I recall riina's first visit post-january16th, i-will-not-cry-i-will-not-cry-i-will-not-cry airportian goodbye at Arlanda int'l flygplats in Sweden, I was deadwhite with fright that i had de-sverige-ified in the months of reaclimation to smalltown, minnesota--that riina and i wouldn't get on as we had gotten on. But it wasn't so, we picked up right where we left off and there wasn't an awkward moment to be had.

bethany, ambryn and andy [my three best peer friends] visit after months of the 4-parts-whole being fractured, displaced and relocated. we eat dinner at Yu's ("best chinese food outside of china" so they say, yeah... but doesn't every decent chinese restaurant in america serve the "best chinese food outside of china"?) we drink gin and tonics around my dining room table whilst we read aloud from my mum's compilation of christmas letters written, searching for early signs of my gaydom in my mum's annual witty summary of me. [though i'm sure every boy wanted to: wear his mrs. potatohead earrings to church (1984), grow up to be cheerleader (1983a), and give birth to the baby girl, matthew seyward 123, he's been carrying since his sister was born (1983b).] the four of us then trekked to the bar, where we got trolleyed. I, being too timid and impatient to ask for change, put a 5$ bill into the jukebox. and i definitely recall insisting to everyone at bar's close, "I'm not that drunk. I'm hardly even buzzing. I'm the soberest person here." morning headache suggests otherwise.

it was old times. it was good times. far too brief, but had it been any longer i'd probably be terribly sad now that they've left. Instead i'm terribly sad because I had to brave the mall looking for a flexible cutting board and instead only managed to find things that i "HAFTA" have: ben stiller show dvd, new missy eliot cd, measuring cups and matching measuring spoons, presspot, etc. christmas music bombarding my ears. there's just something so 9-5 workforce about adventian sunday afternoons in shopping malls... I leave purchaseless. but it put me offmood for the rest of the day... this was my only sunday off of work whilst still in town in months... i ALMOST had my sunday morning/afternoon back, even if it was just making a cameo appearance in my schedule.

but alas, today was total wash... and to top it all off, i now have a fat lip from reckless hill-scaling between parkling lot and building housing this computer lab... all because i just HAD to write this entry. which has turned out nothing like i had planned. which is sort of good since it would make a much better short story and sort of bad since it's terribly unorganised and random....