the only writing i've been doing lately

has been for personal statements and scholarship essays. that's my only excuse.

i'm happy to say that no matter how boring i may be, i will never run out of interesting things to say about my peers, nor will i tire of vicariously soaking in their glory. sometime last week i was on campus to pick up some letters of rec when i ran into an old student of mine who's TA-ing his own section now. i initially thought, hey, it's kinda neat that he decided to follow in my footsteps, but then i snapped to and became frightened, because well, someone decided to follow in my footsteps. we don't need anymore twenty-somethings in los angeles wasting their time at swap meets and drug stores like sixty year old men. i also ran into my old chum natalie, who can be found at disneyland during the summertime where she is paid to don a canary-yellow dress, smile big, and respond to "belle."

when i was an RA there was this guy who lived in my building who i considered to be alright, but not everyone seemed to agree. he tended to make those around him uncomfortable, not in the "oh my god this guy is a serial-killer" sense, but in the "i think he just told a joke but i don't quite get it and feel obligated to laugh to break this awkward silence" way. you know the type. anyway now he's the star geek on beauty and the geek 2. from what i've been told he is kicking some major ass. christopher, rock on with your greeting-card-making self.

it's not even a month into the new year and things seem to have gotten pretty interesting for everyone at zanzibar. the last time i visited it was as if i were in an alternate universe where the people were the same, yet had distinctively different things about them. brian's not around because he's off doing whatever it is that interns for national geographic feature films do. mike has a new ladyfriend, who is quite the knockout. he also has a new cell phone, the flip kind; so does brian, i'm told. not only does lee finally have a cell phone (thereby taking the last-of-tony's-friends-to-get-a-stupid-phone-award from tracey), but she's on the couch popping vicodin because apparently she just had some work done; she moved around by balancing on her heels, toes pointed upwards (her feet were also wrapped up in bandages) with matt facing her and holding her hands as he walked backwards, guiding her to wherever she needed to go. it seemed they had gotten this routine down pat, and seeing them waltz through the apartment like this reminded me of everything i seemed to have forgotten about this thing called love.

matt jokingly said that we should all get boost mobile (*beep* "where you at?!"). i'd be lying if i said i didn't take this as a feasible suggestion rather than an afterthought. the fact that we all have the flip kind of cell phone stupidly signifies, for me at least, that these are truly new and exciting times. did i mention that at work we caught fifth grade girls smoking (or trying to) in the bathroom?