so there i was, talking to dad in the corporate area of the sec baseball tournament, hoping against hope (b/c they lost) that bama could rally and beat the hogs friday, and lo! and behold, a foul ball lands near me – and i grabbed it!!!

little kids, sick people, old men – all begged for the ball – i told them to get lost:)

anyway, in between all of the baseball watching, this was what i read to kick the summer off…

“becoming odyssa” – by jen pharr davis – book about hiking the appalachian trail as a 22-ish girl looking for the answers to life’s questions – sort of the story of how the journey in life makes you a different person – makes you better (or can make you better) – i think i speak for everyone who’s read it that we probably all worried about a lone girl off hiking – glad that the trip ended as relatively well as it did…

“running dream” – new YA book by a decently published (in amount) YA author – the book is about a 16-year-old 400 meter runner who loses a foot in a bus accident – and learns to adjust to being an amputee – great book about learning to “see” people, learning to overcome difficulties, and adjusting to disappointments by resetting your goals (like when i realized i would never win the boston marathon or even qualify for the olympic trials – oh, wait, i still hold out hope on both – but that’s b/c i’m silly…)

“bottom of the 33rd” – great book to take to the ballpark – reminded me of rickwood – of watching barons games with my dad in the late 80s, early 90s – basically, this game in 1981 between two triple-a teams kept going until 4 in the morning – a fluke ruling by the ump on the curfew rule – lots of issues raised in the book – one, like what you do when the repetitions you do don’t come to an end one day but seem to keep forever going on (like the way a baseball game can go forever b/c there’s no clock)

who am i rooting for today in the finals??? not sure…

maf