Finally! Have a chance to add more! Hope you like the new look; I've been converting my stuff from txt to html which is much more versatile and I can italicize and do all that good stuff. I've just converted two of my stories, Into the Light and Roommate Lost and Remembered to html if you want to see the new look there. Meanwhile, I have more on Mary Anne's journal as she enjoys the last half of her winter break, then gets ready to start her final semester in undergrad school! Enjoy!

January:

Monday:

Am on a work break in the lounge. It's quiet here; a lot of students are still with their parents. Looks like it might snow out there; I do hope we get snow soon and maybe my friends and I can go on a ski trip. Just one more semester of undergrad school and I have a degree! Next is grad school. Oh, shit, my tea just fell off the table...
Am back; got the tea cleaned up and got another one. It's supposed to be around twelve degrees tonight, so I have my gloves. It was so good seeing my folks and Grandma again as well as my other BSC friends and Dawn. Dawn says she got back to Tucson U. all right. After work, I plan to buy some of my books for the coming semester before the last-minute crowd rushes in. My break's almost over, so I gotta run.

Friday:

Just got back from a bash at Kristy's dorm. All of us...Kristy, Shane, Mona, Greta, Wyser, Ran, and I were there. It was sort of a post-New Year's celebration for those of us who'd been away for the holidays. Kristy's pyched already about her last semester. When she graduates, she intends to get started on her business. Right now, it's a little past midnight and flurries are falling outside, but there's no accumulation yet. It actually a nice party; I was afraid it would be boring, but it wasn't; the food was good and I ended up stuffing myself with chips and soda. I also met a few more interesting people, including a Lumie Evans and it turned out he shares my interest in music. Come to think of it, I'd seen him in a few of our music performances at Staten U., but this is the first time we ever really met. He's from Ireland, but is studying here for a year and goes back in the spring. He's from Limerick to be exact. That's where Anne Sullivan's parents were from, I told him and he said that there's a memorial there for Annie and he'd seen it. We sat by the fire and talked while most of the others danced. Mona then sat by us and the three of us talked for a long time about various things from motorcycles to world events to our post-college plans. Just then, someone called for more dancers and Mona, Lumie and I wound up joining the others in this great dance-a-thon. Of course, half of us were tipsy and I think Kristy and Shane were and would up toppling onto the floor on top of each other. The sight cracked the rest of us up. I danced a couple of times with Lumie, then with Mona, then Greta and Wyser. I usually am not a big dancer, but this was fun. Maybe it was because I know most of these people. Once the party ended around midnight, we walked Kristy and Shane back to the dorms, since they were tipsy, then headed home ourselves. Lumie and I discovered we'd be sharing Lesson Planning 301 the coming semester, so we parted with a "See you then!"

Saturday:

Finally! Snow at last! Real snow on the ground, not just flurries this time! It's a few inches, not a whole lot, but enough to make it look wintry. Maybe if we get enough, my friends and I can hike up to Central Park and sled big-time. Just a few minutes ago, I walked up to the market to get some Italian bread and spaghetti meat and it's so nice and clean-feeling, the wintry pure snow. Most people were inside, but being a big city, there's always a few people out. But it was quieter than usual, everything being muffled, even the subway. Got back a while ago and have a cup of hot tea and some cookies. What a perfect day to have tea and a book, so I'm getting a great book out now.

Sunday:

Just talked to Sharon and Dad. They've got snow there too, almost ten inches. We have about five here in the city. They're doing all right. Sharon's done with the porch! Talked to Grandma too; she's finally free of that cough she had. What a relief. She says there in Iowa, they've gotten a lot of snow and it's been very cold there. She thanks the stars that she has several fireplaces as well as good heat. Just made some of my specialty spaghetti, so that's going to be my dinner for tonight and probably for the week. It's so easy to make and I can store it up for the week and plop it into the microwave.
Last night, Kristy and Ran came over and we watched a video and had popcorn and hot chocolate. Seeing the video reminded us of how everything's going to DVD now and one of these days, we'd all have to get DVD players. They do have combo DVD-TV's now; I've seen them in Bloomingdale's and Best Buy. I guess when I graduate and get a better-paying job or some money really saved, I'll invest in one. Kristy says she's saving for one too. We spent much of that evening talking about how technology changes and how people change with it, even everyday little things like watching a movie or writing a paper. Speaking of which, I have to upgrade my compute soon; they now have the Windows 2004 out and soon will be the 2005. Wow, how things change.

More later!