barnes and noble Archives - Memos and Mirth

Bucci Baggin’

November 23, 2011

I took an epic trip across the metro yesterday. I saw a big pleather murse at the Mall of America H&M a while back and decided it would make a good gym bag. Of course I decide to buy it just before rush hour…

A quick google search on my phone leads me to the Roseville mall, which turns out not to have an H&M.

My navigation then suggests the Woodbury mall. My phone says it’s 20 minutes away but I find out that the Woodbury mall is actually close to 20 miles away, which isn’t a 20-minute drive at 4:30 p.m. on a weekday. I eventually get to Woodbury Lakes, which should be called Strip Mall City, USA.

The Woodbury H&M doesn’t have my bag and a cute salesgirl sends me off to the Maplewood Mall H&M.

The Maplewood Mall is about 12 miles north. It’s a long trip at 5:15 p.m., especially when there are two pileup crashes. The pileups are rather confusing because the roads aren’t slick. I think the cause is speeding commuters coming upon stalled traffic…

I eventually make it to Maplewood and a confused employee finds a bag that looks like it hasn’t been touched in months.

This bag is actually black. It’s covered in dust. The cashier tells me he’s never actually seen anyone buy one of the murses. I don’t dare ask how long it was rotting on the shelf.

I find myself lingering at the Maplewood Barnes and Noble, which is close to H&M. I gravitate to the Nook counter and randomly end up buying a Nook tablet.

I was back at a more local Barnes and Noble this morning because my Nook wouldn’t let me buy any books. I eventually learn that the Nook is fine and the problem is with my card.

My bank has my check card frozen because I lost it and requested a new one two weeks ago. The bank customer service rep couldn’t explain to me why my new replacement debit card is frozen for identity theft protection purposes. This is particularly confusing because I had to call and activate the new card with my account information and Social Security Number…anyway these are my first world problems.

I eventually got the card and the Nook tablet working. My first e-book is John Grisham’s The Litigators.

Just Sayin / Minneapolis-St. Paul

Not too busy for paper

February 9, 2011

Glasses on book by Dariusz Sankowski via Stocksnap

I strolled into the Mall of America Barnes & Noble and stopped at the Nook e-reader desk.

A store clerk materialized and I drilled him with questions – is this 3G or wifi? How much memory does it have? How much space? Is it backlit? How does this compare with an iPad? Kindle?

The clerk explained that the Nook was for consuming content – magazines, books, etc. – and that the iPad was more useful for producing content.

2L Winter / Law School / Life / Thomson Reuters

Chipmunking

January 4, 2010

I went to Barnes and Noble after work. I wandered the store looking lost and bewildered. If I wasn’t in my work clothes they would have mistaken me for an invalid that ran away from his court-appointed guardian.

This was the first time in months that I was in a bookstore for pleasure. I used to love Barnes and Noble, but today everything looked ridiculous. There were aisles romance novels, get-rich-quick, find-jesus, John Grisham-bootlegs, and Jillian Michaels¹ with her dominatrix glare.

Oh and Twilight. The horny-teen-vampires were everywhere. Harry Potter has been replaced by werewolf abs.

All of the magazines looked terrible. J-Lo was famished. Ashton Kutcher was airbrushed. Paula Deen was cracked out and Oprah looked tired.

I bought Writer’s Digest and drove home. The magazine is still in the bag. I am tired and can’t be bothered.

I leave for Miami on Thursday, so my days consist of getting up, going to work, coming home to walk the dog and sleep. No one is forcing me to work full time over the break, but I have a job, and that job is contingent on me being a student. Without any guarantee that my company will hire me after graduation, I cannot justify working less than full-time now.

Barbri expenses are around the corner. Rent. Emergency fund. Coffee. I’m a chipmunk hoarding acorns for a long winter.

Plus work is fun. I’m with classmates and students from other schools. Someone is always has a story about a professor, family member, interesting case or class. There’s coffee, constant laughter, and yes, a paycheck. Novels and magazines can wait. Things are fun right now.

¹ And you know I own a Jillian Michaels book (see here)