It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, blue skies, mostly, temps in the high forties, and our heater is fixed. For now. Our Heater Guy said that it's time to start saving for a new one. Bummer. But the temperature in the house is now holding at a balmy 68 degrees.
I hate being sick on my weekend. It's just so unfair. I've probably just got a cold but it's the perfect weather for walking around the park, it's a good day for sorting and doing housework and I'm too tired and achy. And D is sick, too, so I can't lie in bed listening to my "stories". I could go downstairs and sleep on the couch but I really don't want to. So, I fell asleep in bed, reading, book still upright and held in both hands. I woke up and realized I'd been asleep so I took my glasses off and turned over, feet especially covered for warmth and then I was wide awake.
Yesterday was a good day for being sick: Rainy, wet, cold, the bed was warm and my throat was sore. I listened to the radio and read and slept, and then watched a NetFlix movie that I've had for four months. I am the perfect NetFlix customer. I knitted and watched the movie and drank tea and just thoroughly enjoyed being at home- I seldom get sick enough to call in but I truly couldn't talk to anyone yesterday and I felt pretty awful most of the day. 'Round about 5, I felt pretty good, but woke up this morning filled with gunk and aches.
I read a great YA road trip and music mix book while lying there in the gloom of a rainy day, Amy and Roger's Epic Detour, by Morgan Matson. The book takes place a couple of months after Amy's dad dies, her brother has been sent to rehab, and her mom has moved to Connecticut to start a new home and life. The family home in California has been put up for sale and Amy just finished the school year so it's time for her to join her mom. Unfortunately, Amy doesn't drive. She can, she just doesn't, so her mom and a friend hatch a plan for Amy and the family car to be driven cross country by an old friend from her childhood, Roger. Roger is spending his summer with his dad in Philadelphia and this trip will take care of two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, the Mom-Mapped Trip gets thrown out the window as they both realize they have some unfinished business they'd like to take care of as they travel: Roger's been dumped by a girl who won't speak to him now and he'd like to confront her and Amy would like to visit the places and people of importance to her and to her father.
The trip they end up taking becomes more of a journey within as they make the long detour from California to Nevada, Nevada to Colorado, from Kentucky to Philadelphia, from despair to hope, from uncertainty to discovery.
Amy and Roger start off just being a couple of quirky kids trying to get home and end up really good friends able to help each other through some dark times in their lives. Along the way they meet good people, see some astonishing landscapes, share many memories and laughs, and find out that life continually changes and amazes as you go along.
As good as the journey can be, the detours are where you learn and live.
It was really good and I'm glad Rene H at work recommended it. A perfect read when you're housebound and cold. It also has music mix lists within. I'd love to reread it with the music playing along-it'd be really cool to understand why a particular piece of music was chosen for each leg of the trip.
Good for ages 14 and up.
(Simon and Schuster. $16.99. Available now.)
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