i expected to do something last nite: first memento was showing on campus, then i was supposed to hang out w/ rob and marc, and then hopefully sleep. but while ross and i trooped off to meet ben at the showing, we were greeted w/ the news that there had been a mistake. no memento, only animal house. from the mass exodus out of the theater, you'd think there'd been a bomb threat. again, only at swat.

ben ross and i went in search of other amusement, ended up in the performance arts building where they gave me an impromptu concert on two steinways, amazingly (to me) able to coordinate their improvisations. their desire to make music finally satiated, we moved on to mccabe library where we argued over which one (1) movie to rent. ben was the only one w/ a card and he refused to get out more than one at a time. amazingly (to me) b/c over the summer i rented either 7 or 5 at a time, depending on which movie store i frequented. we settled on vertigo and took it back to the barn, but as it turned out, ben got depressed talking to his mother about the situation and went home; and rebecca, who had gotten herself depressed following the media, needed to be comforted. so we read two vonnegut stories out loud instead and watched the BBC version of six characters in search of an author, which put me to sleep.

not too exciting a nite. there was supposed to be a party at the lodges but that just got canceled. we're going into the city, maybe to the fringe festival. maybe morrocan (sp?) food. i've been hearing that people need to pump money into this economy of ours. guess we should do our part.

alyssa, ross's girlfriend who's abroad for the semester meditating w/ buddhist monks in japan, begs that we sign petitions, mail the president, attend rallies, generally do everything we can to prevent war. i've yet to be told about a single rally or be offered a petition to sign. my mother, who i talked to this morning, says no one in the "real world" thinks we shouldn't retaliate in some way, if only by just bombing taliban headquarters. it's not as complicated as war vs. peace, she says. she gets scared just walking down k street, where she works in dc -- there are armed national guardsmen on every corner. people need to feel safe.
it is complicated. are strategic attacks the answer? can we possibly kill only those directly responsible? will there be no repercussions even for that?
we have to go to ikea to buy a couch. ross and i decided this morning that we should go collect those responsible, bring them back to america in chains and force them to rebuild the trade center. that, we decided, was a more constructive, more human solution. yes, we decided, (mr. president, are you listening?) we should run the world.