I have many good reasons for not having written in two weeks. They are as follows:

• I had my Statistics final.
• I have been sick.
• Earl has been here.
• The time I don't spend with Earl I spend with Jim.

Those are all very good reasons for failing to write, don't you think? Moreover, I'm going to keep failing to write, as tomorrow afternoon I am flying off to Oklahoma to spend nine days with my mother during the holidays. I may write from there, but even if I do you won't see it until I come home on 12/29.

So these are notes written in passing. You may consider it a lick and a promise (as they say in some old books). I should be back with semi-regular entries before the New Year, assuming there are no more emotional surprises in my immediate future.

Being sick has been completely unfun. What's the joy in a vacation if you're too sick to work right before it? I don't feel like I've slaved virtuously away and have now earned my reward. Instead I'm a thorough weasel, dumping my workload on to other people because (having been sick) I can't catch up with all of my tickets before I leave.

Plus I've been coughing a lot. I hate that.

I survived Statistics! The final was easy; I had to think about the problems, but for perhaps the first time in my mathematical life I understood what was going on at a deep level. The process of solving the problems was fun -- and, as I just found out from checking the webpage, I got an A in the class. Yay!

What else? Well, Earl has been here. This has been occasionally stressful but mostly nice. We've both been tense and insecure at times (often the same times, fortunately), but we seem to be good at talking through it. Being sick has complicated things, since I haven't been feeling very social or active, while he's wanting to celebrate his brief return from southern exile by hanging out with everyone. I end up feeling guilty that I don't want to do more. He ends up feeling like he should be taking better care of me. So it goes.

The nice things, however, are _really_ nice. They're also somewhat intangible, which makes it hard to rave about them. Earl helps me accomplish things simply by being around. We enjoy talking to each other. There are so many things that are good, and I'm completely at a loss to explain them. You'll just have to take my word on it.

Six of us (Czr, Earl, Jim, Jeremy, Rachel, me) had a gift-exchange on Wednesday evening. In alphabetical order, it went more or less as follows. Czr was given the soundtrack to Interview with the Vampire by Earl, and a painting of a wolf in snow by myself and Rachel. Earl received a copy of How Things Work from Jeremy and Rachel, along with several small beanbag elephants. He also got a fairly large statue of The Brain (from Pinky and the Brain, which I am given to understand is a television show) from Czr, which fit in nicely with Earl's reputation as an evil genius.

Jim got a green lava lamp from Rachel & Jeremy, and two hand-painted boxes that Czr had acquired in Thailand. Jeremy got a Pilot, which we'd all put money in for, and Rachel got him a titanium case to carry it in. Rachel herself was given a bunch of Tick cards by Czr (as a down payment on another present), and a very nice knife by Jeremy.

Me? Well, Czr gave me a gorgeous hand-painted tea set that he'd bought in Thailand, mostly in shades of blue-purple and gold. He'd also made me a mix tape of 80's music, which I'm enjoying immensely. Rachel finished the blanket that she started on my birthday, and Jeremy claimed a share in it. Jim gave me a karaoke machine, which I'd been looking for a couple of months ago without any luck.

I feel very lucky to have such friends. The affection in that room was tangible. Everyone laughed at everyone else, and we hugged each other a lot. I felt very affirmed. And a little sad, because being so happy makes returning to everyday life that much harder. I'm going to miss them all so dreadfully when I move.

Eighteen months. That's not so long.