The Music Thief

True confessions moment here... I LOVE housesitting for friends, family, you name it. Taking care of a house and their pets can be a bit inconvenient to my schedule sometimes, but what makes it worth it is their music collection. I love listening to their CDs when I find myself looking for some entertainment around the house. I come across all sorts of different music I would never have taken the time to explore on my own. Most importantly, I kinda "steal" their music and import it into my computer's music library. Technically I'm not actually leaving with their stuff, but I guess I like using the words "steal" and "thief" because it makes me feel more bad-ass than I really am capable of.

So this past Christmas week, I came away 800 songs or more richer. It was a jackpot for my musical taste too with lots of Bach, Mozart, some Beethoven, Pavarotti, Edith Piaf, Miles Davis, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerld, Louis Armstrong and Yo-Yo Ma. Sadly no Elgar that I could find. On the flip-side, I now have some awesome albums I had not expected to enjoy: a bunch of Felix Mendelssohn Hawaiian songs from 1942-1945, the Lady & the Tramp soundtrack, some old broadway musical soundtracks with the original cast, the best of Bob Marley and Paolo Conte. It's a pretty great deal actually. Watching a house and dogs for two weeks in exchange for some money and hundreds of songs? Yes please!

Plus, I pride myself on being a exemplary 'house-sitter.' I love tidying up around the house, maybe a little cleaning if I feel like it and I love cooking them a crock-pot meal to come home to. Tomorrow I'm going to make Chicken Chile for the current family I'm sitting for. They're originally from Texas before moving to Hillsdale, so I'm banking on their being Mexican food aficionados like myself. I like to think my generosity in the kitchen and in the laundry room while they're gone justifies my recent musical acquisitions. What sort of things are you guilty of when you house-sit?

On Books

The first thing you should ever know about me is how much I love books. Don't ever expect me to walk into a Barnes & Noble, Borders, local bookshop or even a garage sale without taking a good look (1 hour minimum), let a lone leaving without buying one! Even better, I'll take books for free. One of my latest acquirements I found lying in a trash can in one of Hillsdale's classroom buildings after finals. Guess they must've really hated that class, but I've always wanted to learn more about the Reformation! My favorite activity in college? (OMG, I'm such a nerd...) Buying books before the semester begins. I'd even buy books for classes I was auditing and really didn't need to keep up with the reading. On the other hand, I won't spend my relatively hard earned money on just any book. I'm all for history, the classics, cultural studies, novels and the like. No Sci-Fi or Anime Comic books for me please.

Two things about myself & books lately. First, now that I need to prepare to move my stuff at a moment's notice for any odd reason, I figured it'd probably be wise to undertake the daunting task to catalog all of my personal library in an excel spreadsheet. All 260 of them. Books are actually quite compact. Looking at my shelves, I'd estimate maybe around 150, but 260?? How did I acquire all those? I'd hate to think how much money I spent on books that I could've used for a new pair of winter boots. Then again, I think I'm better off having read A World at Arms and empathizing with the U.S. 290th Infantry before the Battle of the Bulge than having toasty toes. I'm proud of my library and look forward to continue to see it grow, but I know full well that its going to be a bitch to pack and lug about when I have to move it all someday.

Second, As food, rent, insurance, hedgehog care and other life essential payments now become unavoidable, the cost of books has become ever present in my thoughts. My friend Mary, however, suggested a wonderful and free solution to my book addiction! Paperback Swap is possibly the most genius online book club that I have ever come across. I've saved over $30 so far on books and acquired 6 new ones in the last month alone. A definite fav of late! I'm reading A Year in the World right now, which is a great literary and cultural travelogue, but at the same time I can't wait to crack open my new ones. Looking forward to starting The Professor and the Madman, The Glitter and the Gold and Eat, Pray, Love. Sometimes I'll give in and have 7 or more books going at the same time...then it's a little overload. How many books have you had going at one time?