the nerdery

I am a self-proclaimed and proud member of the English Nerdery, an organization into which my equally as nerdy friend, Frans, excitedly invited me after I called her last August 22nd to let her know it was National Punctuation Day, urging her to put on her party hat and sing (parenthetical) praises to all properly employed punctuation.

I’ve always been a nerd, reading the Bernstein Bears books competitively with my sister as a kid, lying awake at night in eager anticipation of an upcoming Read-A-Thon at school (seriously, that nerdy), and frustrating my parents' attempts to punish me with bedroom lockdown by reveling in the opportunity to lay down uninterrupted with my latest literary companion. Obviously, my place in the Nerdery need not be questioned.

I adore literature almost to the point of addiction, spending several hours a week working my way through Powell’s (if there is a Heaven, it looks like this), wishing I lived there, quietly calculating my current book-buying budget, and inevitably ignoring said calculation by purchasing a (no doubt necessary) paperback. Or two. Today, I even broke the cardinal, self-imposed Only-For-Emergencies Credit Card Rule to satisfy my lust for the literary, claiming my need for new reading material clearly negates my crime. The truth is, my apartment is home to numerous piles of already-paid-for-but-not-yet-perused prose, items I felt an urge to obtain but have not found the time to enjoy. (I used to do the same thing with my grandma’s mashed potatoes, overfilling my plate with the satisfyingly softened spuds only to realize minutes later that I’d overestimated my ability to consume such a copious amount of anything. It’s like that, but with books instead of food.)

Still, I forgive myself my infatuation with words. After all, it’s a seemingly safe sort of passion to explore, and it’s secured me membership in the English Nerdery, where I get to nerd it up with friends like Frans, whose plans to one day live in Portland are partly inspired by its promise of Powell’s. Powell’s, and the possibility of reuniting with her Hans.