February was strangely busy. I mean, I'd love to pinpoint why, because if I don't know the reasons, maybe it's just luck. And good luck ain't nothing to count on. Or it could be one of those cycles--or an anomaly--or because the Californians had their pre-spring break. The hotness of Pokemon.

I'd love to believe that we've been found. That we've hit the grade school kid grapevine (nothing more powerful than the grade school grapevine.)

I'd love to believe that it's because I've done such an excellent job of stocking and diversifying.

I'd love to believe it's because of our sparkling personalities--well, at least, Sabrina's sparkling personality. 

There is a tendency to credit your own self--but the truth is, we're just riding a wave. There is some skill in riding that wave but don't ever think you created that wave. 

I have a terrible habit of spending whatever profits we make on more material. I mean, it's not the worst decision; it may be why we've survived so long. But I always told myself if we had another surge, I'd set at least some of the money aside.

The first two times it happened, I was so intent on building the store that when the train stopped, we had nothing left in the tank. In fact, we kept having to spend on our commitments, which put us deep in debt. So the next two or three times we had a surge, all it did was service the debt.

Then in the early 2000s we got out of debt, but the store was so threadbare that I spent all of that surge just trying to restock the store in preparation for the next collapse (the housing bubble, which I saw years in advance.)

And finally, as we started coming back again, I transformed the store yet again, bringing in games and new books at a much higher level. 

So we're there. There isn't even any real space to diversify more or bring in much more stock. We're doing well, and I should for once sit back and let it happen.

But old habits are hard to break.