Since relocating, I’ve been recreating my life. Not exactly the way it was in Austin since I was priced out of that city, but in a way that I can still enjoy being alive.
I hadn’t counted on not finding something as seemingly basic as a book exchange. One of those take a book/leave a book set ups found in some Mom and Pop coffee shops. I asked my sister to help me with that task on a laid-back Sunday when we both had time to kill.
The first place she took me to was so out of the way, out in yonder, I was impressed she knew about it. Nonetheless, their book exchange kiosk was no longer there. Then we paid a visit to an actual coffee shop that hosted open mics upstairs. We struck out there too.
As a matter of fact, the upstairs was so small, I’ll have to see it in action to believe that an actual open mic can exist there. I wonder whether there’s additional seating, or if people are cool with sitting on the floor, or if it’s so poorly attended that it’s left just the way it is.
My temporary solution to my book exchange dilemma is to ride around with that book in my car just in case I stumble upon a place where I can leave it.
I remember years ago being amazed that Build a Bear replaced the only bookstore in the oldest mall in town. Little did I know that was the canary in the coal mine.
One of my friends reminded me that the only reason such things like thriving open mics and book exchanges exist in Austin is that someone had started them. To which I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don’t want to be the organizer, just a participant.”
Not sure how realistic that is, given the transitory nature of this town. I see myself as transitory as well, but I’d have to find more lucrative work in order to move.