Today I Hid In a Bookstore

I will start this by admitting that I am VERY tired right now and the struggle to keep me eyes open is very real. This past weekend I ran the Gasparilla Distance Classic (posts about the races coming soon) and I have yet to have time to catch up on that pesky sleeping thing.

True to my insane life, rather than being able to relax today, I had to wake up and jump on a flight to Philadelphia followed quickly by a road trip to New Jersey.

Many times people envy my life on the road and I will admit, many times it can be a lot of fun, other times it can be insanely stressful and exhausting.

Today is a combination of everything. As I mentioned above, I am exhausted. We had a wonderful weekend and I was thrilled to have Erica in town. Whenever she visits, I make sure that we are making the most of our time. I’m spoiled, I get Florida and Disney all the time, she gets it in short spurts.

As a result, we stayed in Magic Kingdom for as long as possible last night until neither of us could keep our eyes open.

For adults, we are not smart people.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning to say goodbye to her as she left for the airport. Then I caught another couple hours of sleep before I had to pack and head to the airport myself.

My current trip is what I like to call a “blink trip”, one where I am only in a place for about 24 hours or less. In this case, from wheels down to wheels up I will be here for exactly 24 hours.

These trips in particular can be stressful depending on what is going on. Thankfully, I’m in the same time zone so I’m not completely thrown off.

So today, I landed in Philadelphia and had to trek across the bridge to New Jersey. Trek really is not the word since it was just an hour drive but still.

Being on the road can be great fun as I mentioned but it can also be very lonely. Worse is when you are tired and you are too early to check into your hotel.

That was the case today.

Now when this happens, there are a few options for what to do. The first is hole up in a Starbucks and get some work done. My brain was (and still is) in no mood for that to happen. Next is take myself to a movie to kill a couple of hours but I was worried I would fall asleep. The last option is to find a bookstore and turn it into my hiding hole forever.

I went with option three.

I will fully admit that in the age of Amazon shopping, I only really go to a bookstore when I’m on tour. Days like today remind me why that is unfortunate.

I find great solitude in the seemingly endless rows of books, especially when I hit the memoirs/biography section which is where I found myself today.

I have been working on my own memoir “You’re Doing It Wrong” going on about seven years now with a bulk of the writing having taken place over the last year. It has been a long and difficult process and I sincerely envy those who are able to do this in a shorter amount of time. Granted those same people are given an advance by publishers to get it done and they can afford to do nothing but write.

If I had all the time in the world, boy I would have a book by now.

Many people have argued that if I have time to write all these nonsensical blog posts then surely I have time to write a damn book.

If only it was that easy.

My blog posts are usually spur of the moment things that I often post without giving a second thought. They’ll be up for days before I notice a typo or other horrific error.

I don’t have that luxury with a book. People pay for those things.

This nonsense is free.

You’re welcome.

Anyway. I roamed into the Memoirs section and began my usual routine of looking for the same damn books I always look for.

The first is either book by Jenny Lawson. She is my long-time hero and I’m in love with her writing. Her second book “Furiously Happy” is my favorite and I’ve devoured it five times already, working on my 6^th. I own it in hardcover as well as the audio book. To give you an idea of how much I love it, I was listening to it on my drive from the airport to the hotel.

I love seeing it on the shelf and holding it in my hands.

It gives me hope and inspiration.

One day, someone will be excited to see my name on that shelf. Excited to hold my work in their hands.

I got this.

I also spotted another book that I happen to own. For the record, I only own it because it was on sale in the ebook store and I got it for 99 cents.

It’s a memoir called “I’m Special and Other Lies we Tell Ourselves” by Ryan O’Connell of Thought Catalogue fame.

It’s a book I’m happy I only paid 99 cents for.

But it’s another motivator to get myself writing and get my words out there.

And know that if this “book” can make it onto shelves, maybe I stand half a chance.

So, today I hid in a bookstore.

I recommend it sometime.