**Crazy Newsflash**

Wedding Season has begun(!!)

The first of my friends my age has gotten engaged, with the wedding to be in August/September!
Warmest congratulations to Tova and Ithamar!
Babies. I expect lots and lots and lots of Jewish babies to result from this happy couple's union.
She best be changing her facebook profile soon

PS: this makes the E(weddings in near-ish future) = 2!

I was gifted a book for Christmas by a close friend. "The Piano Tuner." I suppose one could read it for all sorts of reasons and notice all sorts of things. What I noticed most sharply though, was the love story. I won't go into all the details, but suffice to say it has some poignant, touching scenes. And the story isn't even a love story, but more of a retrospective critique of British imperialism framed in fiction.

Maybe this is all just a sign that I am in love. It's not that I feel I'm still in that honeymoon phase. There are sometimes dark clouds and bad thoughts about how the whole thing makes me just a vulnerable mess but honestly, I'm here and evidently not leaving. So I love boy. Yeah, he's on my mind in spare moments, and in my happiest ones too. I guess I know it's real when I realize that I never have to talk to anyone else about anything. There's also this vague sense of everything being "right" in the world when I'm with him. He is probably the only one in the world who can calm me down, and he does. He does all he can for me, and sometimes I see the struggle of what would be easiest and what would be the greatest expression of his feelings on his face, but when it matters, i suppose he puts me first. He listens to me, too and takes to heart what I say. I do the same, as far as I know, but you never notice this within yourself so much as you do your beloved; I suppose on the whole you may more attention to them than you do yourself. Merry Christmas, baby.

You are special because:
-You don't care even though I insulate my own windows and have a man's wallet with no change purse.

So, on my list of acquisitions to replace my broken dejected electronic equipment are two things that I've researched and loved to death: the iriver U10 (when it comes out in February, it will have a significantly bigger capacity) and the Shure E3 headphones with a pair of Sensaphonics custom silicone earpieces. And I realize they might look like hearing aids, but really I could care less; 26Dbs of sound isolation plus the sound of Shures? there's absolutely no contest. Besides, I can get colors for the plugs too, so I'll probably get something super exciting (like orange and red) or something super boring so that when I'm in my ultra-conservative law firm on the Street, I won't get stares from my co-workers.

I'm also going through the inanely time consuming process of perhaps taking my MP3 collection and replacing all the low-bitrate versions of the songs. For Free. On Limewire. On another note, I would have to say: I downloaded a MASSIVE 9Mb version of Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" and it's fucking incredible in terms of musicality and depth. It's indistinguishable from the album version. It's also massive and i'm not sure I'd be too happy with the doubling of every single song size wise. I also turned my PSP into a remote control for itunes yesterday (suuuuper cool so I can sit on my futon and change songs). All the while I should actually be studying for exams and the like. What a party. I have two left today, then I can concentrate on revelling in the ecstasy the lyrics "Late nights, playing in the dark, waking up inside my arms..." bring me in all their Hi-Def glory.

Speaking of which, I will call the boy and disturb him at school today.

So a bunch of stuff happened since I last wrote, awesome stuff mostly but really I have no energy to write about them now. Suffice to say my hockey teammates are fucking hilarious. My feet hurt like hell right now. I walked all over town today, fighting the goddamn tourists who did nothing but get in the way of my shopping and my little "excursion."

I had to go to MOMA (thank god for free tickets. No free ticket = no go. I'll spend my 20 bucks elsewhere, thank you) to find paper topic fodder so I'm writing about the exhibit of Odilion Redon's work and I had to shit some random junk up about a few of the works found in the museum. I figure I'll finish both on Monday at Harvs and email them to my prof. The Core office is also paying for food after the Thursday night review session and Matt, Ying, Linden and I are looking to get Masha trashed on some vodka. She being a tall Russian will probably drunk us under the table but who cares...it's the core office paying for it!

I have realized that I have gotten old WAYYYYy too fucking fast. I should still be doing stupid stupid shit like going to clubs and getting wasted. Instead, I'm hitting obscure little restaurants and A-list restuarants with too much regularity and legitimately drinking off the damn wine lists. I could use a little more stupid crap this year. I think that will all begin during Paris '06, when Ganges, Xiao and I basically stomp around with La Grande Dame poised for a week of indiscriminate eating and debaucherous tomfoolery. It will be the rebirth of M4/S6 me. I WILL BE MY OWN REINCARNATION.

In other news: Ted's Ipod (which is now my Ipod) acts all funny when it's connected to my Dock. Not that I really care. As long as it charges, I figure I'm winning. Also, Konnin and Renee have discovered my wicked lucrative Ebay tactics. They're looking to enlist me as Ebay junkie full time. I'm pretty stoked, as it means more money for the four of us (Ted included, of course) to go burning on A-list restuarants. Not that money has ever prevented us from doing it either...

In other news, my dad has shingles (the nerve infection derivative of the chicken pox virus) and the hilarious thing is I diagnosed it (with absolutely no authority to, mind you) correctly over the phone. I crack even myself up. I have so much fucking work to do this week when I'm at Harvs...I shudder to think. Whatever. Ted and I are going to dress pretty and blow our Ebay earnings at Upstairs in the Square (soso food but it's the best in the Square) and probably a fuckload of Ben and Jerry's too. Awesome.