Soooo . . . after breezing through the world's easiest final exam this morning, I realized that instead of finishing school at my usual time of 2:45, I was actually free to go at 11:30 in the morning due to some professors getting lazy at the end of the semester and canceling class on this last week of instruction. It's only three days long, as we get Thursday and Friday off, so I guess they figure, What's the point? Me, I'm not complaining.
But anyway, I found myself with waaay more free time than I've seen in many moons. And so I decided to do something with it. And bethought myself of the newest Tolkien book being published posthumously, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrin. And decided that I would use this heaven-sent freedom to go on a quest to find and purchase the book.
Now, as some of you know, I can't yet drive; sure I'm old enough, but I just haven't gotten around to getting my license yet (I've been hindered my more important things, like writing fiction and doing homework and dance). Luckily for me, Hawaii has an extremely good bus system set up--so good, it's pompously named TheBus--and I had some money in my pocket, along with my omnipresent Barnes and Noble gift card.
My grandma took time out of her lunch break to ride the bus with me to the book store; I guess she thought that I might somehow miss the whopping big shopping center and get off at the wrong stop. That sarcasm is only partly intended, because stranger things have happened with me and navigating, believe you me. But the trip went off without incident, I vanished into the book store, and Gma went in a different direction, to grab something to eat before catching the return bus back to the school, I think.
Now, for someone who spends a vast majority of her life in bookshops, I have an incredibly bad sense of direction once in them, and tend to invariably miss whatever book it is that I am searching for. Remember that Inkdeath post? Yeah, I've since done similar things with Heroes of the Valley and Broken Spears since then. So I entered the store only with this vague idea that hey, it's a Tolkien book, surely there'll be a big 'n' bold display filled with Sigurds and Gudrins right at the entrance, waiting to greet me.
Well, there wasn't. I'm still a little steamed about that.
So then I thought, well, I'll find the 'New Releases' section, then. And after much searching, I did find it, only after perusing its contents with some dismay, I realized that it was 'New Teen Releases', which explained all the, erm, silly titles and indecent cover illustrations, to put it mildly.
After more tracking, I found more and more 'New Releases' sections, but none were what I wanted. Who knew that the category of 'New Releases' was so varied? New Teen, New Romance, New Non-fiction, New Biography (which is Non-fiction, but I'll let it pass. On the plus side, I found a book about the Wonderfulness of Obama which was on the Fiction shelf--Well, okay, it must have been a mistake, but it still made me rather cheerful).
In some desperation, I decided that I would just find the Tolkien section instead. Make things easier on myself. So I set off to find his books . . .
In the 'Fiction and Literature' section of the store. Where, incidentally, they were not. I'm a little steamed about that too, but really I should have known better.
So I finally found the Professor in the 'Fantasy/Sci Fi' section. And lo and behold, there was ONE copy of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrin there, sandwiched between The Hobbit and The Tolkien Reader. I snapped it up. And wandered around the store for another hour or more, exploring, before finally heading to the cashier's counter.
Incidentally, as I did, I walked right past the 'New Fiction' section (found it!), and saw that there was an entire shelf full of shiny Legends, plain as day. Ugh. Well, mine was prettier.
Once made lawful owner of the book, I went back to the bus stop to catch the bus which would take me to my apartment. Or, well, part-way there; I needed to remember where to get off to transfer buses. It took about forty minutes for my first bus to arrive, just as I was deciding that it was a phantom bus and didn't exist. I managed to get off at the right stop, and remembered that I needed to cross the road to get to the stop where I would wait for bus number two. As I set off on my walk to the nearest crosswalk (which was admirably far away), I noticed the bus I needed to catch trundling happily past me on the other side of the street, soon lost from view.
Well, darn.
So I ended up having to wait for fifteen minutes or so for my bus. It was broiling hot, but fortunately I had a nearly finished bottle of water with me in my bag. I drank what little remained and tossed the bottle in the trash bin, and yes, I do admit that the 'Frodo and Sam finish all the water' scene from "The Return of the King" did come to mind, haha. Well, it was hot.
The bus eventually did come, however, and it did stop, and so I was taken home at last. And now I'm putting a can of soup in the microwave and chugging cold water (did I mention it's four-thirty and all I've had to eat today is a yogurt at seven-thirty this morning?), feeling a little drained and wobbly, but very happy. Quest complete. Mission accomplished.
