Wednesday, September 28, 2005

I see now why you are supposed to practice reading. And thank goodness I did. I read through my chosen segment a bunch of times, first alone in the bathroom with a clock and then in front of Michael. I read it so many times that when the time came to stand up and read it at Get Lost Travel, my mind's wanderings didn't stop the words from coming. Hiromi said afterwards that I sounded nervous at first but then I relaxed into it and sounded fine. I can believe that. I started reading and felt my voice shaking then I thought, I wonder if I should run away.

Then I thought, what's down that hallway back there? What if I just ran down there? What would happen? Jen would probably have to come up and rescue the situation. I wonder if they would let me hide back there until everyone left or if they'd force me to walk out in front of everyone. Then I thought, Oh stop that, you're not running anywhere. That's stupid. That's probably when I stopped sounding nervous.

Elizabeth Asdorian was there too, reading her piece, "The Naked and the Wed," which was great. She did not sound at all like she was contemplating escape. Next time I hope to come across as cool and relaxed as she did.

It was a decent-sized crowd but a small venue, so the room was overflowing. Ben and Hiromi, who we are staying with, were there, and Anu and her husband Daniel were there. Mila was there; she was my first natural-hair hero back in the day, so it was nice to see her again now that I'm done living the lye. Thanks for coming, guys!!!

Cecili, I'm sorry you couldn't make it, but getting your message from the bookstore owner was pretty cool too, it made me feel all famous and writerly and stuff, like back in the day when important people would get that phone delivered to them on a tray in restaurants.

I want to give a shout out to Downright Dave, hope you are reading, yours is the third book I signed (in my life) and the first to someone I didn't know and that was very cool, so thank you!

And I have to thank Jen Leo for putting it all together and for giving us the wonderful Empire of the Underwear books in the first place, the first two which I bought and enjoyed as a reader and the third which I am IN!!! as a writer.

Get Lost Travel is a really nice bookstore that also sells backpacks and little useful travel items like Moleskines and teeny bottles. I wish I had known about it when I lived in San Francisco; I would have been there every week. Seriously, if you are into travel, regular or armchair, it's like a little perfect oasis.

Afterwards we had some very welcome mohitos at the Orbit Room. That was nice. I needed to relax after all that stress. Why is it so frightening to read? Is it just me? I wonder if it will get easier with time.

I feel ready to get going now. My time in Mississippi made me sad and that was followed by and mingled with stress over the reading, but now... well the world is just our oyster, isn't it? Whatever that means. We're getting on a bus to LA tomorrow.

HOURS ON THE BUS: 6

 

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Get Lost

Me, NOT running away.