{the art of buying text books}

In case you didn't catch on, I got my bad self back in school.



I was a nervous wreck for a day maybe a week or so leading up to the big return to the classroom.



I have gone to school since I was 5. Every year, without fail, my mother sent me off to get an education (but let's be honest, I learned more from here than any paid education professional, and I still do. She's the best teacher I know.) and every year without fail I went. Until the Lord had other plans for me. I quit school, hopped on an airplane to Florida and partied like it was 1999. Possibly in that order, most likely not. Anyway, being away from school for 2 years and then going back might not seem like a biggie but it had my insides a little turned upside down.



I got to class the first day and was met by a very burly man with several military tats, short cargo style denim cutoffs, and a mouth like a sailor. When he asked who had the book and no one raised their hand we were severly chastised for being a week behind now since, after all, it is Maymester and everyday counts as a week.



Umm, excuse me, but back when I was a young co-ed (I feel like an old lady now, we'll get back to that at a later date) it was pretty standard that you didn't have to have to book the first day. Infact, sometimes you didn't need the book at all. Why would you buy the book if you were just going to have to stand in like for an hour trying to return it when you didn't need it in the first place? My point exactly. Old habbits are hard to break, sorry.



After Dr. Sailor Mouth let us out of class I went on over to the book store where I was promptly informed reminded that backpacks had to stay at the door. This never used to bother me. For some reason now it really erked my nerves that the lady insisted that I leave my stuff there unattended. Probably had something to do with the chilling in the ghetto for a vast amount of time. You just don't leave your stuff laying around in public. That's just silly. I looked at her like she was crazy. She caught the vibes and told me I could put it behind the counter if I wanted. Thank you very much.



We're getting side tracked here, sorry.



I made my why (without my backpack) to the text book section of town and found what I was looking for. But come on now, you can't just buy the first text book you pick up. There is a system. It turns out that although I forgot how to get into the PE building the back way, the backpack at the door ettiquet, and apparently that you should have your book before class starts, buying a text book is like riding a bike. You never forget how the art of doing so. Afterall, you want the cheapest book, but you also want to be able to sell it back for a decent price, and if you're like me you want it to look nice and have minimal writing as well.



I went through like 50 books looking for the cheapest one. Found it. Although it was the same price as the first 38 I picked up, I had to make sure the stated cheapest price really was indeed the cheapest (if you can call any text book cheap). After picking out a stack of the 10 finest editions of needed text I went to business looking for the nicest one. When I had my search narrowed down to a handful I then flipped through them to make sure all the end of the chapter assessments were included (thanks to the heads up from Dr. Sailor Mouth). I had 3 books there waiting for my approval when I remembered one last very important component: the letter on the inside cover. You see, at my place of higher education, when you sell your books back for a rediculous fraction of the actual cost they write a big letter on the inside. The rumor is that the closer to the begining of the alphabet the letter is, the more you can get back for it. I opened up all three covers and found 2 D's and 1 C. It was pretty obvious which book was my winner. But then I had to flip through a few from the old stack of my thow aways and make sure there weren't any B's or missed A's.



Don't even worry kids, there weren't. I walked away partially happy as a clam for having refound the art of buying the best text book in my chosen choice of education that too much money could buy.



And because of buying the text for too much money I was left with only one option for lunch:

*cool picture? I took it with Lloyd*

Peanut Butter and Dr. Phil. Could life get much better?

Probably. if buying over priced text books didn't seem like a government conspiracy.