Davis County

What a fantastic weekend we had. It kicked off Thursday night. After waiting for the traffic to die down we headed North on I-15. Those of you who know NB I-15 at 5:00 on a holiday weekend may now groan with me. Uuugggghhhhhhhh!!!!! I went home, and told Josh there was no way on this planet I was leaving our house until traffic was un-horrible. And I don't care HOW much like the real live beach Bear Lake looks!

We waited until 6:00, then checked the traffic. It wasn't moving.
We waited until 6:45 because we knew that everybody would leave early for the holiday weekend. It still wasn't moving.
We waited until 7:30 because we knew nobody in their right mind leaves that late on a holiday weekend! It still wasn't moving.

So at 8:00, we did what any sane couple would do. We loaded up the car and decided to join the throngs of people who were heading North for the holiday. Only when we got to the freeway, we took one look at it (which incidentally looked EXACTLY like the website said it looked) and decided we needed to kill some time before really joining in.

Since we have now been Davis County residents for 6 months, we figured it was high time to get a Davis County Library card. So, to the Bountiful branch we went. We picked some books to listen to on the way, and signed up for our cards. It turns out I have an opinion about the library in general. I've had some really fantastic library experiences, and some not-so-fantastic ones.

Salt Lake County library has 25,000 copies of every book known to man. And you can have access to any of them with just one card. You can even have them transferred between libraries so you can pick it up anywhere and drop it off anywhere. You can put stuff on hold online, and renew your books online. You can have pretty much anything you want from anywhere. That's why it's cool. Only trouble is their website is a pain to navigate, which makes me think that I'm too old to use a computer which just makes me mad. I'm only 23 - 22? I was born in 1985, which really wasn't that long ago. Also, they have branches all over the county - starting at about 3300 South, and not any closer to downtown, which bugs me. I suppose that's because of the Salt Lake City library though.....

Salt Lake City library has A LOT of books, a very cool atmosphere (coffee shops and stuff outside), and like 4 elevators, which is cool. But, it's downtown, which means parking is scary, you have to go into a dark and scary parking garage that you enter from 4th South. You can't really see in, so you could easily be hitting a pedestrian who is smarter than you because instead of dealing with the scary parking, they walked. You could also be hitting the wall because you can't really tell where it's going. Every time I go there, I park, and since only the first 30 minutes are free, I panic and hurry as fast as possible. I skip over the cool ambiance, the coffee shops, and the elevators. I run in a mad dash to the computer that tells me where the book I want is. It's checked out. Always. It's never EVER available. Then I wander around trying to find a new book to read, and I can't find the right section. Ever. The library is SO huge that I don't even know what floor I'm on, much less which floor I want to be on, or which floor my book would be on if it was where it belongs. Which it's not. Ever. Then I RUN back out to my car, repeating the number I parked by (P3B, P3B, P3B) over and over in my head because I have an irrational fear of being lost in a parking garage. All the while trying desperately not to trip down the ENORMOUS staircase leading down into the aforementioned dark and scary parking garage. You'd think that once I find my car, the panic would be over. It's not. Because then I have to find my way OUT of the parking garage. I hand my ticket to the nice lady - 29 minutes flashes up on the screen and I finally breathe a sigh of relief, letting my guard down and vowing that I will run faster next time because I don't want to cut it too close. Only to realize I almost hit a "smarter-than-me" pedestrian on my way out. The Salt Lake City Library stresses me out.

Davis County Library has an incredible website that doesn't make me feel old - just cool. They have a lotta books. You can transfer them between libraries; but, in the words of the 17 year old kid that gave us our cards "you request a book, then 1-2 weeks later, you can pick it up at your requested location and the fee is $1". Why do you have to pay AND wait that long for a book from the library? That's my question. Not that $1 is a lot (unless your watching KFC commercials, then it can change your life) but it's a hassle. Not enough to use a debit card, and more than I can find in the cup holder in my car. I'd have to think about bringing $1 with me to the library to check out my "free" book. That bugs me. When we first walked in to the library it smelled like wet dog and pee. Not a good smell for a library. Neither of those things mix well with books - come to think of it they don't mix with anything really. On the plus side for Davis County, it's close(ish) to my house and the water in their drinking fountain tastes SOOO good. As for the rest of the important library features, the verdict is still out, I'll let you know when I decide. Just in case, I'm keeping my Salt Lake County Library card.

After 45 minutes in the library, we headed North on I-15. Those of you who know NB I-15 at 8:15 on a holiday weekend may now groan with me. Uuugggghhhhhhhh!!!!! Traffic still wasn't moving.