Donations to the Blood Bank – At Sea/Trans-Pacific Crossing Day 4 – [10/01/2011]

Every so often, the universe hands you exactly what you need.

You may have guessed that I’ve been having a rougher time of it than expected lately. Between the weather and the emotional shift from the laid-back environment of 7-day Alaska cruising to the high-end on-edge environment of once again working a Grand Voyage, between coming from a ship where I had ‘family’ (ok, one family member and a bunch of really close friends) and boarding a ship where I may “know” everyone nominally but know nobody (okay, Campbell is an exception to that rule, but she’s almost the only one) – I’ve been stretched a bit thin. My days have consisted of work, work, more work and sleep.

We finally finished clearing out the storage closet in the library yesterday, which prompted our EM to send up 6 boxes of brand new paperbacks for the paperback exchange shelf.

They’re for the world, feel free to hold them back, or just dole them out gradually. You might want to go through them..

You might…want….to go through them.

6 BOXES OF BRAND NEW BOOKS! That no one knows are there, that don’t have to be added to the collection, that me and Lace can have first dibs on? And we MIGHT want to go through them?

My mother joked once that putting me in charge of the library was the “real world” equivalent of putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank (you know, I had a passenger once who didn’t understand that metaphor – I stared at them “Kid – Candy store? Pick a metaphor!”) – I was sitting on the floor of that storage closet, the skirt of my black smart-casual dress pooled around me on the concrete, tearing apart those boxes like it was Christmas morning before I even had a real chance to put down my keys and check the daily handover.

Biography. History. Mystery. Romance.  Fantasy. Supernatural. All new, all never opened.

I should read intelligent fiction, I know that. And I do read intelligent fiction (er, I write intelligent fiction as well for the record) a lot of the time, but when I’m in a place like this? I need light. So when I crack open one box and the titles staring up at me run along the lines of Charliane Harris Dead to the World,  Gail Carriger’s Heartless: An Alexa Tarabotti Mystery etc etc…I broke into hysterical giggles of relief.

Ye-es…my lovelies…I want to drink your blood.

If I was a vampire, you’d see my fangs running out right about now….

If you need me…I’ll um…be over here….