I live in Boston but work in Cambridge, on the other side of the Charles river. It's a 15 minute ride between the two, at least, from where I live and work. On Friday the arts collective I belong to was hosting a reading with a Chinese American author named Ed Lin. I was pretty excited to meet him and was planning on helping set up the event. The reading was taking place at a bookstore in Cambridge at 8pm. So at 5, I met up with Van, another woman from the group and we made our way to the bookstore.
(I can't recall if I've told you about the arts group before. You can read more about them here.)
We got there around 5:30 and started cleaning up the store. Because it's completely volunteer run, the store doesn't have a set schedule, and isn't often open. We occupy the space at least once a month though for events like this one, and often there is sweeping and cleaning that needs to be done.
Van surveys the state of the store.
Ed Lin arrived at the store pretty soon after, around 6:30. We talked to him for a bit while setting up. He was very easy to talk to and smiled a lot. I took some cash from the register and went to buy some refreshments and snacks for the event.
I stopped by Au Bon Pain and asked if they had any spare trays. My work has catered from them in the past and I know they usually have some lying around. A young woman there was kind and found me some to take free of charge. I then went to this small coop market and purchased some strawberries, grapes, carrots and nuts. Then I stopped by 7/11 for chips, soda, ice, and paper cups and plates. When I got back, some familiar faces were at the store, and I started laying out the food. There was a lot! I was worried that more people weren't going to come, but by 8pm a few new faces came into the store, and we had a fairly full house. Jeff came too, at my request.
Ed's reading was great. He read from his latest book, a novel about a cop in 1970s Chinatown. He stayed after to sign books and we sold a few. (The organization ordered 22 books, so we have a lot extra). By 10 pm everyone was out, and Van and I cleaned up the foods and locked up. There was lots of food left over. I went home w/Jeff and took a bag of chips, grapes, and carrots with me. Because it was still pretty early, we decided to go to Jeff's to hangout.
Jeff stopped by the grocery store to get some ground beef, and we made some dipping stuff to go with the bag of chips we had. We drank several shots of vodka and talked until 3 or 4 in the morning when we dozed off in the living room. I woke up again in the night and I couldn't fall asleep, so I watched a movie until morning. The sky began to lighten and I decided to grab my camera that I had left in Jeffrey's car. I was worried that with the heat and humidity it might get damaged. I walked out and was surprised to see people jogging across the street at so early an hour.
I also grabbed a book I'd been reading and went back into his condo. I went to the bedroom and laid on the bed and read, hoping it might help me sleep, but my mind was pretty sharp. Sometimes when I get past the normal time for sleeping, I just can't fall asleep, no matter what I try. I did push ups trying to tire myself out, and I put on an eye mask to try and block out the light, but every time I lay there with my eyes closed I don't feel the least bit tired. So I read the book on the bed until it was done.
Jeff woke up around 7:30 and found me still awake. I said good morning and got a glass of water. My head hurt from little sleep and the vodka I'd drank earlier. I took an advil and went back to the bed, and waited complacently for sleep to take me.
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