Monday, August 11

I have been known to profess my love for Monday mornings, but even when you have a job you love, you can have off days. After working Saturday and Sunday (though we’re normally not open on Sundays (except between Thanksgiving and Christmas), the store was open yesterday because of the Massachusetts sales tax holiday), it was difficult to feel motivated this morning. I also had an article to write for my bi-monthly column in the local paper, due by end of day, and panelists to confirm in order to submit for the print deadline for the program for a conference taking place in September, and tomorrow I’m hosting some local bookstore owners for dinner at the store and I need to do some planning and acquiring. I don’t feel overwhelmed, necessarily. All of it is achievable if I just sit down and do it. 

With Sale Week over, I can start pulling returns to make room on the shelves for the fall orders. There are also a number of new items that have come in the past few days that I can put out on the floor now that the whole store is no longer discounted. Tomorrow’s new releases also need to be sorted. I’m a little behind reordering art supplies that people might be looking for for back-to-school. The deadline to order the holiday catalog we hand out to customers is this week, as is the deadline to register me and my booksellers for the fall conference. There are bills to be paid, always. There are orders to submit, always. It’s hot today, the air conditioner can’t keep up. Customers come in dressed in their bathing suits. The phone rings and rings. Some days are like this. People looking for books they need right now, books from 1989, books from earlier, long out of print. They can’t understand this. The books are so good. It’s just one of those days.