was able to stay calm. The head cashier took my name and number, refunded my money, and even offered to meet up with me if someone returned my books, since I had come two hours from Tulsa and wouldn't be able tor return for them.
Disappointed but resigned, we went to lunch at Earl's Barbecue and discussed what to do with the rest of our day. Suddenly I had the idea that we could go back and re-purchase some of the books I chosen, since there were multiple copies in the piles of books. Amos and I headed back to the book sale, and I ran in and chose a few books from the ones that were remaining; the complete set wasn't available anymore. :P
Our next adventure was visiting the Hinky Pond. (That isn't its real name; we used to live near a small park and pond, and we would often see the same limping goose. He always made a strange "hink hink" sound, so I dubbed him, and the pond, Hinky.) Amos and I collected our library books (brought down from Tulsa), folding chairs, and sweet tea, and trundled around the pond to a small spot of shade.
 |
| The great Hinky, himself |
We read and drank our tea for a few hours, and then...
My phone rang!
Someone returned my books!
Yeaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Amos and I popped over to Walmart for some snacks and toll money then returned to the fairgrounds. Someone had taken my books home, realized she had the wrong ones, and returned them! She got her books and I got mine.
Overall, it was a very nice weekend. Amos and I had a good time hanging out, shopping, reading, and visiting a few people, I didn't go crazy on the people at the sale, and we got a lot of really good books.
Let's do it again next year! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment