I still haven’t been to a book store to see Rebel Angels on the shelves. Must do that. Bad, bad author.

Yesterday, I was on the train listening to lots of stuff I downloaded from B’s iPod. One of the songs was Aqualung, by Jethro Tull. Okay, when I was in eighth grade, I used to lie on my bed wearing my Princess Leia headphones (so called because it looked like I had attached frosted cinnabuns to my ears) listening to this song over and over and over. I had this whole fantasy life going to this song in which I was…a, um…a champion figure skater. Yeah, take a moment to digest it. It didn’t matter that I lived in Texas–not known for its winter sports–and that I had NEVER HAD A PAIR OF SKATES ON MY FEET EVER (still haven’t), I was going for the gold. Literally. For I was not just a figure skater but an OLYMPIC figure skater! And I was skating to Aqualung. A song that lasts about seven minutes. Hello! They’d be carrying me off the ice in a body bag if I skated that long. But no matter. In this fantasy I was wearing an outfit that made me look like the love child of Liberace and Elton John. Lots of feathers. Major sequins. I did a triple lutz half-caf, extra-foam cow-thingy complete with back flip. Yeah, I know that’s not possible but it was my middle grade fantasy so stay with me. The audience went wild. The judges awarded me a perfect ten. The commentators got all crazy. But at some point, the fantasy would go stale. I’d get bored with it and need to up the ante. Then I decided that my entire family had gone missing in a plane crash on their way to see me perform and I had only been told moments before. But still, like the sequined, feathered trouper I was, I took the ice in honor of their memory, tears streaming down my face as I executed jump after jump to absolute perfection.

I really can’t listen to Aqualung with a straight face anymore.

I’m off to Boston to see my best friend who knows about my skating thing and the fact that I had a crush on all the Bay City Rollers and still she accepts me into her home.

And I will make it to the book store soon.