2003-10-13 - 11:24 p.m.

exhausted but happy

Wow, tired. very tired...And I've only just entered the autumn rush.

Was thrilled this week to have visits from Ellen and Barb from Michigan. Ellen is an old university friend from way-back-when, and Barb is her partner. Anyway, when I announced that I was leaving the country and slipped in a small commment that "ONLY ONE FRIEND FROM THE USA HAS VISITED ME IN SIX BLOODY YEARS" (not that I'm bitter or anything), Ellen was the only friend who took the hint and hopped on a plane to Jena.

I remember Ellen as the woman from the house who was always laughing VERY LOUDLY. In a close living arrangement, this can cause some tension. But with years, she now seems to be a successful academic woman with boundless energy, animation, and laughter. And as K put it, a gift for bringing everyone into the circle (he was extremely taken with her).

Anyway, on the day that Ellen arrived, I unfortunately experienced a slight sense of humor failure. Too many things, too much stress. K very skillfully smoothed over the my rough edges. Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic dinner, but I had that dreadful feeling that I had 50,000 things still to do, and I was forgetting all of them, and on top of that losing the list that I wrote them on. ugh.

Well, in the end the weekend was a wonderful time. We rented a car and drove off to places that I hadn't visited in years (mostly castles, deserted and decorated). We had a rather ambitious agenda that thankfully we didn't complete (I'd be dead now).

But mostly it was just so fantastic to have an old friend come back into my life from so long ago - and actually to discover that I have even more in common with her now than I did back then.