Is there an hourly rate?

It may surprise those of you who know me well that I've never belonged to a book club. Until now, that is. In the past I've rebelled against reading books chosen by others when there are so many books that I want to read. But I recently had an invite and I decided it was high time to read good books and discuss them. Perhaps I will actually remember books this way. (Generally I can just tell you if I liked them or didn't like them. Otherwise I can remember nothing. That's why I reread so much!)

The first selection for the club is Love in the Time of Cholera, which I've often thought I should read. I felt that way long before Oprah told everyone to read it, by the way. I tried to read A Hundred Years of Solitude many years ago, to impress a very literate boy with blue eyes that were so sparkly they looked like sunshine on water. Alas, so many of the characters in the book had the same names that I couldn't keep anyone straight. And the blue-eyed boy ceased to matter in the world of me, so I abandoned ship.

I'm doing much better with this Marquez. The first 50 pages nearly did me in. It was soooo dense and not actually interesting, but then it took a sharp turn towards entertaining and now I only have 40-ish pages to go. Which is how I found myself loitering in the lobby of the fancy King Eddy hotel today. You see, I wanted to get some more reading in during lunch, because our first book club meeting is Thursday evening, but I didn't think an uncomfortable seat in the noisy underground mall was going to be conducive to comprehension. One of my colleagues had long ago suggested that hotel lobbies are a good place to hang out.

Turns out, she was right! I just sauntered on in with my coffee in hand (I had to resort to coffee today, because daylight savings is causing severe fatigue.), plopped myself down on a cushy couch, pulled out my book and lost myself in the love story.

Okay, not exactly true. I tried to lose myself in the love story, but I was actually worried the whole time that someone was going to come over and accuse me of being there under false pretenses. Why am I such a guilty person!? I must have been Catholic in another life. I did manage to hang out and read for about a half hour, but then my guilt got the better of me and I went to Winners. Where I charged some sheets.

Does anyone else hang out in hotel lobbies?

Tax goal: $2000
Current balance: $1900
Spent today: $2.43 (there was a cookie with that coffee)