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I have been a Simon and Garfunkel fan for years --- an ardent one. Since I was 13 my life has had a running score under it of songs from the duo, and both of the artists solo. I hear a song and it quickly brings back where I was at the time when I first heard it. I have some pretty vivid memories of lying on a tweed couch in a room in our house in a room that we called "the study" listening to S&G while wearing HUGE headphones.

I would check off the following boxes of jobs that I would like to have: ER triage, air traffic control and programming the NFL Schedule. I thrive in an environment where the pace is fast and each one of these jobs has that. Since I have absolutely no aptitude in science, the ER triage job is not being offered to me any time soon. Thus I love watching ER and medical shows. I still miss Chicago Hope. (Okay, I confess that I had a wicked crush on Peter Berg.) I also like reading books about the medical profession.

I spent last week in Nashville at a trade show for the Christian Booksellers Association. I stayed at Gaylords Opryland Hotel, a sprawling hotel where walking from one end to the other constitutes a major workout. They actually said their fitness center is not very large as they feel everyone works out just walking around.

Yesterday I went shopping at Borders on 57th Street for a present for my son who turns 15 today. He wanted Season Three of Friends on DVD and a copy of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. Sounded pretty easy to me. I figured I would hit two aisles, select a couple of cards and on to the register. Ha! What was I thinking? I was thinking logically and one cannot shop in a chain bookstore this way.

It's snowing. Big time snow. I have decided not to turn on the TV to watch the snow reporting, which consists of reporters in very ridiculous cold weather clothing standing in the middle of the street watching a) empty streets, b) streets with cars stuck on them or c) roadways where people are traveling slowly. These same reporters then measure the snow with a ruler and are gleeful when the ruler gets buried.

Warning: Do not read John Grisham's new one, THE BROKER, if you are hungry. I made the mistake of doing that this weekend. As his character, Joel Backman, travels around Italy, he eats. And Grisham does great descriptions of the food that he eats. And every time you read about the food, you will want to eat. I found myself salvating for panini and yearning for a warm mushroom salad, and let's not talk about both tortellini and tortelloni (he spells out the difference). Keep a pad and pen next to you as you read so you can note what foods you need recipes for!

Last night I went to a screening of Hotel Rwanda. People who had seen it had urged me to see it with a quiet intensity that I rarely hear connected to a film. (I think the last time I heard this was when people were talking about Life is Beautiful.) Everyone told me to be prepared to cry; no one told me to prepare to be stunned by what I was seeing on the screen.

All the holiday decorations are stored away --- and I have yet to find a stray piece around that we missed. I am sure that you can relate to that --- you think you are done packing things up and then bam there's an overlooked piece of "Christmas celebrating" stuck on a shelf somewhere and it looks really out of place in January.

It's early Saturday morning. Today I need to take down the Christmas decorations that have been up since Thanksgiving weekend --- and yes, I am procrastinating as I write here. In the busy-ness of this week I forgot to mention the latest turn in the Andrea Yates case in the newsletter. Last February I read Suzanne O'Malley's book, ARE YOU THERE ALONE, The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates. We also interviewed O'Malley as part of this feature. Her comments about the non-Law and Order episode from both the book and her interview stayed with me.

Yesterday they were calling for snow here last night. This triggered a flurry of emails in my box cancelling every event in town last night due to weather. This always humors me since I live in a town where 90% of the people drive SUVs. I guess they drive them because of the cargo space instead of road handling. A couple of years ago one of my friends was debating whether to buy an SUV or a minivan. Her line was a classic --- "I have my master's degree and now I am debating whether to drive a bus or a truck." By the way, mere flakes of snow arrived, but hey, we were prepared!