Pounding the Streets of Philadelphia

Finally, after two weeks of being stuck inside due to extreme weather, Mother Nature calmed down enough for me to run some errands, including a big one I've put off due to the cold - heading into Philadelphia to do some job hunting.

I thought my best bet for finding a job would be in a bookstore. I know about running cash registers, I know about books and how to sort them, I know how to organize CDs and DVDs. (I keep detailed inventories of my own DVD, video, music, and book collections.) The big chain bookstores seem to have killed off most of the shops in Suburban Philadelphia, so I headed for Center City.

I went to five stores in five hours. I wasn't really surprised to have no luck anywhere. I suspect that what the proprietor of Whodunnit (specializing in mysteries, naturally) holds true for everyone - the extremely cold weather and the time of year has pretty much killed off sales for everyone, regardless of size. One store owner spoke of closing. Everyone was really nice to me, though, and Whodunnit in particular was awesome, filled top to bottom with a great assortment of mysteries - heaven for a mystery-novel-addict!

I bought one of the Paige Turner mysteries, "How To Murder A Millionaire," from Whodunnit. I picked up a Valentine's Day present for myself from the big Barnes and Noble on Walnut Street - "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who, 1958-1978." It was either that or "Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock and Roll Legend," but the latter was more expensive. I probably shouldn't have bought "Anyhow," but it's a wealth of info on British band The Who, with some fantastic pictures.

Oh well. If we do get massive amounts of snow and ice, I'll have some new books to sustain me. :)

Even just being out and about again after two weeks of crazy cold weather was nice. I'm starting to get a better feel for Philadelphia, too. The streets aren't easy to navigate, but it's fun to walk around and just see the sights. (There's a lovely park across from the Barnes and Noble I'd like to take a better look at when the weather improves. :D)