Membership Has Its Privileges

I was in Barnes & Nobel today, meeting a friend for a bit of cocoa and conversation. While I was there, I picked up a book we promised my father-in-law for his birthday and, well, a couple of other things.

While I was standing in line doing quick math in my head (okay, I'll 'fess up, I have to round everything to the nearest, oh, five dollars. My math skills really suck), I figured I had about eighty bucks' worth of books. Yikes. While figuring, and keeping track of my small people, I heard someone behind a register talking about a teachers' discount. Hello? Could you say that again, please?

So, when my turn came, I asked my very pierced checkout girl what the whole "teachers' discount" thing was about. She turned expectantly to her manager, who proceeded to explain to me that, if I could provide a paystub or a picture ID from my school, I could take advantage of the promotion. It gives me 20% off of school related books (but not textbooks, he explained, because B & N doesn't get discounts off of them from the publisher and, therefore, can't pass along a discount to the customer) and discounts on other things like DVDs and games during their special educators' weeks, which he'd be happy to inform me of if I provided my email address.

It turns out he was willing to take my word for it that I worked in a high school, since I had neither my ID nor a paystub to offer as proof of my eligibility. I'm pretty sure my selection of books helped my case quite a bit - I had the Arden Complete Shakespeare and a bunch of SparkNotes folders about grammar, composition and annotation; not exactly bedside reading for most folks.

After my discount, I still payed over seventy bucks. It's okay, though - I got a new book for the girls, my FIL's birthday present, a really nice annotated complete works of the Bard, and a bunch of easy-to-follow quick references that are very helpful in making mini-lesson plans.

Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE books?