my last post before i dismantle this computer and sit in the back of the car for the trip tomorrow morning up to swatland. a few things worth noting: leaving the chinese restaurant my grandparents took my family to this evening so that my mother wouldn't have to cook, a voice called to me, "did you go to swarthmore?" i turned around to face a nondescript older guy sitting by himself at a table. he squinted at me, trying to figure out how he knew me; and i knew him immediately. "yes. i'm ester," i explained. "you're *** ******. we worked on the phoenix together." that's the least of it, of course. he also asked me out numerous times, and he pursured with equally indescriminate ardor my flatmate rebecca.

earlier in the day, while running errands at compusa with lana and her mother, lana and i collapsed with joy at the sign for "gender changers." we flagged down an employee and subjected him to our questions. gamely, though having turned three shades of red, he detailed the logic of assigning computer cord ports genders. we nodded sagely and thanked him and after he scampered away we slipped the two signs out of their holders and into lana's bag. no one stopped us: two white middleclass smiley girls don't attract the same kind of undue attention as, say, shifty-eyed bearded men with untied shoes. that's the closest i've ever come to shoplifting.