You Are Here: On the Now-ness of Launches & Life

When I chose to be the Tuesday blogger here at The Ball, it didn’t occur to me that this would mean I’d get to blog on THE Tuesdays. On the launch days themselves. On the launch day of CHASING THE SUN.

There’s so much…now-ness.

And I’m trying very hard to savor this moment, so I thought I’d share with you where I am right now, in all the many ways we can be present. (Although, to not procrastinate too much, I’m writing this the day before.)

Right now, I’m spending my very first day in our new home. There are still boxes everywhere. I don’t know where most anything is except a) my box of books b) my laptop and c) the outfits, shoes and purses I’ll be wearing to my launch parties later this week.

Right now, I could use a nap, to be honest. We were up until 2:30 a.m. Monday morning unloading our moving truck, cleaning the old apartment, and shopping for last-minute things like soap, toothpaste, and extra towels. Sore from two days of non-stop packing and moving, my husband and I wandered the lonely aisles of Wal-Mart looking for disposable plates (the kitchen sink and dishwasher haven’t been installed yet). We got a stack of red Solo cups—yeah, those—and a bottle of champagne, and at 2:20 we toasted this new start before passing out in our new bedroom. We’re classy like that.

Right now, I can’t help looking back. I keep remembering the day my book sold. My husband and I had gone to see our new apartment, which we’d soon be moving into, to take measurements. We stood in the emptiness and felt our voices and our aspirations for the future bounce back at us. When we got off the elevator my phone rang; it was my agent calling to tell me the deal had been finalized. A week later, we moved in. That old apartment, with its lovely balcony and office/den so tiny I spent most of my time writing on the couch, was an odd, but still beautiful, in-between stop of sorts. We moved in just after so much happened. We moved out just before. When I look back at it I’ll be reminded that there are really no such things as transitions; life is always happening, even in between the moments we think are bigger than others.

Right now I am, and always will be, grateful.