Question?: Women’s History Month and the Bookstore

So on my way home from class I regularly pass a Barnes and Noble. I usually stop in to get a cup of coffee, randomly walk by the shelves, and maybe decide if I have the energy to drive the .5 million miles to the nearest independent or feminist bookstore on the weekend to see what they have to offer. (weekends are not free time when you are an academic. no time really is unless you take it and even then it is not free.)

Today, I walked in and was bombarded with displays for Irish authors.

Me: umm, is it still February?

my gf: [seeing through me] what is it?

Me: I love my people and all, but isn’t February black history month? Did February get shorter or something? Can it get any shorter?

hir: [impatient] ok, which people are we talking about? [I laugh as she makes me think of class] what happened?

Me: and isn’t St. Patrick’s Day only one day long, hence the word “day”?

hir: You’re in Barnes and Noble again aren’t you?

Me: and isn’t March Women’s History Month?

hir: walk out of Barnes and Noble now. Go directly to the house where coffee is waiting for you. Do not stop by the mini-Starbucks. Do not participate in corporate coffee. Do not allow corporate bookstore to collect $100 from you on your way out.

Me: I love you [closing the phone]

Sooooo . . . has this happened to you or is it just that I live in a free thinkers dead zone in which women and people of color don’t apparently deserve a month to themselves, even if you can profit off it, even in a recession?

Seriously, I want to know.