22 december 1999
3:30pm
the brightest moon...

first of all, a quick "happy 22nd birthday!" to my best friend, david. i love you darling.

my first entry of the winter break. maybe my only entry. computers aren't quite so distracting when you don't have any work do to. so, i'm back in california. i finished my last final at 9:30pm friday night, and i left swarthmore 7 hours later, at 4:30am saturday morning. finals week was horrendous... way too much work. not nearly enough time. it was amazing that everything actually got done. so i had 7 hours of done-ness. enough time to get me drunk, enough time to watch that week's 90210 episode, enough time for a bit of (highly unexpected) debauchery. all in all a very enjoyable 7 hours, though i wish i had had more time. but then again, those 7 hours probably wouldn't have been so enjoyable if it wasn't for the fact that i was leaving. anyway, i don't want to analyze it too much.

being back home is always a tenuous situation for me. it's hard to walk this thin line of being 21 and having (almost) complete independence for most of the year, yet also be someone's child and have to live under their roof (and thus their rules) for a portion of the year. i have a hard time reconciling the two, to the point where both my parents and i can get frustrated. i think my saving grace while being at home is getting out as much as possible. christmas shopping, coffee shops, bookstores, time with friends... it all helps preserve my sanity. and especially also that i'm going down to enh in 2 1/2 weeks.

speaking of getting out, last night i went to the roughing it staff christmas party. it was interesting. good to see andrew again, i can't wait to get his cd. a handful of us went and hung out at eric's house afterwards, watching tv and drinking beer for awhile. when then drove up to the berkeley hills to get a view of san francisco and the brightest moon of the past 135 years. and i agree, it was a damn bright moon. it was at its brightest at around 2am, so that's when we got up there. it was cold, but we all got out and just viewed at talked and drank beer until 2:45 or so. when then drove around looking for anything that was open and could provide us with food. eventually settled on safeway. we went back to eric's but i decided it was time for me to head home. got home around 3:30am. it was good, the first time i've hung out with friends since i've been here. tonight i'm heading over to hilary's for her annual christmas caroling party. it will be good to see people, though i'm not actually very close to most of the people that are usually there (including hilary herself). but marilyn will be there, whom i haven't seen in a great while. and i would love it so much if matt was there, because i haven't seen him in about forever, though i realize that he's returning from france today and may not be up to it. or maybe dave gordon will be there, who is a terrific guy and we end up staying friends even though we never actually keep in touch. and annie and i talked for close to an hour and a half yesterday, and made plans to hang out soon.
so, though i really have few attachments here in lafayette, it is really nice to, when home, spend time with those friends who've weathered the seperation of college.

3:51pm