in my cd player... Yo Yo Ma J.S. Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major   on the page... Donna Tartt The Secret History   into... reconfiguring Outlook to handle my whirlygirl mail; driving by our cherry trees; a glorious Sunday morning with breakfast and the paper; Hannah and Her Sisters; the Sex and the City season premiere; elixr's black vanilla rose tea   definitely not into... all this procrastination and so so so much work   after all this time... Bookstore-turned-Publishing Michael saw that I was rereading The Secret History and kindly wrote to tell me that Donna Tartt's latest manuscript is officially IN! Gasp! He thinks it will likely be published early next year. How much do I want to kiss Bookstore-turned-Publishing Michael for relaying this news? About as much as we're all anticipating her new book.   turning my favorite idea into a disappointing movie... So I finally watched After Life. LA Michael told me that his acting teacher had been raving about it... and with its Generation X concept of asking, "What is the one memory you would take from your time on Earth?" I didn't see how it could go wrong. But for me, at least, it did. It had some moments. Slightly uneasy moments reminiscent of those garnered from watching the documentary Unmade Beds at the Kendall Square theatre a few years ago, where people are being so honest and vulnerable that I almost had to turn away. And some sweet ones, too, where tears welled in my eyes. But overall, my mind wandered away from the screen to my own moments locked deep inside the safe inside my mind.   filet mignon, chicken, or salmon... You guessed it: a wedding invitation. Hayley Ilana Mintz and Todd Gates Sonneborn. Two people with very cool middle names, a black tie optional wedding that is either in New York or Florida, depending on who you ask, and the obligatory tissue paper which will soon be turned into a cape for some super hero PEZ dispenser. 6 weeks to go and I'm surprisingly excited.   his story.. I was right that a story did find its way to Brandon on his birthday. And though he thought not much of it, he still took the time to relate it slowly and deliberately to me, knowing the joy it would bring. And I, in turn, thought the world of that.