with a big smile on my face

the hospital jeff and i were born in gives you a hand-painted baby shoe with all of your stats on it. what a nice thing.

today i drove by the downtown round rock public library and i had nothing to do this afternoon so i decided to go inside and get a library card. i never read books more than once, and i've wanted to read the audacity of hope for a long time.
so i walk to the front desk, there's a man with a bolo tie and a cowboy hat sitting there. [if you're not from texas, let me mention that this is not normal attire for austin, or even most towns with a population over 1,000 people in this state].

megan: hi, i'd like a library card

man: ok, i need proof of residency.. so a water/telephone/utility bill or something with your address on it

me: hmm i might have to come back..

man: let's see if you're in the city limits or if you'd need to pay extra.

so i give him my address in round rock, he looks it up and sees that yes i am in the city limits

me: oh wait, i have my car insurance paper in my car

so i come back with it and hand it to him.

me: they mistyped the zip code, so it says i live in lockhart, but you can see it's the same street address as what you just looked up

guy: sorry, it needs to have 'round rock' printed on the paper

me: you just looked it up on the computer

guy: i'm going to need to call my supervisor

supervisor: what's going on? let me see the paper

me: you can see how they just missed a number.. i'm really not trying to swindle you out of a library card.. but i'd be happy to come back with a water bill or something

the guy looks me up and down, he's in his 30s, kinda nerdy. i bat my eyelashes.

supervisor: i guuuuess i can believe you're not traveling across texas trying to fake us out of library cards, so i'll give it to you

guy: i just thought it needed 'round rock' printed on it.

it was kind of silly. but now i have 3 library books! if you love food, you should read ruth reichl. she is so entertaining. she was the food critic for the NYT for a long time.