It's Spring Break, and I'm really loving it for the most part. I'm not doing anything spectacularly decadent. Mainly sleeping in late and grading student essays, reading books I've been wanting to read but have not been able to read because of school readings, writing fiction more, which slows down a bit while school is in session and I have lots of essayistic stuff to write, and far too many essays to grade. So the break feels nice. I look forward to graduating in a couple of months and moving on to whatever happens to be the next move for me. There are a few moves being considered, but I'm keeping my options open, and learning to be a little more pragmatic and careful when making decisions that affect my life. What a novel idea!

Went to see "The Hours" again last night with Jackie. I saw it first in New York, with my friend Rick, when the film first opened. I really liked it then, and I liked it again, but this second viewing was a bit less thrilling. It's just so damned sad! And some of the themes and situations in the film, and some of the characters--some of these things touch nerves with me, which is a good thing, but difficult. In any case, I think it's a good movie. It's refreshing in many ways to watch a film that requires its viewer to basically watch other people have conversations the entire time. No big effects, a minor car speeding along the highway clip, some suicide, yes, but done fairly quickly and the character's handle it as best as possible.

I've been thinking a lot about friends lately--I haven't been in good contact with many of them for a while, and find myself becoming nostalgic and missing them a lot. I hope you're all doing wonderful (you know I'm talking about you, right?) and know that I miss you all. Hopefully this coming May, I'll get to see a lot of you again, at Wiscon. Much love...