I'm in Plainsboro on Thursday mornings at a Bible study after which I have some free time before I must pick up the kids at school.

For the past few years there has been massive construction across the street of a village center. I watched the progress with mild interest until I became aware that one of the new buildings would be a public library. My schedule this year, with Ella in school on the two days a week that I'm in Plainsboro, has included some library time but not as much as I'd originally hoped or planned.

Earlier in the week, a lady in the afternoon Great Adventure study (the Timeline) at QoM told me the new library is open. I googled it and discovered the grand opening was the 10th. Well, the older boys had a half day last Thursday so even if I had known, I could have made only one of two.

I was terribly late for the Exodus Bible study this morning, like 30 minutes. That's 30 minutes on top of the 30 minutes that I'm normally late for dropping off my kids at school. An hour late, then, altogether, and I missed the entire homework review. Turnout was surprisingly low. IOW, I had a few choices on where to sit. Usually I have trouble getting a seat.

So after the second hour which is all video lecture, I drove over to QoM for a rosary in the sanctuary for some people I'm concerned about. And then, if the concrete slabs had been laid in the dug-out sidewalk, I could have walked over to the library from the church parking lot. It's really close.

But I drove in my car anyway because it probably isn't right to leave it in the parking lot of one place while I'm at another place. Another world, really. I need to bring my camera next time because it's quite appealing.

I'm aware these village centers are cropping up across the state and the country. I had heard this report (or one like it) on NPR. The last time I visited Columbus (CB) a couple of years ago, the relatives took us to Polaris. And even then, before the economy had tanked, I wondered how such an enterprise could stay afloat. But cars were backed up for miles trying to get into the place.

I took a city planning course as an undergraduate and I remember only the case studies of how not to layout a city. Generally the notion at the time was that cities more or less "just happened." We were not to repeat the perceived errors of Levittown. I'm still fairly opposed to the village center concept. There's supposed to be one going up in Manalapan. The sign heralding the project has been posted for years but only tonight did I notice that someone had spray painted a big "F-ck You" across the board. We don't generally have a problem with graffiti or profanity.


Anyway, the library is awesome. I can visit it on Thursdays for about the next month or so. Well, wait, strike that because there's Mother Day things at school next Thursday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But every Thursday after that!