as some people have diligently noted, today is my birthday. it took even me a while to realize that though, i guess i'm numbed to it from a week of people wishing me happy prematurely. not that i'm not happy. oh, my druthers of a philly-dinner-movie night aren't panning out, from some combination of apathy, ambivalence, imperfect logistics, and my reluctance to assert myself. but that's okay. i guess i'll be having some food courtesy of the international club, and maybe i'll finally get to watch my sting dvd.

it's like a mellowed-out but pleasant expanse of sparsely-populated weekend. we missed the train last night because of track-construction confusion, so we joined the somewhat impromptu weinstein house dinner party instead, offering the eddie's cheesecake and leftover mojito makings as our contributions. while laurel, amelia, alyssa, tofuboy, et al. chopped veggies and stirred things for gado gado (last semester's weekly staple), i squeezed nuked limes and picked days-old mint leaves to prepare cocktails for the company - tonic water instead of club, and not much of it, but these 'jitos turned out if anything better than thursday's. once served, we settled in the living room, discussed hifi and dylan while half of the group was silent, toasted veggies, women, and men, listened to augustus pablo. very pleasant. i like houses.

after that, i got to spend a while on the phone with my folks and bobby, and then hannah and i watched the first forty minutes or so of the fountainhead, which was about as bad as we expected. kind of fun though, and to be reminded of that book which already feels so long ago to me. so we gave that up, for sam phillips, fourtet, tea, and bathrobe.

this morning we (strange to be writing in first person plural; this is not the royal or rose's presumptive we but a spacesaver by means of implication) ventured out at 9:30 to attend quaker meeting. neither of us had been before. there turned out not to be the grandiose breakfast of rumor (no other students b/c of break), instead a humble but appealing spread which provided us with tea, bread with jam, and cherry streusel bites. over breakfast we chatted with some folks about the conference that had just happened, and about school and so forth - somehow i found a way to answer a question about the subject of ester's screenplay.

meeting itself was quite pleasant. no one spoke for at least half an hour, probably longer, so the only sound was an occasional outburst from my poor throat (it's phlegmy but not really pained; i'm accruing a few symptoms, but this doesn't feel like it has the makings of a real sickness, it's just something to slow me down a tad. as opposed to what rufus has apparently got for himself). when they did talk, most of the friends' comments directly referred to quakerism, generally in a historical sense - i gather this was mostly because of the conference and not entirely typical. some of it was very moving, and i would definitely be interested in going back. i stood at the end to introduce myself, as newcomers are asked to do, but we left before the refreshments and social time in the rushmore room. i hadn't realized the friends meeting house was so expansive.

we had a second breakfast a few hours later; english muffins, toasted bread, donuts, salami, cider, and hannah-scrambled eggs with cheddar. in the palmer kitchen, in a group of five, while we listened to her scratchy burnt copy of sweetheart of the rodeo (zany frog lauren sez: "is this country? i feel like i'm in rochester new york or something… well you said it's near a lake"). tasty. i like breakfast.

ernst reading while elliott sings. playsite scrabble (intense! i ended up up, 395-392, with help from the scrabdict) and u2's pop, which i remember is a terrific album. i spent five minutes packing, which means i'm mostly done. expect, i guess, not many updates for a while, as i'll be in the wilds of the northwoods and then, and then, after years of waiting, as the lights flash before your eyes, the isle of dreams. (women and children first and children first and children…) (get off my back.) oh, well perhaps i'll post tomorrow morning before we leave too.

her eyes all swimming pool blue
dumb bells on a diving board
she's always attracted to the things she's afraid of

big girl with the sweet tooth
watches the skinny girl in the photo shoot