First, I have now discovered what I do when I get stressed. I buy books. Just about any book will do. Perhaps it’s because at heart I am a bibliophile. My parents tell me that from the time I was born, I’ve been fascinated with books. My mom showed me a picture of me at, if I remember correctly, my first Christmas. I’m laying on the floor with a book propped open in front of me. Of course, the book is upside down–I couldn’t read until I was 5! But still the books were there.
When older, my brother, sister, and I always cleaned up in the book reading contests the local libraries held. This continued through high school. For instance, in one contest where we got credit for every 200 pages we read, I read The Far Pavillions by M. M. Kaye (about 900 pages long) and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer (about 1100 pages long). And those two titles should also give you an indication of the types of books I read too–anything! (The Far Pavillions is an epic romance set in India under British rule where Ashton Hillary Akbarh Pelham-Martin (yes, I still remember his name, although I may have mispelled it) grows up, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is naturally a non-fiction historical book about World War II.)
Anyway, like I said: when I get stressed, I turn to books. Others eat bowls of ice cream. Not me. I buy books like A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Genius, a biography of Richard Feynman by James Gleick (author of Chaos: The Making of a New Science), and When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time by Michael Benton. All of these books I’ve bought since Wednesday. And that doesn’t even include my chess books.
Yes, stress is an interesting thing. I stayed with relatives due to the whole roommate situation until last night. Last night, I got home and looked at my room and was reminded of entropy. See, I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most organized person…but even I could tell my room was a disaster after the cops were finished with their search. (It’s called a “Search Warrant” not a “House Cleaning Warrant” ya know.)
Oh well. At least now I won’t have my computer to distract me from cleaning up my room. Still, it will be frustrating not having the ability to write when the muse strikes (which seems to happen more often when I can’t write than when I can). But, when I’m bored with cleaning, I will still have my books!
And that, for me, is something.
