Lost in the Shuffle

The days have been slipping away from me. I finished August books for the bookstore about a week ago. I don't know what took me so long. Like some bloated investment banker, I guess I didn't want to face up to the dreadful reality. My business was based solely on promises and paper, and both the promises and the paper were bad. Credit card processors nearly ate me alive. That debt I took on last year "to stay afloat" still threatens to pull me under.

I am finally slimming down my inventory and will not allow myself to go scouting, garage saleing or thrift store hunting until all 20 boxes in the basement have found a home. Trading online is time consuming, but that's most of what I'm doing. Powell's is my favorite avenue, but they're pretty picky about what they'll take. Blue Rectangle is even pickier unless you have recent textbooks...which I don't. Then there are the trading communities...BookMooch and WhatsOnMyBookshelf and Bookins what else did you say?

I am trying to rebuild an online inventory, too. But I can't higher than 200 titles before I decide my inventory's a mess and I have to start all over.

I still have my part-time job at Toni's coffee cart...though I'm not sure how much longer that will last. She's losing her second cart, so maybe she'll be concentrating her energies where they belong. What I would do for real work, I don't know. What millions of underemployed and unemployed Americans would do for real work...

I've also been spending too much time on Facebook. Don't get me wrong. Social networking has been a valuable lesson. I've met other Wigingtons who look like me, probably talk like me, but aren't like me at all. Many of these Wigingtons are from the South. Many are social conservatives. A few might shoot me in a dark alley or condemn me to hell if they had their rathers. The Civil War may still be a sore subject to a few. (Heck, it's probably still a sore subject to the nation. When will America ever heal and start talking more in terms of family and less in terms of us and them?)

And -- if you have followed these posts -- I haven't been blogging much.

Nan doesn't live at this URL anymore. This will be my last post here. You may see me next at Open Salon or maybe at a new google blog. I'll be using the name Wig's Town. I pick up hitchhikers. I'd be more than happy if you wanted to come along for the ride.