This morning was a bit odd. After writing up a stack of order cards for things I wanted to add to our collection (which I finally accomplished yesterday afternoon), I had to go through the next step of the process: turn the cards in to Joan. Back in the old days when we were swimming in money this was no big deal. I would simply say Joan we need this, and it would get ordered. Fast forward to the present where it can be a bit of an ordeal. I feel like I have to justify everything I write up, especially to Joan. We have a significantly reduced book budget, and Joan is very protective of the money we do have. She wants it spent wisely, and I can't really blame her. But that doesn't mean I'm a happy camper when we argue (sorry, negotiate) about whether or not to order a book.

Some books are really easy for me to push through, while others I have to fight a bit more for. This morning I ended up sorting my cards into three different piles on the front counter:

1) The absolute must haves; these books I would take a bullet for.
2) The delayed must haves; these books I could wait a month or two before ordering. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I would wait.
3) The maybe haves; these books I felt should be in our collection, but would be willing to give up to ensure a book from pile #2 made it to the order list.

From there we started the negotiations. After much discussion I got to merge piles #1 and #2 into an order pile, and I got move a good portion of pile #3 to the order pile as well. Score! Granted, I had to make some concessions for the future, but I ended up with only four cards left in the maybe pile. And considering that pile started off with at least ten cards, I'm very happy with the end result.

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