Wednesday Nights at Newport

Completely broke and nowhere to be on a Saturday night—there are worse fates. Jenny got me The O.C. season two for my birthday and I hadn’t touched it until tonight, but once I hit play I was completely gone. Not just watching it: sent back in time, specifically to those Wednesday evenings when we’d come home sweaty from the lake, grab chips and cold Beck’s Green Lemon, and park in front of Ryan and Marissa and Seth and their Newport disasters. The theme song hit and I was there immediately.

Ryan and Seth just got back to Newport. Marissa’s spiral is only starting. New villains waiting in the wings. And I know every song on the soundtrack by heart—not just the titles, but the exact moment each one enters the scene, the precise feeling it was engineered to produce. They lived on my iPod for years, which means they’re lodged somewhere inaccessible now. I should reload those soundtracks. Whatever’s on there at the moment doesn’t deserve the space. But that has to wait. It’s back on.