Update 2: Impulse shopping

Maybe it's all cyclical, and I'm just back to the delusional point. At least we all know this isn't the first time I've been here. And today, it involves impulse shopping.

I own a lot of books (think more than 25 boxes when I moved in November), but that's because I'm a graduate student and I use those books to teach and to think broadly about my research. So what does the infertile woman do CD 13? She stops by the used book store and buys a stack of children's books. See, there is a used book store at the entrance of the public library where I work during the day (the part of it left after 2 IF appointments) and the books are mostly ex-library hardbacks priced at $1-2 per book. An excellent bargain that supports a public library in the South. And they have a wide selection of history books and books about foreign countries, and even some foreign language books.

I succesfully fended off JD's objections when I first brought home a stack of children's books in September by explaining that I was going to send them to my dear friend who is stuck on an army base abroad. But of course, JD is quite intelligent enough to notice that that stack of books is still under his sock bin in the closet. And it's about to get a lot taller. I've never had the impulse to buy children's clothes or baby blankets and never, ever set foot in a maternity store. But children's books, that's a different matter. Because somewhere in the back of my head the following arguments percolate:
a. they never go bad (although they are the pits to move, and we move a lot)
b. you can always re-gift books, especially if you buy them used to start with
c. someday I am going to have a little someone to read to (maybe not a baby if we chose the adoption route, but definitely a toddler)
d. and the books i'm buying are new and more diverse than what I had as a child. because I was one of the most spoiled children ever in terms of glorious books and dolls and blocks and playsets and puppets and pets and everything else a child could desire, and every book I ever owned is neatly boxed and waiting for grandchildren at my parent's house. in fact, my mother labeled the boxes by age in case the grandchildren pop out so quickly she doesn't have time to sort the toys ... but these are all books I didn't have as a child. I know, I remember books I've read.

The very nice elderly woman working at the store assured me that there are 4 more boxes of children's books in the back and if I come back next week I can have first pick of what's in them. Let's really hope I'm in good enough shape to do that next week.

18% isn't awful odds, really.