The color of infinity inside an empty glass

It looks like the section of computer science that Connor was signed up for got cancelled? And he didn't get reassigned or notified?

I caught it just now. His advisor had caught it a few days ago and sent an email that Connor didn't see until he searched his mailbox just now.

Classes start Wednesday.

Yesterday I drove Connor to campus so that we could scout out all of his classrooms. It was hot as balls out but we paced ourselves, and the buildings themselves were all air conditioned. I also showed him where to find Robby's office (although we couldn't enter the building without him), investigated places to camp out with a laptop in the main campus library, and had him buy me lunch with his meal card.

Today I went to the local used book store for their Penny-a-Page sale. I knowwwwwwwww I don't need more books, but I do need more adventure in my life and it was cheaper than a trip to the beach or IKEA. Besides, the sale limit was 5 books, so I couldn't get into too much trouble. I ended up with about $65 worth of used books for something like $17 plus tax, so it was worth it.

I also put in an online order for some D&D sourcebooks as a birthday treat. I was hoping to get the new Artificer supplement, but it's been delayed from August to December.

Lately I've been rereading the first three Greta Helsing books in order to refresh my memory before catching up on the final installments. My pile of library books is down from 18 to a slightly more manageable 12, although some of them are very large.

Even though the new bookshelves are upstairs and I spend most of my time downstairs, it does make me happy to have all of my books out of boxes again. It might even be a good thing that I'm not among them constantly, so that they don't become ignored in the background of daily life, but give me a fresh thrill of pleasure every time I see them.

As long as I can remember, I've loved to read and re-read, and collected as many books and magazines as I could. (Music too, but listening to music is a less tangible experience.) I spent a lot of my twenties and thirties trying to recall and track down books that I loved as a kid, but never owned. I still enjoy reading books that are intended for young people.

When I started college 32 years ago, the internet began to take up most of that book-shaped space in my free time, and although I never stopped buying books, I gradually stopped reading them as often. I started up again once my kids were born, but I've never caught up. Now I can only hope that I live long enough to read at least most of the ones I own, but new books come out every week that distract me from my backlog.

Thirty years is a long time, and I know there are some books that I own that I probably wouldn't enjoy reading now, or would have to read in the context of when they were written. But it's hard to know which ones will disappoint me just from glancing at the covers. I want to give them all a chance!

Then there's the family to consider. A lot of the books that I own and haven't read are ones that Robby has, like the Wheel of Time series. The kids have their own separate collections. I don't know if they'll ever be that interested in reading most of my books, although they have enjoyed some of my favorites, like Hitchhiker's Guide, Wrinkle in Time, and Watership Down. Will's favorite book of all time is the Westing Game, and Connor adores Howl's Moving Castle. But they also have a ton of Wimpy Kid, Minecraft, et al that were marketed to them as they were growing up, and I doubt whether they'll want to hang onto those indefinitely.

My mom has a huge book collection as well (this is one way you can tell we are related) but unlike me, she has already read almost every book she owns. She keeps bringing me new ones and then I feel bad for not getting around to reading them.

I don't know if I have a point to make here, I think I'm just trying to talk myself into being okay with having so many books. I hope that I will be able to read most of them eventually.

One day last May, apropos of nothing in particular, our DM happened to mention to me in chat that at some point he had prepared a one-shot storyline based on the movie Hackers. My response to that was: "Ok well now I know what I want for my birthday."

So today it came to pass that our intrepid group of adventurers teamed up with a band of rogues who bore more than a passing resemblance to the heroes of that movie, and mayhem ensued. It was great!

On top of that, the baker in our party made a birthday cake that looked like the head of Wally the Red Sox mascot. She's fantastically talented and I was blown away. Unbeknownst to me, Robby had bought a small pack of those plastic ball caps that they use for ice cream in order to use one as a cake topper, but they also happened to be the perfect size to fit on the head of my crocheted steel defender, so now he has yet another hat (I also have made him at various points over the past year-plus a sun hat, a pirate hat and a Santa hat).

It's all very silly and I can't stop smiling.