There are very few times that Facebook is a good thing. A birthday can fill your page with heartfelt greetings from friends. This is lovely and fulfilling, until that day comes and your wall is empty. Not one post. You wallow in despair and wonder what you must have done to piss off your friends. It’s not until much later that you realize that you had inadvertently unchecked the box to share your special date. It happened to me so consider it a warning for my fellow overthinkers.

The other way Facebook can deliver joy is when someone you haven’t spoken to in decades comments that they live in the town that you’re currently visiting. This is what happened when Alison, one of my best friends from junior high (what we called it back then), saw my post from the Boston Marathon and asked if maybe I was still around. Yes! I was so excited when she picked me up and we reminisced in the car on the way to get her daughter Ellie from school. I had to remind her of my favorite story from the 8th grade that involved her dearly loved family. My husband calls it “The Marsha Brady Incident”. After a brutal tackle in an after-school pickup football game where I was trying to show how tough I was (not), I showed up at her house for one of our epic sleepovers. “Oh, my nose!” Her expert doctor dad diagnosed it as broken and fixed it at the kitchen table the following morning. Her mother was the coolest for many reasons — this audience will appreciate that she co-owned the most popular bookstore in Miami called A Likely Story — and promised a feast from Bagel Emporium. After he taped me up, Alison and I went to the movies at The Falls, a new outdoor mall at the time. As we wandered among the palm trees, I saw a woman staring hard at me and heard her whisper to her friend, “Huh! A little young to have a nose job, don’t you think?” Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.

Knowing that we all shared a love for books, 16 year-old Ellie insisted that I couldn’t leave town without visiting Brookline Booksmith. I saw tables upon tables of glorious stacks, some with signs offering “Bargain Fiction”, and I was smitten. The familiar strains of an author talking about his memoir inspired a turn into the next room. It was the Guardian’s Julian Bolger speaking with Everyday Shakespeare’s Michelle Ephraim about his new book I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children, and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust. There’s nothing better than stumbling upon a rapt audience leaning into a writer’s every word and it brought back my first memory of moving to Asheville. Upon the advice of my dear friend Liz, I walked into Malaprop’s and happened upon a nice gentleman speaking to a seated crowd. It was Charles Frazier, award-winning author of Cold Mountain. I knew I had found my people.

My schedule was tight, so I couldn’t linger too long which always gives me decision anxiety. I knew I had a long list of things I wanted to read somewhere, but the only image I could conjure was a recent Instagram post of Marc Jacobs reading Joan Didion’s Play it As it Lays. And voila! I grabbed it along with the store’s Top 100 Books list so I wouldn’t forget next time.

We ended our evening with one of the greatest discoveries ever, as Alison introduced me to the Ninja Creami Deluxe Ice Cream Maker. I’m obsessed. She scooped her latest creation, a divine pear sorbet, while Ellie found photos. We squealed like teenagers upon seeing the result of my begging to have curly hair like Alison’s, otherwise known as “The Perm Years”. Although this trip down memory lane was the best part of my Boston visit, I’m grateful that style has vanished along with my braces and Sun In spray.

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Stronger Than The Storm: An Afternoon of Reflections with the Asheville Art Museum.

Sunday, May 4th from 2 to 4pm.

AVL LIT EVENT ALERT:

We’re thrilled to join the artists from the Asheville Strong exhibit to celebrate the final weekend of the show. Please join us on May 4th from 2 to 4pm to hear from the writers and contributors from Stronger Than The Storm as we share poignant words and sign books at the museum’s café. All of the book’s proceeds go towards local hurricane relief efforts, so you can grab a copy and support at the same time. Hope to see you there!

Yours in love and lit,

Elizabeth