Postgrad friends

It seems silly too talk about my weekend when it�s Thursday, but it�s the first time I�ve felt well enough to write at length. I'm fully recovered now, which is good. James is still healthy. Maybe he does have an iron consitution. The weekend was all about my "senior" friends, who are now out in the world.

Russell
Russell came down this weekend! He was only passing through, but then he had to stay an extra day because his father was sick (hmm�I wonder if he had the Norwalk virus). It was lots of fun seeing him again. We did all the Russell things when he was here, go out to eat, play on the computer, watch movies, and play games. He�s working at an elementary school now, how appropriate.

John
I e-mailed him and asked him how he proposed to Rebecca, and he finally got back to me. His whole description was hilarious, but this is my favorite part. �I got out of the car and we wandered across the grass on the edge of the lake, and it occurred to me that if I dropped the ring in the grass in the dark like this we'd have a time finding it. After a bit I popped the question, holding the ring to her in the prescribed manner. She didn't seem to notice it, so I waggled it about a bit to attract her attention. She ducked under my arm and said she'd marry me, self still extending the ring. Finally I said, "well, I've got this ring here for you if you want it" and she suggested that we go back to the car so that she could see it.�

Ann
I got a letter from Ann on Saturday! She could only bring 15 books to the monastery. I was shocked. I know they don�t have a lot of possessions, but I didn�t think that would apply to books. They have books in their library there and they can request books from the local library too. I just have certain books I always have to have with me, like a comfort blanket. I asked her which ones she brought, and she said Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, two Thomas Mertons, John Berryman�s The Dream Songs, a German dictionary, two by Rainer Maria Rilke, Mother Theresa, The Screwtape Letters, a Bible, and a few she couldn�t recall. She�s a poet, which explains some of her choices. Her father sent all of her friends an e-mail detailing her daily schedule, since she doesn�t have much time for writing letters and most people ask her the same questions about what life is like. There are about 40 women in her monastery (a Dominican contemplative order). Another woman entered at about the same time she did, who had just got her Masters in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. There are a good number of younger nuns. They wake up at 5 a.m. and go to bed at 9 p.m. It sounds so peaceful there. They have no television, computers, IM, movies, telephones, or radios. And Ann was always on her computer at Kenyon, but now she doesn�t miss it at all. �It�s strange how the orientation of one�s mind shifts,� she wrote. I wish I could find my calling like she did.