2001-12-04 | 10:45 a.m.

I am at at work and all is quiet. NT and NK are away for almost 3 weeks studying healthcare in Brazil, and though I love them both, I am sort of thrilled that they are gone. It is nice to know that I can just go at my own pace-- not that they are really demanding or anything, because I couldn't ask for better people to work with, but having the whole place to myself is pretty killer-- it's like when all of your roommates are gone.

Of course SO will be in later, but I love SO so that's ok. She doesn't come in usually until 12, which leaves me the morning to myself (to do very important *work* things like write entries in this diary) SO is the coolest woman I have ever met; I have the biggest friend crush on her. She is professional, liberal, idiosyncratic, sort of a wild child, into yoga, knows about art, music, theater, has travelled everywhere, is married to a jazz violinist, and just overall is one of the hippest 38 year olds I have ever met. Being 24 and a little afraid that growing up means becoming lame, suburban, conformist, and bored, SO is a total inspiration.

I am thinking right now about going home for the holidays and how exciting that prospect is to me. I hated Rochester NY when I grew up there, and I can't ever imagine myself actually living there again, but I love going home. I love spending time with my family and the friends of the family and hanging with all of my old friends from high school. It's ironic-- I assumed when I left high school that I would grow apart from the people I knew there, and that my really long lasting friendships would begin in college, but the opposite has been true. College, in terms of relationships was basically kind of a wash-- I met really cool people that I cared about a lot, but I haven't kept in touch with many of them, and those I do keep in touch with are sort of tangental to my life. The only person I met in college who is still integral to my existence is my boyfriend, and I am greatful that I met him.

Anyway... Harvard shuts down for that entire week at Christmas so I will be home for a long time. I feelso safe and centered when I return home. I lvoe being in my house with all the decorations up, and everything is clean and it deosn't smell like smoke or old beer bottles. I love having so much space and hearing nothing but quiet at night and looking at the stars while I sit on my front stoop smoking a Camel Light.

I can't wait for Christmas!!!!