Though I live in Orlando, I don’t venture to the west coast of the sunshine state and Tampa all that often. If you know anything about the traffic from Orlando to Tampa, you understand that it’s hard to want to spend two or more hours driving to or from a city when the drive should actually take around an hour.
But when Jenna Bush Hager announced she and her sister Barbara were visiting Tampa as a part of their small book tour to promote their new children’s book I Loved You First, I knew I had to make the ride and see Tampa proper for the first time ever.
I am a huge fan of Jenna and her hour on Today. It is on my TV every weekday, and as a writer it is my goal to be a Read with Jenna pick one day. There are so many picks from her book club that I have loved and even more that are on my to be read list. It’s really something to see how much Jenna loved books and appreciates and supports authors.
To make things even better, the book signing was at Oxford Exchange, a place I have heard endless good things about but had never visited.
Since it was a Saturday and they were holding a very large event for them, Oxford Exchange was booming, alive with people visiting the coffee, tea, and champagne bars, grabbing brunch, or perusing the bookstore or home goods store. I have never been somewhere so beautiful and curated with different pieces to the puzzle that makes it whole around every corner.
It is a really cool place and concept. Like Jenna, they clearly love books and authors with a calendar of book events. Shortly after I arrived back home, I realized I would love to have a book signing at Oxford Exchange one day too.
The event was held upstairs, with a line snaking around one room and the signing in the next. Jenna and Barbara could not have been nicer. They took time to chat with us a minute as I gave them each a friendship bracelet, a crystal in the shape of a cat, and one my books. I hope more comes of our short encounter.
However, even if the only thing I take away from that day is the outing itself, I could not be happier. To be in the air of those powerful, strong, smart women, who love books, writers, and writing themselves, is difficult to describe. I am still living on the positivity of that morning a week later, still reliving it, still using it to continue writing and pushing myself.
Seeing Oxford Exchange and Tampa, doing something one hundred percent different than my normal activities, it made me feel alive, honestly.
Yes, routines are good, favorite places and foods and people are the best, but sometimes taking a chance in doing something wildly different is a reward in and of itself.
Leave a Reply