Valdez: "Book Obsession Beginnings"

This is where it all started. The therapist inside my head says that in order to confront my addiction and start the recovery process I must go back to the root of it all.

It was here, at the Valdez Consortium Library that I began my love affair with the written word.



I would bike 3 blocks from my home (now, a Mexican restaurant and hairdresser!) to the local library and sit for hours in THE PIT.

The colorful carpeted area used to be a sunken step-down lounge called THE PIT. I would spend hours there, reading and laying about, avoiding chores at home. And getting out of the rain.

Apparently, too many tourists (probably from Texas) fell in the pit. They would be looking up at the murals, and let's face it, Texans are so IN AWE of all things Alaska, and sometimes they are a danger to themselves! So it was filled in.

My first stop after getting off the ferry in Valdez was the Valdez Library. I scanned the shelves for the Raggedy Ann series that I spent time devouring as an early reader, but had no luck. Don't pity me, I convinced my mom to indulge my obsession a few years ago and she bought me every book in the series on EBay.

(FYI: Mom, the therapist in my head says you have to quit enabling me to be an OC 'Obsessive Crazed' Reader, but I didn't listen and neither should you!)

Then, as if in a dream, I walked upstairs and went right to a shelf, quickly finding a favorite book. It was in the exact same spot as when I used to look it up 20 years ago! I frequented this book like a drunk goes back to the same bar. I loved all things Diana in 1988, as a Junior High Nerd.

Luckily, on this trip home to Valdez, I was able to confront two obsessions: Reading in THE PIT and the Diana book that started my Complete and Total devotion to all things PRINCESS. I think I might be beyond help. Especially if I keep hearing a therapist in my head!