"Girl, that's my jam!" Thursday nights at the Wildcat house with their $2 long island iced tea pitchers, hip hop music blasting through the speakers, picnic tables all along the edges surrounding a large square dance floor, in a building that was most likely a barn once upon a time. Going to the club was a rite of passage. Being able to flash my ID knowing I was legally allowed to enter and partake, gave me a sense of freedom. That was clubbin'. What outfit should I wear? What's the latest Janet Jackson style I can copy? All of this on a broke ass college student budget. Meaning, I ate boxed mashed potatoes, pasta, and pasta sauce for the week. No ramen noodles for this gal. Breakfast was peanut M&M's and a one liter Pepsi. Lunch was whatever cost less than $5. Dinner, see list above. Going to the club on the weekend, or close enough to the weekend, helped release tensions. Especially after a really difficult test or turning in a fifty page report on a short story about a man who turns into a cockroach. I'm pretty sure I took that story in a totally different direction considering I grew up with ginormous cockroaches, some who even had wings and flew around. It's all about perspective, right? That was many years ago, about 27 to be exact.
Fast forward. Clubbin' equals book clubbin'. The music we listen to are shared stories, laughing, and crying. The partaking of choice? Sugary sweets, little cucumber sandwiches, water, and hot chocolate. Your ID? The book of the month. You don't even have to live off of ramen, pasta, and boxed mashed potatoes. You can check out the book at the library. For FREE! Gasp! This is the new stress relief from a week or month of work, wherever that might be. A chance to be surrounded by folks who can connect, agree, disagree, and really get into culture, upbringing, the good, the bad, and the ugly. All in a safe space. A one hour session that turns into two hours as we shut down the library (poor ladies needed to close and go home) and continue our chatting out in the parking lot. In the cold. But not wanting the night and conversation to end.
I'll be honest. I choose the book clubbin. The dance clubbin always left me with a sense of loneliness and a constant wondering about why I was doing this to myself. The book clubbin had me going home feeling utterly fulfilled, a new sisterhood forged, and looking forward to the next month. As I read our March book, I'm driven to continue this writing experience. Past, present, and future, books have always filled any void in my life. It's the perfect kind of clubbin!
Join us in March as we discuss the first book of LaniWendt Young's Telesa trilogy, The Covenant Keeper, available at the Salt Lake City Public Library or on www.amazon.com.
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