12:07am Having Trouble Sleeping

Dear A,

I'm trying to think of things that you don't know about me so that I can give you something interesting to read aside from whatever random thoughts come to mind when I sit down to write.

Instead of just typing a list of things I think you don't know, how about I tell you a story about me from when I was small? I'm not sure why I remember this so vividly, because it demonstrates how strange I was as a child and I'm sure it's only going to be interesting to me. But, you get what you get.

When I was in elementary school, I used to spend a lot of time in the library. I remember choosing to go to the library during lunch to play Connect Four or Battleship instead of going to the playground with the other kids (I'm assuming I had a friend with me because neither of those are games you can play by yourself, but I have no idea what friend it was).

One day, I was in the library after school and I decided that I was going to find the oldest looking book I could find and check it out. I was convinced that a really old book might contain some sort of secret message or something and I would be the only one to find it because no one else would want to check out a really old, torn up book.

The book I ended up taking home was a big anthology of birds with pictures and descriptions of each one. It was about the size of a record sleeve and a good two inches thick. The jacket was disintegrating along the spine and had a tear on the front. The pages were old and yellowing and kind of jagged on the edges. There was also some water damage and spotting on the inside cover.

It was exactly what I wanted.

I remember going home, shoving the book under the couch and then pretending that I just happened to find it randomly one day. I then made believe that I found an old letter hidden in the pages (a piece of mail sent to our house originally intended for the previous owners) which was the key to some big secret.

This fantasy lasted until the book was due and then I searched for another old looking book to continue my make-believe world.

Now, this might just sound like a cute story, but it actually carries on into my adult life. To this day, when I go into used bookstores to find cheap books, I always look for the oldest copy.

Love, M