This afternoon I had the opportunity to visit my old workplace. A friend of mine that works there has taken a new job and the office was throwing her a going away party. It was wonderful to get the opportunity to spend time with her and so many others.

On my way home I decided to take a detour. I had seen ads for a used bookstore, and as I love books, and as their facebook page seemed promising, I decided to check it out.

When I was living in NYC, one of my favorite places to go was the Strand bookstore. Located near Union Square, Strand is the largest bookstore I’ve ever been to, with miles of books. They had an annex location as well, which happened to be near my first apartment. It was hard for me to pass either location without going in, browsing, and buying books.

When I stepped into the bookstore today, for just a moment I felt transported back to Strand. It was not nearly as large, but was very big and had the distinctive smell of old books. Housed in a warehouse, there were countless aisles. I wandered around, getting lost among the shelves, reading titles, and dragging my fingers along the spines. If I had had time, I would have spent hours there, but I didn’t. I settled on one book for the kids, with a promise to myself to visit again when I have the time to really enjoy it.

I made my way home and back to the kids and we ended our evening reading their new book.