welcome back

Wow; it's been a while. I'm sorry. To myself.

I haven't written in a long time because I've been reading so much. Maybe too much. I forgot how much I love getting lost in a good book. Since the dawn of the new year, I've read the first two years of Harry Potter and then took a break to read The Lovely Bones, since the movie is coming out this weekend. Good one, Sebold. Strange, but thoroughly engrossing. Now I'm back to Harry Potter, and every page that passes, I'm more amazed and depressed at J.K. Rowling's talent. Come on, J.K., can't you share some? Just a little bit? Harry Potter's over; you don't need it anymore.

I've been watching this "Make It Or Break It" marathon all day, a show on ABC Family. I've never even watched it before today, and somewhere around 10:30 am, my best friend Katie and I got obsessed and never turned back. This girl on the show, Lauren, is a total bitch. Our favorite character is Emily. I desperately need a job.

My husband is pretty depressed today because Pete Carroll, the head coach of USC (University of Southern California) has decided to go coach the Seattle Seahawks. USC is our team, our obsession from September to January every year. Pete Carroll has been one of the most successful coaches USC has ever had. However, Mark thinks there might be some underground conspiracy going on that made Pete leave. I'd believe it. I mean, my dad's in the mafia, so I believe anything like that is possible. Mark is eating whatever he wants, watching as much TV as he wants, singing "I'm on a Boat" repeatedly, and yelling at ESPN more than ever. When it was official, he dubbed it "Black Saturday" and sat in his big tan recliner for 10 consecutive hours. "I can't believe it," he'd say over and over, shaking his head. "I just can't believe it."

Isn't it amazing how people we've never met can affect our lives? Never even come close to meeting. Just in the past couple of days, Mark feels like Pete broke up with him, and I could spend hours picking J.K. Rowling's genius brain for tips in my own career. It reminds me of my favorite part of The Lovely Bones, which actually was at the very beginning of the book:

"I moved my eyes into the cornfield, seeing if there was anything that in the morning the police might find. The hail bent the stalks and drove all the animals into their holes. Not so deep beneath the earth were the warrens of the wild rabbits I loved, the bunnies that ate the vegetables and flowers in the neighborhood nearby and that sometimes, unwittingly, brought poison home to their dens. Then, inside the earth and so far away from the man or woman who had laced a garden with toxic bait, an entire family of rabbits would curl into themselves and die."

So sad and yet so beautiful. We see things similarly, Susie Salmon.