in a couple hours i'll be hauling my stuff to a hopefully still operational amtrak train and making it home in time to catch a killer (heh heh) production of Sweeney Todd. apparently Company was the best production likely to be put up in my lifetime, or so said my father cheerfully. he sold my ticket to one of a huge crowd of eager young men from new york who laughed and wept and applauded after every song so that's some consolation anyway.

the past couple days have been busy in a quieter way. lots of grant grunt work. lots of seeing ben, which has been nice considering i didn't get much of that the past few weeks, what with my sick and stress and all. lots of seeing the como girls gloriously unfettered, which amounts to lots of giggling. lots of reading -- i finished moo and am about to start ender's shadow. actually everything i've read recently i've loved: odd girl out, the french lieutenant's woman, ender's game, on krissy's little sister's recommendation. i'm just on a roll.
cutely, the other nite sarah, danny, ben and i went out on a double date. we went bowling -- ben won, and i lost but more respectably than i would have if the machine hadn't, for some reason, kept adding points to my score now and then. then we stopped at a little restaurant in media where i showed them how to balance salt shakers (the waitress was not impressed) and we recounted How we Met stories. naturally each involved the internet.

yesterday evening we took the CITs out for dinner. this morning i packed, and in doing so i went through the Affirmations the girlz wrote me one last time. this really was one of the most memorable experiences i've had so far, in large part because it is so different from my usual modus operandi. that, of course, is why i learned this much, and probably why i'm this glad i went through with it.