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August 19, 2004 - Thursday, 1:19 a.m.

Why am I still awake? It�s nearly 1 am, and I�d like nothing more then to be curled up on the bed and asleep. Yet, here I sit. It�s raining. It�s been raining most of the night. I�ve opened the windows, turned off the TV and any music. It�s just the sound of the rain falling outside and a cool breeze blowing in the window that is filling my room.

We watched �The Last Samurai� last night. It was really a good movie. Tonight we watched some of the extras on the DVD. Then I disappeared into my room and watched �Practical Magic�. That was a cute movie. I�ve seen it before, but not in a long time.

The weather has truly been strange this summer. I haven�t seen a summer like this here in Colorado before that I can recall. Rain� rain� it�s rained over 2.5 inches already this month, and in August even! I love the rain. I love listening to it, and the smell of it. Strange weather all over actually. Hurricanes have started tracking out of the Atlantic again. At least two made land fall. The third of the season did quite a bit of damage in Florida. The extreme weather is very captivating.

Josh headed up to college today. Kevin helped move his stuff up there. Phil heads up in a couple days. So very strange to think about the boys going off to college. Time is passing far too fast.

I wish I could sleep. My mind is racing� a thousand thoughts and none very coherent. Seems I can hardly stop thinking about writing� not that any great ideas are coming to mind, they aren�t. Today I was thinking about sisters and the link that exists at least in the women in my family past and present. It seemed a good premise. Also thoughts of the �magical�� I love the thought of the ordinary transformed into the magical or extraordinary� Poof!! I watched �Practical Magic�� that�s what that ends up really being about, the connection between sisters� etc. I want an original idea, or an original spin on an idea. I want a good solid premise. It�s not coming to me, and it�s frustrating.

I�ve been thinking about the Harry Potter books. There are pieces of it I have seen in other things but mostly it�s an original idea. Places appearing and disappearing. Things being hidden� have seen that everywhere from the elves in Tolkien�s works, the wardrobe or painting in C.S. Lewis�s stuff to Halloween Town on Disney or Brigadoon. So many pieces of it� and yet Harry Potter is fresh. I love the world she�s created right in the midst of the world we know. I can�t stop thinking about it. It�s making me crazy and restless.

Dear God� I need sleep. Perhaps the rain will lull me to sleep.

M.