so what if i started a webjournal, sez liz, standing next to me eating sesame chicken (she's the worst kind of vegan -- she has no principles.) oh she's wonderful. i'm using her computer now, which translates the cute little cursor/arrow thing into a rather distracting bowl of fruit. she's about to go for a run in the pouring rain. speaking of pouring rain, it hasn't stopped all week. dry for three weeks, then this week it's nonstop. like it's nature's time of the month!

i love how my committed de-politicization lasts only until my father calls and i have fight with him about iraq for an hour. he opened up a can of rant (re: opec) on my ass, managing to get in references to lenin and ralph nader. i can talk a lot but, man, you should get my father going: he can filibuster his way out of anything, leaving opportunity only for his opponent to stammer things like, "maybe, but --" or "hang on a second!" or "dad, i am *not* knee-jerk leftist cannon-fodder! i just don't agree with you!" arguing with my father is eye-opening: it reminds me what the outside world is like, and that intelligent people who didn't vote for bush really are willing to follow the monkey-faced half-literate oilest-of-oil-men cowboy into war. because they really think it's the Right Thing to Do. just like leftists think it's the Right Thing to Do to march in protest.

exhausting. not as bad as travelling yesterday. through mother nature's untamponed onslaught, intrepid adventurers sarah k., our mutual friend and co-Co\Motioner addie and i started our trip at 2 p.m. on a septa train into philly. sarah and i arrived, drenched and half-sentient but senses of humor still functioning, to smith at 1 a.m. the first bus to new york took twice as long as it should have; then our layover in port authority (motto: even if the busses never pick you up, the sketchballs will) followed the same pattern. the last leg of the trip, curiously, once sarah and i parted from addie, was quick and comfortable. but 11 or so hours, under any circumstances, is tough.

even periods come to an end. assuming this one does, elizabeth and i will venture into northampton, shop and eat. if not, we'll keep chugging through the four videos we rented from the library and take a lot of baths. (they have bathtubs here.)