in case you hadn't noticed, i'm going to stick to this color for a while and see how i feel about it.
in external news: yesterday, i hurried through horrible weather, from research with my eye on my watch, to the post office. there they handed me a lumpy manilla envelope from my darling liz filled with hamentashen. even two weeks old and postal-service bumped-and-grinded, they were better than the ones i made. i had no time however to savor then (though i grabbed like three at once) as i had to haul ass to teacher jeanne's house for our criminal justice presentations followed by buffet dinner for 25. i didn't know where she lived quite, and, having caught the worst bus, was quite late as it was, so 5 o'clock, the appointed time of commencement, found me shuffling down various wet streets, flagging down passersby to beg them to translate the back of my hand where i'd written t. jeanne's address into a concrete direction.
eventually i found the place, rang the buzzer, and was mortified to hear t. jeanne say, "is that ester?" the rest of the class was comfortably assembled in her wonderful apartment (oh i want this woman's life: one wall of books, the opposite of cds, a huge green-glass somethingorother piece of art/receptacle for winebottle corks). as i soon as i arrived, we began. none of our Alternatives to Imprisonment were too controversial and most leaned left rather than right, though an argument broke out as to whether ceasing welfare payments to those who have frauded the system is cruel and unfair, or just justice. guess which side i took, rather heatedly too.
apparently t. jeanne told us chemical castration of sex offenders is a practice in dk, so long as you have the offender's consent. some of them line up for the treatment which isn't permanent -- reminded me of dpt, actually, you have to get continuous shots to keep you blessedly sex-drive/fantasy free. the boys winced at that; one compared it to giving a lobotomy to a thief.

after dinner, cara and i bonded over our occasional alienation, frustration at not meeting more people (it can be a problem of self-definition. circles form, the Indie crowd, the potheads, the texas chicks, and where do you place yourself?) and the fact that we're going on the same russia tour. came back to the dorm to find neither computer nor telephone operable; grumblingly i ate more hamentashen -- holy lord, don't send me cookies when i'm depressed -- and read more jews in germany narratives. actually they're really interesting, little first person windows into a past i wish i knew more about.

speaking of first person windows: ross has written Remembrance of Things Present on his website; my alter-ego sarah c. has begun one of her own; and poor danny who has suffered quietly long enuf is recognized at last. sorry for the delay, danny.