I'd like you to meet my new friend Interstate 55. Him and I have become well acquainted over the last 5 days; I have made exactly three trips from Chicago to St. Louis with him. The first time (Thursday) I was driving through what the Weather Channel depicted as a two-state-wide blob of white. Why? Well, I wanted to see Kristen as soon as I finished my finals on Thursday, but this meant that I would have to come back Saturday for my Incubator rehearsal, and since Kristen decided to come back to Chicago with me she obviously had to be back in St. Louis before classes Monday and of course I couldn't wait until Sunday to come see her and...and now I imagine you're wearing the perplexed face my dad was wearing when I was trying to explain my elegant travel planning over the cell phone somewhere outside Alton, IL. But the good news is I decided to opt out of a FOURTH trip on I-55 to go back to next weekend's rehearsal, which I will just have to simply miss because the academic calendar dictates that I not be in Chicago after Dec. 10. So much for new friend I-55.

Now at WashU, I'm enjoying the benefits of free education. So far I've attended two physics lectures on fluid dynamics and a lecture on the nervous system. I can't tell you, after a whole quarter of French and literary theory and dull retreads of better-deserving books, how refreshing it is to actually *learn* a few hard facts. Did you know why your hand gets sucked over the mouth of a vacuum cleaner? I do now, and it's infinitely more satisfying than engaging in another discussion about post-structuralist misreadings of the subaltern. Also at WashU, they have the "Collegiate Readership Program," which provides copies of the St. Louis Dispatch and the New York Times in every student dining hall and coffee shop on campus. This program should be implemented immediately at Chicago, or else we should have weekly compulsory "Current Event" assignments to present in our Core classes (for which the article should be STAPLED on BACK of the summary). I feel far too out of touch with the world, especially now since Thomas Friedman and the Moustache of Knowledge costs money to read online.

With Christmas approaching, my parents are asking me for a Christmas list to give them. It should sound like an easy thing to do to put together a list of consumer goods I want, but it's not so if all you want are books and you feel bad asking for just books. So I'm going online now to find stuff I want that I never knew existed. I'm sure there's something out there I need--nice clothes for Metcalf interviews. Winter boots. A companion pair of Hulk Hands.

Kristen and I are going to try and see Syriana or King Kong this week, but last Friday I was finally the last true Harry Potter fan to see Goblet of Fire. So good beyond my mildest expectations. I whispered to Kristen during the movie, "This is really good," and that was only 30 minutes in to the movie (just after Moody demonstrates the three unforgivable curses, actually).

Maybe I'll be back in Atlanta next week, but seeing as I live in Ohio now...maybe not.