Beach!

We're off like a herd of turtles this morning to spend a week in a lovely house on the beach. I am sipping coffee in the few a.m. hours that I will have to myself before the lines in front of the coffee pot and bathroom begin to form and the (re)packing of the cars and mini SUVs ensues.

but wait

a moment of extreme panic

I forgot to buy a beach book!

Yes, yes, I have the backpack full of work that I somehow can't leave home without. The books I need to read for a review essay that I am writing, the essay that I need to review by the end of the month for my very favorite journal, the books I want to skim before sitting down and writing the conclusion that has been hanging over my head for what seems like years. But no trash novel!!!!

What was I thinking yesterday when I chose to clean my car (yikes!) instead of traveling to a bookstore to buy a couple of paperbacks?

Now, the admittedly small but still sane portion of my brain rationally reminds me that there are, indeed, bookstores in nearly every town and city in the country.* But what if I can't get to one before the urge, no, the NEED to sink down into some tawdry mystery or campy espionage hits like a ton of bricks?

Deep breaths and

I'm off!

*One of the odd quirks left to me by my mom is that weird feeling that once one goes on vacation, one leaves the civilized world and enters into some strange parallel plane of existence where things like grocery stores, drugstores and bookstores no longer exist. As a result, one must absolutely shop for and pack every possible item that one might want or need in the days or weeks of the vacation because if one doesn't, then life as we know it may just cease to exist.