Don’t shop angry.

I hit the library last night. And found out that they’re closed until the eleventh of this month. The sign on the door said they’re putting bar codes on all the books. So I did the next best thing – I went to Borders Books.

I had every intention of grabbing something off the best seller shelf, buying myself a large mocha chiller, and curling up on one of their overstuffed chairs. I had no intention of spending money. But, like everything else last night, things didn’t follow according to plan.

Borders rearranged everything. No more bargain books just inside the foyer when you enter. About a third of the bookshelves gone completely, giving the store a bigger, more airy and open feeling. No more magnetic poetry sets [insert frowny face here]. A lot less new releases.

I did note with interest that Douglas Adam’s last book “A Salmon of Doubt” has been released. I held it in my hands. Twice. But that would make a nice birthday gift, and the birthday countdown is underway yet again. So I put it down.

The dividing line between the music section of the store and the book section is less obvious, and I wandered into it without realizing I’d done so. It wasn’t fair. They’d grabbed me when I didn’t have my guard up. David Wilcox’s new “Live Songs and Stories” was right there, in my face. I swear, it threw itself off the shelves and into my hands. If you’d seen it happen, you’d have thought I had special jedi powers, drawing it to me through my will alone. It wasn’t my fault!

That single act of having a real purchase in hand was all it took. I walked out with that, Suzanne Vega’s CD “Tried and True” (a best-of compilation – I’ve always intended to pick up a few of her CD’s, but this has everything I wanted on one CD) and Kirsty MacColl’s “Tropical Brainstorm” CD (her death last year was a tremendous loss). I also picked up a book of local hiking paths on my way to the cash register. It’s funny how little merchandise that cost nearly $70 weighs.

Well, I was feeling sorry for myself.