At Last...an Update

I know, I know. It's been FOREVER. And I have to apologize doubly, because it's 12:30 in the morning and I'm about as punchy as they come. But I figured that I ought to try to write something, even if it's just to dispel the myth that I've met some untimely demise. As my darling Mark Twain wrote, the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

So my best friend Chia-chi, whith whom I've been practically attached at the hip for the past two months, left to go back to Taiwan yesterday, and he left a bit of a Chia-chi shaped hole in the pit of my stomach that I'm sure will last at least two more days. I'm finding all efforts to avoid thinking about it fruitless; everything reminds me of him, including the piles of miscellaneous household items that he left with us when he went home. It's just so quiet around here without him. He was over here so much that toward the end he was taking to just putting his groceries in our refrigerator, because lugging them back and forth the one block between our two apartments was becoming too much of a bother.

In other news, John finished his last assignment of the quarter this evening and is henceforth tentatively officially graduated from North Seattle, barring some unfortunate circumstance. I'm so proud of him; he's worked very hard to get where he is. Me, I leave for Shanghai on July 6th, and the stress of another international trip is starting to wear me a little thin. I only just got the paperwork to apply for my visa a few days ago, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be processed in time. In the meantime, the ever-present UW red tape is keeping me busy with every manner of paperwork.

More to come later, when I'm a little less tired.