with intensity

my life the past few days has been as follows: sunday morning, woke up, put on my swimsuit, biked to borders, purchased the new 759 page harry potter book, cramed it into my already overflowing beach bag, biked to my favorite beach, and proceeded to begin, or should i say continue, the beautiful journey of what would be the last leg of my love affair with harry potter. hours later, lake michigan still at my side, the sun starting to droop in the sky, i was fully emerged in the lives of harry, ron, hermione, voldemort (or should i say he-who-must-not-be-named) and the wizarding world. sunday evening, a brief bike ride home, continued reading, a brief break for a jog through the park, more harry potter. i fell asleep with the book at my side. monday--wake up, bike downtown, teach my morning classes, find a patch of grass, read for 4 hours, teach my afternoon classes, get home after hearing overhang play and seeing tricia, read until my eyelids are too heavy. sleep. tuesday--wake up, teach morning classes, read for 4 hours on my break, only stopping to pretend i was interesting in food at the resturaunt nearby so i could then politely decide i wasn't and use their bathroom instead, pop in a beethoven movie for my afternoon class so i didn't have to lesson plan and could read longer, go home, hit up trader joes, sit in my room reading all night, only popping out for food. today--wake up, get on the train to my school, read the whole way, read while i'm walking, (which proved very tricky cuz it's a heavy book and chicago is crowded), teach my morning classes, hurry them out as fast as possible, and retreat, once again to my lovely patch of grass that has become my harry potter haven for 3 days standing. the last 100 pages were a blur. i was eyes were darting from line to line so quickly i could barely take it all in. i laughed, a cried, i laughed through my tears, i was afraid, i felt triumphant, i felt confused--(seriously, did anyone else really catch what exaclty was going on?) and now i feel sad that it's over. i can move on with my life. harry potter will always just be a memory of my childhood. and my 20s i guess. sniffle sniffle.

many have asked about the rat. it remains a mystery. we have cleaned, we have sealed off all possible access to food, we have called the landlords, we have set traps. and now we wait in horrific anticipation as every morning i wake up, poke my head timidly into the kitchen, and pray that i don't see a rat writhing helplessly in the little glue trap with peanut butter plopped in the middle.