monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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In which I do not buy encyclopedias.
Armed with my many boxes, courtesy of Billy and Barb, I started packing up Rachel's belongings today. Have I mentioned how much crap she has??
Using the list we made a couple of nights ago, I worked at it on and off all afternoon, and made significant progress. She isn't taking everything she owns, by any means; only enough stuff to keep her going for a month or so until she comes home and takes more of her stuff back with her. I'm sure it will be years before all of her things are gone, and that's fine.
I offered Rachel's room to Kim, but she thinks it's too creepy up there! She said she doesn't know what might be lurking in the attic! I told her it was just boxes of Christmas ornaments and stuffed animals, but she shuddered and didn't believe me.
I ended up working again tonight, on what was supposed to be my night off, but I'm okay with it. I slept all day and had just showered after sweating for hours, what with taking the two-mile walk and then packing in the hot upstairs bedroom, and I was happy to come to work and sit in the cool office.
Oh, but on our walk tonight, Kim and I met a nice guy who was selling encyclopedias. He was young and cute, and had an accent. He was walking, and carrying a heavy backpack and a clipboard, so we knew he was selling something. He stopped when he saw us and asked if we could help him by directing him to any families in the neighborhood with young children. I told him we didn't live on that street, so we didn't know anyone but that it's mostly a neighborhood of older families.
He sounded German, and Kim has had two years of German, so I told her to ask him if he spoke German and he said no, he speaks Russian, as he is from Estonia. I said, "Oh, Estonia," and nodded in an intelligent way and he asked me if I knew Estonia, and I told him I had a book about knitting in Estonia, to which he nodded, looking slightly baffled, so maybe he doesn't know the word "knitting". Haha! We talked to him a little as we walked, and he told us that in 1991, the Soviet Union broke up and Estonia became independent, that he is a college student there, and that he is staying here for 3 months with three other guys from different countries. They must all be selling encyclopedias.
Finally he went off down another street, but I told him where we lived and invited him to stop for a glass of water, and he did! He only stayed a minute, though, and then he had to go meet the other guys and go home. So that was my contribution to international relations for today.
I'm just wondering, though, exactly how much money can be made selling encyclopedias when you can get information on any subject, and it's right up-to-date, too, by going on the internet. Who uses encyclopedias anymore? The two-volume set that I bought when Kim was a baby* is so out of date now, that I doubt they even have the news about the independence of Estonia!
*Purchased from a cute young college student who came to our door in Michigan. We had moved back to Ypsilanti from Illinois, and the salesman was from the same town in Illinois where we had lived! Rich said he was just lying about that to sell me the books, but he knew the name of the high school football team and it's a very unusual name.
11:52 p.m. - 2004-06-17
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