The View From My Deck

I've taken a few unscheduled days off this week, not by choice but out of necessity. I'm forced to slow down and in doing so find myself looking out the window toward the river. Blue sky and sunshine are peeking from behind the clouds and raindrops are landing on the deck. I love that about Oregon.

Since I've been out of the shop I'm a little out of touch with the world of books. Well maybe that's not quite true. Maybe I'm more in touch, as I've had more time to read. It's amazing how I spend most of my days in a shop filled with books, but do most of my reading here at home. At work I spend time in conversation with the interesting people who walk in my door.

Words are one of the cornerstones of my life. When events overwhelm me I bury myself in a book or I write. Words are my refuge and my coping mechanism. How fitting that I spend every Tuesday through Saturday in rooms lined with burgeoning bookshelves - burgeoning bookshelves brimming with a bounty of books (sorry, I got carried away!).

People ask me sometimes why I opened a bookshop.  They assume it's been my life's dream. Maybe I should confess that, really, I just wanted my own private library - an endless supply of books in a shop by the river where blue sky and sunshine peek through the clouds as raindrops fall on my deck.

Twilight

Last night I decided I'd procrastinated long enough and finally sat down and watched Twilight. Yeah, I know, they're shooting the 3rd movie and I'm just now watching the first. What can I say? I can't keep the books on the shelf - they fly out of here, and we have people from all over visiting St. Helens daily, taking pictures of sites used in the movie. I've certainly known enough about the film. Just hadn't gotten around to watching it.  Last week we even had reporters from a newspaper in Great Britain interviewing some of our local shopkeepers involved in the original production.You'd think I'd have put watching it at the top of my list. One of the things that struck me was how much of the first half of the movie was actually shot in St. Helens, not Forks. There was one scene in the high school office that was actually the office at St. Helens High School. Strange, I would have thought all school offices were pretty much the same, so the question is, why ours? And the town where the girls shopped for a prom dress? Yup, that was St. Helens, and the dresses were from Jilly's. The dress shop, park & courthouse, parking lot where the confrontation happened & the street they raced through were all familiar. The restaurant was a building 1/2 block from Word for Word, and the book store was the office of a local attorney. The Columbia Theater - yup that's ours too. All of those backstreets and alleys? That's where my youngest daughter, Sadie, & her friends would hide when she was about 13 and I was trying to track her down. Did I mention Bella's house? It's on 6th street. The 2nd half of the movie was mostly shot in other locations, but the first half should definitely put us on the map - the tour map, that is. Have to say, though, my favorite character wasn't Edward. It was Jacob. Always did go for those shoe-shufflers, the ones who weren't the obvious heroes - especially in high school. So tell me Twilight fans, what does that say about me, LOL? Well, whatever held me up this time, it probably won't take me quite as long to getting around to watching the 2nd movie in the series Have to do my homework, right? Got popcorn?

Organic Fair Trade Coffee Has Arrived!

Hooray! Now I can feel especially good about the coffee I serve at Word for Word Books. It was already good, but now it's better! We just received a shipment of Loop d' Loop from the Port Townsend Coffee Company in Port Townsend, Washington. After sampling a number of coffees on our recent scouting trip we settled on our favorite and are looking forward to sharing this rich, dark coffee. It is organically grown and purchased directly from cooperative farmers who are paid a fair price, giving them a living wage.

In the general coffee market growers often receive less money for their product than the cost of producing it. This keeps them trapped in an endless cycle of debt. The middleman makes the profits, while the farmers are forced into poverty, selling future rights to their harvests to pay for their basic and immediate needs. A recent study showed workers in Guatemala earning less than $3 a day for picking 100 pounds of coffee. Farmers in 50 nations make 30 - 50 cents on a pound of coffee for which consumers pay $10 -$15 a pound on the retail market. Since the 1980's activists and organizations have worked to change this situation and there is now a national movement toward supporting fair trade coffee cooperatives throughout the world. More information about the history of the Fair Trade movement is available at http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/faircoffee.cfm , from which I have excerpted this material.

Tuesday - My Monday

Back to work today. Spent a wonderful weekend relaxing in Port Townsend for my husband's birthday. While I was there I mixed in a little business with pleasure. We did a lot of sampling and found a new coffee supplier. Soon Word for Word will be offering Organic, Fair Trade coffee from Port Townsend Coffee Roasters. I hope you'll stop in and try it next week - let me know what you think. No more thermal pot, either, for the regular coffee drinkers. You'll all be enjoying drip coffee made to order by the single cup. Coffee, as you like it.

Spring Weather in St. Helens

As the sun begins to show itself more often it's a lot more pleasant to walk around town. Restaurants are readying their outdoor dining spaces for the warmer weather to come, and there is no more ducking into doorways to avoid sudden downpours or stepping into ankle-deep water rushing in the gutters. Yes, I think it's safe to say that Spring is finally here. Well, that's supposing we don't get a sudden reversal. Hopefully winter won't reappear, belatedly bring us the cold weather that never quite arrived when we expected.

Here at Word for Word spring flowers and herbs have appeared in front of the store, together with a box of "SALE" books. Finally I can put them out where they can be seen without getting drenched by rainshowers. Soon I'll be looking for a cafe table and chairs - a little outdoor space for both my book and espresso customers so they can enjoy the fine weather to come.

I'll be closed on Saturday to celebrate my husband's birthday, but will be back for my regular hours next week: Tuesday - Saturday, 10AM - 6PM. I'll have to figure out my summer hours soon, but not yet. Just now I'm basking in the warmer days, anticipating our weekend escape to Port Townsend.

See you when we return refreshed and with new stories to share!

Tapping Into My Inner Blogger

Once upon a very long time ago I was bitten by the language bug. There is no known antidote, and so I blog. Hopefully future posts will be more focused, but this will serve as an introduction to me, Susan, and to my charming little storefront bookstore and espresso bar, Word for Word. This is the second incarnation of Word for Word and is a very intimate version of the original, offering an eclectic selection of both paperback and hardcover used books in all genres. In March of 2009 I re-opened Word for Word as a way to be actively involved in my community. Bookstores are magnets for interesting people with issues to discuss, and so I've recently added both a reading room and an espresso cart to better serve my customers. Please feel free to drop in and visit when you find yourselves in this area. Be advised that there are often quite interesting discussions taking place and your input is always appreciated. I'll look forward to seeing you!