Usual Rules Blog Post

For as little a time she has been in California, she has undergone some big changes in her family life. She has to live with a person that is entirely opposite from what she was used to before. Her mom was always "On duty" as Wendy says, always wanting her to do better and keep doing things. But her father, Garret, is so easygoing and carefree that he hardly notices that she's around. She stopped going to school a long while ago and she wanders around town with some of her new friends and lives a totally different life from New York.

Usual Rules Blog Post

Wendy is reading this book called A Member of the Wedding and there is a part where the girl feels so sad and alone that she wants the "Whole World to Die". Wendy felt the sam way when she realized that her mother was missing after that attacks on the world trade center. She had the same feeling that nothing else mattered, like there was nothing left to live for. The character of her book describes feeling that een if the bus she was on crashed into a river and was sinking that she wouldn't or couldn't care about that. Wendy says that she wishes that she could feel as the girl did and be able to run after a car screaming "Take me! Take Me!" be that kind of person to want something so badly that she'd risk so much to leave a place behind.

Usual Rules Blog Post

Since Wendy has moved to California, she has become an entirely different person. She's met new people under different names, she's stopped going to school. She is nothing like she was before all of this happened. She spends most of her days just running around town. She'll go to a new friend of hers house, Violet, she just had a baby and she's having some trouble handling it. Wendy has a connection down at the local book store, she knows the guy who works there, Alan, and she gets books and he makes her tea while she reads in his shop.
For what little time has lapsed since she arrived at her dads home, she has definitely gotten a pretty solid thing going on. She does what she wants, leads a pretty interesting life, and her dad doesn't suspect a thing. i

Usual Rules blog post

Now that Wendy has realized that her mother is most likely dead, she’s really begin to grieve. Every little thing is reminding Wendy of her. She starting to recollect all the memories she has in fear that if she doesn’t she’ll lose them forever. She’s also started to see the world for what it is. All these people that are in the city have gone right back to normal and she just cant get how they can when a terrible thing has happened in such an ordinary world.

Usual Rules blog post

It finally took reading a book to her little brother for her to get that her mom may very well be dead. Her friend had accidentally said it at lunch that day and she just shrugged it off but when she was reading “Goodbye moon” to Louie he looked up at her and said”Do you ever think is mom coming home, Sissy? I don’t think so Louie.” For her to say that took a lot of thinking. They both just sat there crying instead of reading. Josh went to the armory with her mom’s dental records and a hair sample to see if there are pieces of her in the rubble. Something that he vowed never to do…

Usual Rules blog post

Wendy has been sinking deeper and deeper into her sadness. It’s only a matter of time until she snaps. She’s surrounded by all these incredibly positive people, telling her It’ll be okay, that she can do whatever she wants to so that she’s comfortable. It’s all just bouncing off her. None of it can actually get to her and help. Not even family or her friends.

Usual Rules blog post

Although Wendy and josh haven’t been able to entirely accept that her mom/his wife is gone and may never come back; Louie, Wendy’s younger brother, has been able to put himself in a whole other world. He’s spent most of his time at his friend’s house just playing and going on with his life. He’s been able to grasp the fact that she may be gone and that he very well may never see her again.