Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Tuesday is book day

I love books. I love reading. I love shopping for books. My budget, however, does not allow for full-retail shopping sprees. I went to Hawsey's yesterday, a used bookstore here in the area. Michelle was with me, but I literally kind of forgot her as I blissfully browsed.

I passed up the audio books and went straight for the cookbooks. I picked up a diabetic cookbook while I was there, and then moved on to Hobbies, where I checked out some books on photography but didn't buy, and then to Arts, where I searched for a book on various painting styles and eras (for Jacelyn) but couldn't find one. I scoured the children's books and found a wonderfully illustrated book about how trees grow, which was a super-bonus because Jacelyn and I had been talking about that in the car just that morning. I checked out the Religious Section, which should be renamed the "Left Behind and Purpose Driven Life" section, since that was almost all that was in it, and then moved along to Classics. I was looking for a new John Irving, since I enjoyed 'Hotel New Hampshire' so much (thanks, Mary!), but they only had two of his books, one which was very cheap but also disgustingly filthy, and one that was pristine but overpriced. After some more browsing I ended up with a copy of 'The Great Gatsby' for a whopping $1.25. At this point I notice Michelle, who has been following me around for at least twenty minutes now, bored out of her skull. Oops. Avid readers and non-readers should never end up together in a bookstore, especially a poorly organized used bookstore, unless they came in separate cars. So we left.

We ended up at Wal-Mart, where I bought Jacelyn two more first reader books and some word recognition flash cards. I also picked up a copy of 'Hoot' (Carl Hiaasen) for myself. I have read Carl Hiaasen before, and he has the eccentricities of full-time Florida living down. I mean, really. His writing isn't the best, but he can be funny, and he gets being a Floridian: tourists, over development, environmental issues, hurricanes. I first heard about 'Hoot' at Brentwood Middle School, where the whole school was reading it. When I saw that I was alarmed - the last book of his I read was about a hurricane, and involved insurance fraud, prostitution, and some other things that middle schoolers really shouldn't be reading about. But thus far, 'Hoot' has turned out to be pretty good. It is a children's book, aimed at tweens, I think, but it is still not a bad read, and I love the concept and the fact that he's trying to tell these kids that they can make a difference, if they try.

I recently finished off 'The Da Vince Code', and well....I don't know what I think of it. It was an OK movie, it was an OK book. I am interested to know (yet too lazy to find out) what of the information presented is fact and what is fiction. I have been interested in learning more about the Knights Templar, since first hearing about them years ago, so I might pursue that a little further.

On a side note, yesterday morning Michelle and I met up with our Mary Kay consultant and her 'Sales Director'. Our consultant is supposed to be practicing her interview technique, and we were the guinea pigs. We met up at a coffee shop, where the very perky sales director (like, crazily perky, like annoyingly perky, like on some sort of drug perky) conducted the whole thing. As soon as I could appropriately do so, I explained that, while I am certain Mary Kay is a wonderful opportunity and works wonders for some people, it is not for me and I have no interest in selling.

At a later point in the interview, Mrs. Perky looks at me and says, "If you were going to sell Mary Kay, and I know you aren't, but if you were going to, what would hold you back?". I answered: "I'm lazy." It was the best answer I could come up with on short notice and is partially true. Mrs. Perky just nodded and started talking about how "some people need other people to tell them what to do" and how "like you've just said about yourself, some people just can't self-motivate, not even for the sake of their child". What, bitch? I self-motivate for my child all the time. Different strokes for different folks. And all because of an answer to a hypothetical question about something I have no interest in doing. I have nothing against the Mary Kay people, if it works for them, great. I use Mary Kay products. But just because I choose not to sell it does not make me a bad mother. Them's fightin' words. Urg!

1 comment:

Jen said...

I attended a big rep meeting once with Anna when she was a rep here, and it was...freaky. Singing, dancing, and there were some folks playing the tambourine. It was like a gospel church. That's when I decided that Mary Kay is a cult...a cult with great make-up.