Going to do an un-timed entry today I think. Which means I have to ignore the open Bookcrossing.com window and write, doesn't it? Heh. I went to Physio this morning and then went book shopping like an insane woman.

I mentioned to Liz this morning that I've been waking up in pain and she got this curious look and poked at me. My lower back is loose and moves well now but then I mentioned offhand the back pain I get around my bra line. She poked at my spine there and I swear I felt stuff pop. It sucked. As I'm listening to her talking about how "solid", "locked" my spine is in my upper back I realized that we now have another area to work on.

And I do. I have another exercise to try and loosen up my spine to do at home and I guess I'm going to start dosing myself with Vioxx at night before bed. I'm still really worried that I'm going to become resistant to the meds and then they won't work when the pain gets really bad. But if I don't start getting my much-needed 8 hours solid of sleep a night, I will certainly slide into a depression.

Once I was finished with Physio I headed out on my quest to find as many of the Valdemar books as I could so I can continue reading in that world. I was really tempted by the His Dark Materials Series by Philip Pullman. It was $5 for the first book and I hate spending that much on a used book, especially untried. (I'll spend that on the Mercedes Lackey books because I know I enjoy them all and I will read them again.) I've decided since that I'll pick it up next time I'm in that bookstore, even at $5.

Surprisingly, the KW Bookstore had nothing on my list today. Not a blessed thing. I picked up Dayworld for 70 cents because it was there and I will eventually want to re-read that series but it was barren of anything else. Plus there's quite the chunk out of their SF/F section with DVDs in there instead. The other two stores in Downtown Kitchener had enough to make up for it. I now have another 17 books for about $80. If I keep up with my current reading speed that many books should last me another month or so.

~*~

Occasionally I realize how much I miss the little haunts I found when I lived in Toronto. Bill's Fish & Chips (which he has since sold as I discovered this summer), The Winchester Arms, and Growlers. Today I really missed Growlers. I stopped for lunch and to warm up at Rum Runner's, in the basement of the Walper. My first impression was that it was a little too fancy for what I wanted -- a place to sit back, flip through the books I had bought so far, eat a little and read a little. I went in anyways. The waiter was both cute and charming, but disappointingly ended up rushing me with the bill at the end. I was happy with it to that point. A bit too expensive, but the food was good, service was friendly and prompt, all in all good. But when I get rushed with the bill when I'm sipping on my coffee and reading I get annoyed.

I've found that there is a decided lack of places to sit and be quiet locally. At Growlers I knew as long as I made sure to skip the lunch crowd and head out by the time the after-work crowd arrived, I would be left to my own devices. Many times I would spend a quiet afternoon nursing a beer and writing in my journal there. It's one of my favourite memories of living in the Big City, those quiet spaces found in the corners of the noise. Oddly enough I've come home to a quieter place only to find my life so much more rushed. Funny how that works.