Time Enough, At Last

What's better than a library card? Not much. But, my friends gave me Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas. Lots of them. And, that means books for keeps.

I have a king's ransom to spend because what else do you give a writer who pretty much loathes the holidays and already has everything her heart desires? Books. It's pretty awesome, really. And Barnes and Noble online delivers to my front door in two days, FREE.

Now, I can make guilt-free purchases of every screenwriting book I don't already have so Robert McKee, Syd Field, Christopher Vogler, Ron Suppa, and David Trottier, among others, can point their accusing fingers at me in new ways and make me second guess myself more than I already do.

Yippee.

So, what to do with all these gift cards? I feel like that near sighted guy, Mr. Beamis, in the Twilight Zone. He was the sole survivor after a nuclear holocaust and stumbled on his heart's desire, a library, and for the first time in his busy banking life, he had time enough to read. Alas, just as he put his books in order, his glasses slid off his face and shattered.

Circumstances of late have isolated me in a similar way. I have my health and my job but there are some temporary restrictions pending resolution of a couple of things and I'm somewhat sick of being looked at like a spore in a petri dish. Sometimes, I think doctors just get their jollies hooking me up to electronic stuff and poking at me.

The blessing here is that we are finally, at long last, finding a cause and prevention for the incessant migraines that have plagued me for so very long.

Unlike Mr. Beamis, I have a computer and Barnes and Noble cards which equate to limitless books, videos and cd's at my disposal. And, lucky me, I have contact lenses and two pair of glasses.