I know I'm an MIA blogger! My life is crazy busy right now. If I had more time, I'd blog about the fact that I just moved, or that my husband is traveling overseas and I have a renewed appreciation for single parents, or that I'm turning 40 in less than two weeks, or that I'm planning to run a marathon (the day before my 40th birthday), or that soccer is taking over my life, or that parenting a three-year-old who thinks nothing of throwing fits all the time and refuses to potty train is exhausting....
Instead, this post is about my how very sad I am that my neighborhood Borders is closed. This is my letter (my ode) to Borders!
Dear Borders,
THANK YOU!! Really, thank you SO MUCH!! Your presence in my life over the last 7 years can only be described as priceless...truly priceless!
In the early years, parenting two young children was incredibly challenging, to say the least. There were days when a trip to the children's section of your store is what helped me keep my sanity. Before the kids could read, I sat on one of the circular stools (you know the ones that can be used individually or pushed all together to form a circle?) while the kids pulled books that looked interesting from the shelves. We read those books together-- sometimes for an hour or more. When they became independent readers, we all found books we liked, and enjoyed sitting next to each other and reading to ourselves!! Those were precious, precious (sometimes sanity-saving) moments. Thank you!!
Date nights often included a trip to Borders. My husband and I loved to go out to eat and then go hang out at your coffee shop. We usually browsed the books (I liked the clearance section best!!), and then settled down with magazines or books and enjoyed time together, doing our own thing! Sometimes we took travel books off the shelves and talked about vacations we might take one day! The date night that is most significant for me, though, and the one I must thank you for the most is the date night we had the night before I went into labor with my third child, Mary (I wish you could meet her, she loved you too!). I had decided to have Mary naturally (you know, no drugs!), and on that particular night while Gary was on his way to the second floor bathroom of your store, he stumbled across a book called, The Birth Partner -- a book written for him! He and I spent the rest of date night looking at that book. I read the rest the next day. He spent the next evening reading the important parts, and that night I went into labor. Your book changed our experience significantly for the better -- the extent of which we'll never know! Thank you!!
I can't tell you how many trips I made to your store by myself. Your coupons came to my email, and gave me a wonderful excuse to come see you! I bought books, cookbooks, gifts for friends and family, stationary, cards, magazines, coffee and treats....! I enjoyed myself immensely, believe me! Thank you!!
I miss you already, Borders!! I drive by your empty store and feeling the sadness creep over me! Thank you for the impact that you had on my family and me. We have some beautiful memories of time spent together, while inside your walls. Goodbye, dear, dear friend! Thank you!!
Very Gratefully,
Laura Pierson
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