Hm. Somebody should have at least given her CS final a second glance. That somebody was me. I am hereby marking a personal reminder to hold on to my patience until after winter quarter exams are over. Oh well. If things didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, they're at least decent, and anyway, it's winter break! What a lame excuse.

Maybe all that raving about routine was a little exaggerated. The inevitable is, by its very nature, a last resort upon which one falls for lack of better options. Are we so darn unoriginal and complacent that we can't and won't come up with anything else? Or is my raving actually grounded in lots of reality, and those glossy, happy images I've been painting true to life? Tonight offered the zesty twist of a new café. Whoop-dee-do. But it was chased by some interesting conversation in random places. 'Twas good, but to recount the trains of thought in detail would derail and devalue them. And so, this is the end.

17|12|01 03:39 est
Let's start off with the quote of the night: "I dreamt that I was in a bathroom where you had to pick your stall based on what variable you were solving for. And I was trying to solve for pi, except pi's not a variable, but I was still trying to find the stall for pi." Thanks, Roger. I'm glad you're getting banished to Mississippi.

Actually, I say that in jest. I love being at home, even if that entails listening to recaps of really geeky dreams. Don't get me wrong—school's great. But I love it for what it is, which is two and a half months with a bunch of really amazing people whom I don't know very well so far. I suppose that we'll forge stronger relationships over time, but for now, it's the shared history with my home friends that is the most comfortable. It started last night, just a few hours after I got back from the airport. Roger, the punk, was already asleep at 11, and Jay, the second punk, was in the city watching some members from Collegium, so Matt and I ended up at Cornerstone for a couple of really fun hours, which included sighting Mr. Edge and being complimented by a slightly "happy" guy on the dance floor. Today, we, Roger, and Janet sprawled around Matt's room and played the usual Game of Indecision ("You decide what we're gunna do." "No, you decide what we're gonna do.") for several hours. We inevitably resorted to D&D, where I was rewarded with yet more free munchkins (score!) and got involved in some hot potato with a used tea bag that ended up exploding. The theory on the free munchkins is that we usually go there so late at night that they're about to throw away the day's unsold bakings anyway, so it's not a big deal to give me five free munchkins when I ask to buy one. Ah, simple pleasures.

I know that nearly every single night from now through the end of break, save the Assateague trip, we'll be doing the same routing of calling around after dinner, meeting up somewhere within a three-mile radius, and hanging out til early morning.
And, despite our ridiculously strict though unintentional adherence to this routine, I won't be bored. It'll be interspersed with random guitar playing, pillow fights, and choice selections from our every-increasing body of jokes at Karla's or Wan's expense. Or, sometimes, Roger's, as he is an engineer. Who's being banished to Mississippi next semester, which makes me—and I'm sure, a lot of other people—really proud.

Welcome to home.