The Literary Wheaton

So yesterday I devoted my day to reading Wil's books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek.

I woke up yesterday to my blinds flapping against my bedroom window. A nice breeze had kicked up during the morning and was reaking havoc with the verticals. I sat up in my bed (located conveniently beneath the window) and pushed the blinds to the side and got my first look at the day. Drinking in the cool air flowing into my bedroom I quickly decided that it was a perfect Oregon day--made even more perfect by the books that sat on my nighstand waiting patiently to be opened.

The sky was horizon to horizon with ash gray clouds. The dark bottoms emphasized their lighter, fluffier tops which meant one thing: the high probability of rain. The heat had broken during the night and the air rushing through the window screen was tinged with cold. The breeze felt wonderful filling my lungs and for a moment I considered just laying back down and enjoying the feel of the cool, sweet clean air on my face. I quickly gave myself a mental smack upside the head and jumped out of bed. After all, it was Wil Wheaton day! I had stuff do do, videos to rent and then *insert happy fanfare music here* books to (finally) read!

I pulled on my comfiest clothes: short sleeved white t-shirt (perfect for wiping dorito crumbs on btw), blue denim overalls and my sneakers. I quickly pulled my hair back into it's standard ponytail, grabbed some money and my keys and bolted out the front door, and then right back in as I had forgotten the most important tool for any jaunt about town: my discman. My "Good Stuff" mix sang to my eardrums as I jaunted off and into the world. At the video rental place I made the lady laugh at my selection: Evil Dead, Spiderman (Spider Man?), Glam, Serving Sara, Comic Book: The Movie, and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. We joked about the Campbell Goodness of my choices and then I was on my way. Mom was just leaving for her lunch break when I passed the library so I copped a ride home. After lunch with Mom, and a couple of chores.............it was time.

I almost didn't want to open Dancing Barefoot. Did you ever have a moment like that? You've built up a moment in your head for so long that the reality of living it is almost less fun than the building up.

Flipping open the book, I read the introduction and was immediately transported to the land of Wheaton. Doritos in mouth, soda in one hand and book in the other I was in a little square of Erinny Heaven. The book is really good. I read it in about an hour, choking on doritos more than once as I laughed at something that only Wil could make so funny. I also cried some, as reading the story of his Aunt Val tugged at my heartstrings and brought Abbott memories flooding to the surface. After I finished the book, I went for a walk. Perhaps fitting, perhaps cliche, I saw the deer I have come to know as Archie. He's a teenage deer, and I met him a couple of months ago when he still had his spots. He doesn't trust me enough to come very close to me, and that's good. Mostly Archie and I just stand and look at each other a while before he ambles on to join his Mom (Sally). Every moment reeks of Stand By Me.

Much later on that evening I finally, FINALLY opened the cover of Just A Geek. I have been waiting for this book for months, people. MONTHS. All of us monkeys have been. I won't go into the specifics of the book, you'll have to read it for yourself. I will tell you that it is worth every single penny spent on it. Wil is a good writer. He relies a touch too heavily on one of his tricks, but I enjoyed this book immensely and burned as many words of it into my brain as my brain could handle.

The entire experience of reading Just A Geek was a bit surreal. I was curled up on my bed, surrounded by the animals I have loved since the day I was born and covering all of us was the quilt Nan (my Mom's Mom) made. It is quite possibly a magic quilt and is one of my very favorite posessions in the entire world. I was surrounded by all of the comforts of my childhood and drinking in the words from one of the most comforting souls I know in my adulthood.

Here is something I hadn't expected: Reading Just A Geekwas HARD. The writing is wonderful and engaging. Wil takes the reader on his own personal journey and never once leaves them stranded. That being said, there were many emotions that I hadn't experienced since I first started reading his site. They kept washing over me. More than once I had to put the book down and cover my face with my hands. I didn't cry, although the urge was just under the surface. I was just breathing, and finally facing a couple of my personal demons.

They say that a blog is as personal as you make it, and I'm pret-ty open with what I'll share about myself in this one. This, though, is a bit too personal to really go into right now. Suffice it to say, I came to Wil's site two months almost to the day after Abbott died, and almost a month after another one of my close friends, for all practical purposes, disappeared.

Reading Just A Geek, without meaning to, was bringing back the emotion of that time, and it was a little overwhelming. True to Wil's form, however, when I would pick the book back up to continue reading, there would be something--a one liner, a quote, something that would make me smile and carry on.

I finished the book around 4 in the morning and put the book on the floor. Turning out the light on my nightstand, I pulled my quilt up to my chin and curled into the pile of stuffed animals on my bed. I didn't immediately fall asleep. I lay there, curled up and staring out the window into the night sky, watching the stars fade as the first sun's rays peeked over the mountains at my little town. Finally, I rolled over and grabbed the book... and, even as I write this I'm not sure why, I put the book up on my bed, next to my pillow. Not under it you teasers, Next To It. As I drifted off to sleep, I hugged my bears and other animals to me thinking of the journey Wil had unknowingly taken me on. I had bought a book and gotten a catharsis.

And when I woke up this morning, I felt better.