I slept soundly last night. The Coast is a really comfortable hotel. Helen picked me up at 9am, so I had a chance to have a shower and wash my hair, have a leisurely breakfast with an extra cup of coffee, and read the paper. I did two back to back readings at the Strathcona Public Library. Big groups, but nice kids. Then Helen and two of the library staff took me to a pasta place with fantastic homemade pasta. I locked myself into the bathroom for about 5 minutes and was panicking, but the door finally did open. The restaurant was so loud that no one heard my banging and calling out. Helen drove me to Camrose and we had trouble finding the library. Got out my trusty GPS yet again and arrived – about 4 minutes late. There was a good number of people waiting patiently for me to arrive in the meeting room in the basement. I think there were 20 or so people, both kids and adults. Not a bad turnout for the middle of the day. I began presenting as I peeled off my coat. I presented for over the allotted hour because when I wrapped up, everyone remained sitting and kept asking more questions. We left at around 3 or 3:15. There was a traffic jam on the main street as we were leaving. An accident had recently occurred. Scattered over the street were hand tools – wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. We were diverted onto a parallel street, and when we got to the front of the traffic, we could see a pick-up truck with the front all bashed in. There were several other cars that had been dented. The poor person in the truck likely lost his livelihood when he lost all those tools.
We got back to the hotel at about 4:40 so I had a bit of time before my 5:30 pick up to wash and change and put on an extra layer of nail polish. My ride came 17 minutes early. Fortunately, I was ready except for wet polish. I left without my coat. The weather was mild and I didn’t want to smudge my nails.
This next venue was a wine and cheese with the Ukrainian Orthodox Women’s Association. This group is donating a copy of Enough to every elementary school in Alberta.
They asked me to be at this wine and cheese and to be the speaker because this was the launch of their program. I wore non-blue jeans for this special occasion. I had an ivory jacket and black wool pants, but still wore my boots – my knee has been somewhat sore all week. It took me about 20 pokes to get my Princess Olha medal on the lapel. I felt that this was an appropriate venue for wearing it. They had copies of Enough for sale at the event and it was really nice to chat with people from the Edmonton Ukrainian community. They gave me two standing ovations. One when Nadia mentioned what I received the medal for, and again, after my speech. I signed books and then Mary took me back to the hotel. I was a bit anxious because I thought I was going to be back by about 7:20. Nadia had mentioned that there was another event at the hall and they had to be out by 7. I had made plans to meet my friend Connie Forst for dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel and I had visions of her sitting in there by herself wondering where I was. It turned out she had a late start coming into Sherwood Park herself. I had time to change back into jeans and we arrived at the restaurant at the same time. She had her sister Caroline there as well. Caroline is a librarian at a Sherwood Park public school. Connie is a public librarian. I was also hoping to meet Karen Willsey Bass in person. She was coming in to Edmonton with her friend Gisela to do some interviews, but we hadn’t emailed in over a week so I wasn’t sure if that was still on. Just as our dinners arrived, Karen and Gisela also arrived. Karen is also a librarian, so it was like old home week. We stayed and chatted to nearly midnight.
When I got back to the room, I didn’t even attempt to pack. Just washed and flopped into bed.
