Over the weekend, I sold books at my first in-person event in almost two years. (#ThanksCovid) I’ve been fully vaccinated for almost two months, so I loaded my car with plenty of books and hand sanitizer, snacks for the long day, and the blurb for my newest book tripping through my head. Despite being out of practice telling people about my book, I was excited. Never mind the torrential rain forecasted for the weekend — I was going to SELL BOOKS!

Rain, as you might suspect, does not play well with books, but Michiganders are a hearty bunch and my fellow authors and I had our fingers crossed that people would be so eager to do something normal that they would come out anyways. And they did! We marveled as shoppers strolled down the middle of the streets as if they weren’t getting soaked. (It helped that it wasn’t cold.) Around 11am the rain dwindled to a mere drizzle and the streets filled with even more people!

Then our phones lit up with alerts for a tornado watch across much of Michigan.

By 2pm, the event coordinators shut down the festival and sent us home. I had a successful day and was sad to leave, but crossed my fingers that Sunday would be even better.

The next morning, we arrived to the site, mouths hanging open at the tangle of tents and tables strewn across the festival grounds. And wind. Heavy wind. Authors don’t leave anything out overnight so our merchandise was safe, but we struggled with bent tent poles and canvas flaps that refused to stay attached. (I took a glancing blow on the noggin’ but wasn’t hurt.)

We set up our tables as best we could, arranging our table displays to work with the wind, and then the people came. And came. And came! Seems we weren’t the only ones disappointed in the previous day’s weather. The wind persisted for most of the morning (I borrowed a contraption to attach my chair to the roof of the tent to weigh it down, which led to many jokes about me being whisked into the air like a cartoon) but people didn’t seem to care. They were just excited to be OUT and doing NORMAL THINGS.

The event was scheduled to end at 3, but organizers recognized the unbridled enthusiasm filling the streets and extended it for another two hours. By the end of the day, I was exhausted but happy, having talked with countless friends and readers — and I made more in sales than I have ALL YEAR! Definitely a win.

All this is to say that while we can’t always control the circumstances of our lives, what we can do is adjust to the situation at hand and make the most of it. Some authors packed away their tents and sat beneath the windy skies. Others squeezed into tents that were better secured. And we all helped each other out when we needed it.

It would have been easy to not show up because the situation seemed like too much to handle. That’s what I chose when I bailed on an event that was scheduled March 14, 2020. But I’m glad I rode out the weather (almost literally!) and look forward to my next event.