she told me, 'baby, when you race today, just take my love along with you.'

Okay, so just a heads-up before I even get started: this is a picture-saturated post. I can't help myself. I just got my camera cord back, after long weeks of separation, and while I'm trying to exercise some restraint, it's been a really vivid, crazy time that I'd like to document, and I'm doing so here. Do people still have dial-up? If you do, this could take a while. Just be glad that I'm sparing you some scandalous video footage which would undoubtedly add years to the time this page must take to load. Anyway!

So, I'm back in Asheville, clearly, which I'm finally settled into, after a really long period of missing my family. When they left me here, after helping me move in, I completely broke down crying, and I didn't feel right again until, oh, some point weeks later. I still really miss them. Being back in Erie isn't the best thing for me, as we've established, but I've been having so many issues with security lately, and they were much more manageable when I had my family all around me, when I could run errands with my mother and drink and dance with my kid brother and continue a still-not-right relationship with my father. Okay, that last part wasn't really much good, but even that beat being without all of them, really. I remember being in high school and thinking, "Okay, once I get through school and can pay my parents back, I'm not going to bother going home anymore except for funerals." And now that I am out of the house, and doing what I want, I find myself missing them so often, and for so many reasons; I've become such a family person. But I'm here now, and missing them is hard, but I couldn't appreciate them nearly so much if I still lived with them, if we still had to deal with all of the negotiations and screaming matches that made me want to run away before.

And 'here' happens to be pretty cozy, in fact. I'm finally in a single, which was long overdue, and while it's small, it's good to have my own room to come home to at the end of the night. Have a look!

And although I've drifted from most of the old crew, and I'm unwilling to pick up any new attachments when leaving here in May is bound to be hard enough, this happens to be a year of cool transfer students and no obligations, and I am totally down with that. Because of a housing shortage, the school stuck two transfers in the lounge of my building for the first week, and they happen to be too fucking great. They've since moved out, but we had a little last-night-in-the-lounge party with a very special guest:

Boudreaux was totally chill, and didn't bark or pee on the carpet or anything. This is part of what makes him my favorite dog, but not nearly all! The girl in the gray up there is named Liz; her identical twin, Kelly, is in the picture underneath. They are both really cute and lesbionic, and have the same laugh, and came from cool colleges in Massachusetts. This blows my mind, for some reason. They are not into fictional twincest, though, which is slightly disheartening but pretty understandable. And they are both Chris Pureka fans! What luck!


Below is Liz from Iowa, who is really cute, aww. She came with us to the Chris Pureka show, and afterwards, we hung out at the Waffle House, where we told our coming-out stories and laughed a whole lot and had a really awesome waitress. And Chris Pureka remembered me, hello! Another life dream crossed off my list!

That's Beck, whose hair is always flawless. She is gazing at Boudreaux, who is staring at Zack, whose hot legs are in the background.

Here's Zack with Lauren, the second awesome transfer student and former lounge-dweller. Lauren is one of the most adorable people in the world, for real, and she took me out of my misery one day without even knowing it when she interrupted a major angstfest and we watched Weeds. Here, Zack and Lauren are harmonizing on "Portions for Foxes." How do I even remember this? Because it was a good night.

Here's our little red rondette, where Brenna lives. We stayed here while we dogsat for Boudreaux, and it was a much-needed getaway.

Brenna's bed is up against a wall of windows, and the light in the mornings is just unbelievable. Also, Boudreaux is very needy and prone to climbing into bed when he's in need of cuddling.

We took him on a walk with Lori and her dog, Belly, and then got custard afterward. It was a good day. Here's evidence:



And then came the Hendersonville Apple Festival, which is the social event of the season.



I kept my goal for the day simple: I wanted a candy apple, and I wanted it to be good. And when I got it, well, Jana was around to document it. The next pictures are all hers, which explains why they're so good.





Marshall is, for some reason, obsessed with the Shrine Club people - you know, the ones who run the children's hospitals? So when the Shriners marched in the parade, she was totally blissed. Afterwards, I couldn't find her for a few minutes; when Jana and I did locate her, she was chatting up a pair of Shriners on lawn chairs. Why is my girlfriend so fucking endearing?

There was a rock museum in a weird basement location, which we found jsut as we were about to call it a day. It was a one-room endeavor, and most of the signs had critical misspellings, but that only added to the place's charm. There were even dinosaur eggs, which were probably laid by a hadrosaur, one of those duck-billed delights. And we got to touch the eggs!

And then there were comps, which you have to pass to graduate as a lit major, and which require memorization of a ridiculous amount of shit. Day One was on Friday, and Jana and I totally fucking rocked our exams. Afterwards, we decided that a bit of drinking was in order. This turned into a seven-hour extravaganza, held in Susan's house, where Marshall and I were dogsitting for Mojo, the sweet little puppy you'll see in some of these pictures.


That's him, right there. He's just a few months old, but he probably won't get much bigger. My cat weighs more than this little fellow; he's that tiny. And adorable, too! We fucking love Mojo, and will probably get to watch him again before long!

We had a very musical night once Marshall joined us: she found a pan flute to play on, and we took turns composing harmonica melodies to illustrate each situation that arose. Which got especially interesting when we got really drunk and impulsive. I got some of these songs captured on video, but they are way too incriminating to post here. Rest assured that you are not missing a whole lot, musically speaking, since none of us has a fucking clue how to play a harmonica.

Emily joined us, and managed to pose cutely in this picture before falling asleep.

This next picture is pretty much the cutest ever. It's also one of the few existing pictures where Mojo isn't all kinds of blurry, since he's in perpetual motion and tends to evade my attempts at photography.


We left Susan's this morning; she got back last night, but had so many fabulous stories of her time in L.A. that we ended up staying up late to hear them, and then staying over. Seriously, this year is all about dogsitting, and although that was unexpected, I'm finding myself turning into a dog enthusiast. I still miss my cat, though.

Now: I should be studying for Day Two of comps, or finishing Madame Bovary, or (god forbid) writing my own shit, since I've only got a month to get my seminar project together. But instead, I'm posting this, and watching Road the the White House on C-SPAN. Ah, well - it's a Sunday evening, and I'm worn-out and overheated, and there's a hellish week ahead, with comps and meetings and a blood test and so much therapy drama you wouldn't even believe it. (On Thursday, this bitch diagnosed me with Bipolar II and prescribed me Lithium in a ten-minute timespan, and she still refers to Marshall as 'Megan.' Fucking hack.) But for right now, I'm feeling all right, maybe more together than I've been all month. Which is not saying much, but it's something, and it's enough.