All work is due no later than 4:30 p.m. on December 17th

Merry Early Christmas to me! I won an Ebay auction for The Secret Garden, the exact one I had as a kid and read so many times it fell apart. Except this one is hardcover, so I hope it will last longer. I had a bad habit when I was little of nibbling on my books. I would tear off little corners and suck on them while I was reading. Those were way back in the days that I perpetually had a lock of hair in my mouth. Mom should have just given me some chewing gum or something.

It�s Tom�s 21st birthday tomorrow, and at midnight tonight he�ll be in Columbus. Not hitting the bars, but watching The Two Towers! We�re having a big bunch of people go. All my geeky friends will be there, the ones who wear cloaks as an everyday thing, and we�re going to a Japanese restaurant beforehand. I�m ashamed to admit I�ve never read it. I�ve tried, lord how I�ve tried. I�m such a science fiction nut, and if I was able to get through all David Eddings� books, you�d think I could get through LOTR. But I always got stuck on the first one. I finally finished it last October Break, but it was hard slogging and I didn�t want to continue. I loved the first movie, though. Strider is hot. I�m coming into this one completely pure.

I still have, oh, several pages left to write before the official close of the semester in two hours, and so many little things to do before I go. I don�t think I�ll sleep until James drives me to Columbus. Lewis is opening early, so Evonne is going to let me stay in her room. I�ve been doing a lot of thinking during this all-nighter, and I realized that I should try to emulate my father when I�m home and be the calm one. I�m only there for a few weeks, it�s not so hard to take some responsibility off my mother.