I like em' old

On Sunday afternoon I went to the wrap up party at Aqua Books for the Writers Festival volunteers. I had never been to Aqua before. It's a cute little used bookstore with a cafe in the back.

I bumped into my fellow hospitality suite host while in line for a drink.

"Listen Jill, I just want to apologize for being such a motormouth on Friday night there. I was so tired and when I'm tired I tend to just ramble," he said.

"Aw don't worry about it. I was tired too," I said.

Later, he joined me at the table and we chatted a bit more. He's really a sweet guy. I felt bad for wishing he was someone else when I first met him. Hopefully we'll meet up again next year.

After the eating and speeches were done I browsed the bookstore a bit to kill some time before heading over to the concert. I love old books. I love how they smell. Is that weird? I don't care. I found this one section, I don't know what the subject actually was, maybe just "Old", and it had an entire shelf of old books with leather covers and spines. I pulled one off the shelf that was labeled 1910, opened it and stuck my nose in to inhale. It was delightful.

I then found myself in a corner of children's and young adult literature. This has always been my favourite section in the library. I just love reading about firsts and bullies and snobs, teachers and role models, older siblings and younger siblings. I read a lot as a kid because I liked the stories. It's harder now to know where to find a book for adults that has the same level of appeal. That's why I don't read as much now.

I found a few old favourites I remembered reading. I loved Gordon Korman, Monica Hughes, Beverly Cleary, and all of the Nancy Drew series. As I scanned the shelves a green hard cover book caught my eye. The title on the spine was Jack and Jill. I had no idea Louisa May Alcott had turned the nursery rhyme into a novel! I grabbed it and read the first few pages. Jill, according to Alcott, is a daring little girl and Jack is an athletic little fellow who can't say no to Jill. Just like a kid, I used the last five dollars and 25 cents I had in my wallet to make it mine.

I got to the concert about an hour early so I read until the opening act came on. Lady Antebellum was alright but a bit too twangy for my tastes. Keith Urban on the other hand was amazing. I'd pay more money to see him next time he's in town.

I'm not a real fan of the country music genre, but what I do like about it is that it does so well at putting to music the feelings of joy and sadness. I think what I really wanted to hear that night was some honest to good hurting songs, and some awesome, uplifting, make-you-want-to-get-up-and-dance songs. For me this year I feel like there have been stories that brought me both pure joy and pure sadness. You can't really know one without having spent time with the other.

I really enjoyed the concert but I hope I don't make it a practice to go solo too often. There was a group of girls beside me singing and dancing along. I kind of wished I was part of them.