The 8th was a great day! Thank you, dear friends, for making my first birthday away from home so wonderful. I believe that passing dishes around the dinner table inspires warmth, ease, and conversation. Oh how I will miss the carefree state of bumming in front of a TV.

A few pictures to share!

I started the day with a call to my little swallow for the first time in …. I won’t say how long… okay, a whole year! Talking to her scared me a little – how could the loss of a year cause no injury? Were there minute changes in her, in us, that escaped me? Are friendships fragile or resilient? Are the ones that have fallen apart because of neglect or because they were never that strong to begin with? Perhaps my seemingly handicapped ability to dial the phone is really a process of natural selection. OMG! That’s twisted. New Year’s resolution – be a girl, use the phone!

India's Restaurant, where the food is hot (in both sense of the word) and the company is hot (pick your sense of the word).

The only thing better than admiring a beautiful cake is cutting into the beautiful cake.

Oh yeah... and today was the first day of classes. Enough said.