Sometimes I do the stupidest things. It is so frustrating.
We were on our way to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok to get our visas. We had piled into a taxi, Lynnette was in the front, I was in the back with Linnea and Alissa. We were talking about irritations and team dynamics and how we have learned to have grace for each other, how we have learned forgiveness for each other and for ourselves. We have realized we don’t try to be mean or to be jerks, we are just imperfect people. We get irritated and learn to bite our tongues and get through the irritating times.
Then we laughed about the word ‘jerk’, and the cab driver giggles and snorts. Jerk, what a weird word. We laugh because my mother in law calls herself a jerk, when she is the least jerky person I know. When she does something like forget something, she calls herself a jerk, and that is not how I use the word jerk, even though I know that I have more of the male jerk gene in me than I know what to do with. I say jerk when someone is being a, uh, meanie, not for simple airheaded things. The cab driver giggles and snorts again. Which makes us laugh.
Then Alissa tells us what the word ‘dork’ means, and the cabbie giggles and snorts again. Alissa says a dork is the hair on an elephant’s butt. The cabbie can’t stop giggling and snorting. We are getting silly and we ask him if he knows english and this makes him laugh and he pinches his fingers together to tell us he knows a little english.
After getting our visas, we head to the mall, my favorite place. We get Starbucks and internet and just as we are leaving, I see a bookstore and remember a book that Jeff Goins told me about. The book is by Paulo Coelho and the title is “The Alchemist”. I went into the store and asked if they had the book and the girl said yes and showed me the shelf of Coelho books. I saw the title and grabbed it and headed to the line and bought it, and as I headed down the escalator, I read the back of the book and it sounded a bit different than Jeff said.
We hop in a taxi to head back to the condo where we are staying and we start talking about the author, because Leah says that Coelho is Sarah’s favorite author. Sarah was on team Zeo, but now she is home and married. I mention the title and Linnea laughs and says “what is the title of the book?”. I say “the Alchemist” and she laughs and says look again.
What a jerk, ahhhh, I get so mad at myself. I hit myself on the forehead, what a jerk. The cover says: International Bestselling Author of The Alchemist. The novel, Eleven Minutes. No wonder the back sounded different than what I thought I was getting. Wrong book, moron.
What a jerk.
