"Yes."

A classmate-friend of mine took that funny picture of me while I was writing in the library today. I took the camera from her, and took a picture from my point of view. I almost always build some sort of fort with my books when I go into the library to research and write. It keeps me focused.

The other day I received this (below) surprise in the mail from a guy friend at Kenyon. He had been painting to relieve some stress, and painted me a picture of Kenyon in the fall. He thought that I might enjoy seeing a piece of fall from Kenyon. I hadn't even told him how much I missed it.

This Friday is the program's potluck dinner and talent show, organized by Professor Schell and I. The rule is if you don't perform a talent, you don't eat. And lets just say that I've proved to be quite persuasive and everyone (including our professors!) is planning to perform. But at about the same time that dinner is supposed to start on Friday, my two weekend visitors from Gambier should be arriving. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing those two wonderful women, I'll admit that I'm worried about how much writing I'll manage to get done while they're here.

There is a sign on the back of a newspaper stand on the corner of our block that reads:

"Yes" We are open 24 hours.

I have it posted on the sidebar of this blog. We've been laughing at this sign for three months now, and still haven't decided why the yes is being hugged by quotation marks. Does it mean "yes" as in, "we only say we're open 24 hours but we really aren't?" I like to think so.We know that it's probably just meant to emphasize the "yes," but it's more fun to debate the meaning. Sometimes, if we are out pretty late, we even check to see if anyone is inside the small stand. And so far they've always been there, even if they were sound asleep.

"Yes," I'm calm.

"No," I'm not worried.

"No," I'm not freaking out.

But, yes, it will all work out just fine. I believe that.