Well, I've never been so proud of my persistence (a.k.a. stubbornness) than I am today. I walked into a local B&N tonight to pick up a coveted copy of The Associated Press Stylebook. I looked online last night whether that particular store had a copy of it, and I found that they did. So when I walked into the store today, all I intended to do was ask to be told where the writing references are and look for it there.

Unfortunately, when I asked for the book, the cashier enumerated titles of other books, and all that I had in my head was a big "Huh?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just looking for the stylebook," I said.

"Well, we don't have it here. We'll have to order it for you," she replied.

For a minute, I just stood there like an idiot. I wanted, no, I needed that book if I ever want to be copy editor. So I told her, "Maybe you could just tell me where the section is and I could go see what else you have." TRANSLATION: B*tch, I know you have that book. If you won't give it to me, I'll go get it myself.

Once I was in the writing reference section (which, in fact, was just a bookshelf. No, not even. It was half a bookshelf.), I stared at the few books on display. There were the famous Elements of Style, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, and a few Idiot's guides, but no AP stylebook.

New plan: Read each and every single title. That was a good plan, until I got tired of reading the titles at the end of the top shelf. I just kept thinking "It must be here. It must be here," over and over again. Something inside me was convinced they had a copy of it.

Maybe it was the fact that I looked it up at the website before. Maybe it was the fact that I believe that "If you want to get something done right, you gotta go do it yourself." Whatever it was, thanks to it, I found the book. They had one last copy of it sitting on the lonely writing reference half-bookshelf, and it was waiting just for me.

Oh, I can't tell you how much I wanted to smack the cashier with the book. (Yes, I know, I am evil.) But I was satisfied enough with, "You do have it! You had one last copy and I got it!" And as she struggled to explain to me what went wrong when she looked it up, inside me, I know I had won.

Won what? Well, something. Certainly something. And my trophy's my new Associated Press Stylebook.

Labels: stories

kitten posted @ 8:37 PM