Refilling my wallet

I am a library pig.

When I lived and worked in Claremont, California, my staff ID card gave me access to an excellent university library, as well as electronic connections to library resources beyond my wildest intellectual dreams. But that wasn't enough for me. I also had a card to the Claremont School of Theology library and one to the Los Angeles County Public Library system. I found out that Pomona, California had a city library separate from the county system, but there was a charge for non-Pomona residents. On the very day that I moved from Claremont to Pomona, the same day that I went to Pomona City Hall to arrange for my utilities, I walked across the plaza to the City of Pomona Library waving the bill with my new address on it, and joined that library, too.

I left my job at Claremont and had to turn in my ID card along with my library privileges. The other libraries didn't ask for their cards back, but the commute is difficult. I emptied all of my California library cards from my wallet. My wallet became significantly lighter.

It didn't last long. My first weekend at my Brooklyn home, I acquired a card for the Brooklyn Public Library. When I moved to my temporary home in New Jersey, I joined the Monroe Township Library. And just today, in the mail, I received my library card to the New York Public Library. The card, to my delight, still bears a picture of the stone lions which grace the front of the main building at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

The only problem is that, once again, I have trouble closing my wallet.