sickness complicates the simplest things. sleeping, eating, leaving the house ... more particularly, in my case, escaping to a pretty lakeside cabin where ilana schemed to take six of us. only now five cuz even if i did feel up to task by tomorrow, i'd be afraid of an encore and of making my friends play nurse and being in yet another strange place while i shiver and suffer. it's unfortunate but i'm trying not to think about it. my friends also surprised me with tickets to the indigo girls concert thursday nite so i'm focusing energy on being well in time for that.

reacclimating to family is an interesting process too. i talked to my wacky brother in australia this morning, who complained that the weather there has reached arctic levels ("in the forties!") i examined my conscience thoroughly and decided i was justified in having no sympathy for him at all. otherwise we bantered pleasantly. it's easy from a distance. my little brother, much closer by, is much as i remember him, only with an alarming hint of a mustache. he rented me jedi and oceans eleven, the second of which we watched with ari when he graciously came over to return my bag. i left liz's house, where a group had gathered yesterday, in such a state of distraction that i'd forgotten it there. in return, i fed him watermelon and tea, sprinkled with his contribution of fresh ginger.

after four months in F-706, my bed and my room felt comically large. but i'm lying in it, reading (about to pick up don quixote where i left off in january), trying to making it mine again.