Back in Boulder

I’m back in Colorado again, tackling the next phase of the Betsy’s Book project. I’m here for three weeks, with the goal of getting the house ready for sale. I have mixed feeling about this, ranging from:

• Sadness - this was our home for so long, and I will no longer have ties to Boulder once it’s sold.

• Resentment - why is there SO MUCH STUFF and SO MANY STAIRS in this house?

• Anxiety - the housing market is whacky and I don’t understand what is happening (it looks like a whole lot of NOTHING to me)

Because room is filled with books, getting them out of the house is my top priority before I can focus on other stuff. So far, I have shipped 24 boxes (9x9x12) of books back to myself in Seattle so that I can continue cataloguing and distributing books when I’m back in my apartment. (Many thanks to my USPS guy and to my house sitter Camille who are going to have to haul those boxes up the stairs and into my spare bedroom!)

I just purchased 14 more boxes that I will be filling up and shipping to the very generous volunteers who have offered to distribute books where they live. I’ll hopefully be able to process and get those out in the next week or so.

I’ve been here for six days and while I’ve made progress, I am so very tired. This is a fun project, it is also a very taxing project. My body hurts from hauling books around, I am covered in dust, and I really miss my mom. What is also not helpful is that I just started some new medications that are making me feel kind of gross - plus the high altitude is always kind of a hard adjustment. In true Boulder-fashion, I’ve taken to getting B-12 injections and drinking bone broth and green juices, because I’ve got to get my energy back up!

I took (my version of) a break yesterday and visited over a dozen Little Free Libraries in North Boulder and dropped off books in each. It was a fun way to explore part of town that I don’t know as well, and I offloaded about 100 hardcover books!