The Book Nerd

Sometimes, you are just going about a normal day, and you have an epiphany. Mine happened yesterday.

First, I have to apologize to my friend Dave. He had to experience the unpleasant part of listening to me chat his ear off about something he probably isn't particularly interested in.

This weekend has been about a few things: purging/reorganizing my apartment; getting back on my half marathon training plan; getting some rest since I have really not felt well since I basically wanted to do nothing but sleep the last few weeks (and hoping to find out more soon); and just plain doing what I wanted.

So, yesterday, I got a bit serious. I've been awful about running in the previous weeks and decided to make the trek to Kalamazoo to run with Dave on a trail I hadn't been to in Portage. Unfortunately, the run left me feeling like I have no business "being a runner". I was not ready for 3 miles in the humidity that we ended up with around 10am and had to stop in the last mile and walk most of it. The goal ended up being to just "move forward and get to the car".

After a quick trip to drop off stuff and a stop at Sonic to get a slushie (yay!), we ended up heading to lunch at Bilbo's (yay!). I don't know why I brought it up - I think I thought I saw a bookstore across the street - but I asked Dave if there were any small bookstores in the area. I actually had to go get cheese from The Cheese Lady to bring back to Lansing, and he said there was one and it was on the way.

We stopped at the Bookbug and I just got all excited. It reminded me a bit of Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor (where I used to spend a lot of time) and was just all kinds of fantastic. They had some of the special hardcover editions of some of the classics, including one of my childhood favorites, Anne of Green Gables. They also had a great selection of Out of Print t-shirts, which I clearly bought The Great Gatsby one (though, if they would have had the Nancy Drew one in my size, I would have gotten that too).

Anyway, the whole 40 minutes or so that we were there, plus the massive amount of reading I did on Thursday, got me talking about books. And how I used to sneak a book into the shopping cart at Meijer almost every time we went.

And it got me to the point of realizing that right now, I'm in the right place. The last few years have felt like I haven't quite been myself, as I've been so busy that I haven't had time to read as much as I used to, go to yoga on a regular basis and have just lost control of all the junk that I've accumulated in my little one bedroom apartment.

But now I'm making an effort to get back to these things AND incorporate school, work and running. I have the opportunity right now to be whatever I want to be.

It seems fitting that there was a box of pins on the counter at the Bookbug yesterday. The first one I picked up was one that said "Book Nerd" and I promptly bought it. Sometimes it just takes a little nudge to get back to the things that make you happy.