okay, now i’m in d.c. sheisse, so much traveling. i’m tired of lugging that ugly green bag around (technically ben lugged it around nyc for me this morning but still, i’m tired of looking at it.) we roused ourselves early to go to Jazz At Noon, this group of cheerful geriatrics that has been performing for thirty years. ross’s granddad sings. ross ben ross’s grandma and i clustered around a table w/ ross’s great aunt harriet, hailing from berkeley, and another ny couple whose relation to the rest of us i didn’t quite catch. no matter. we had a cheerful if mediocre lunch. ben and harriet talked war. the lady of the couple, who was across from me, gathered my information. she might have a job for me in nyc in the summer. ben, ross, ross’s girlfriend alyssa, and i are considering sharing an apartment in the city — ross’s grandparents have one to spare. i’m skeptical.
used the train ride to reflect. well, first ross and i had a trademark conversation; he deboarded at philly, and for the next two hours, i reflected. it really was a great trip. i told my dad about it after he picked me up at union station. i omitted the playing strip card games part, which left me in my underwear rather quickly b/c (a) i was drunk and (b) i have little aptitude for competitive things to begin w/. the boys disrobed mostly out of fairness. it was very comfortable, sitting around mostly-naked watching the snow fall. i told my dad about the drinking — i knew he wouldn’t care — including the fact that i mixed possibly the worst bloody marys in recorded history. ben to comfort me said, “what does Joy of Cooking know about bloody marys anyway?” the margaritas i made previous to that were better. ben made us white russians but we were eating chips and salsa by that point and that’s a revolting combination.
tuesday, when we arrived, and thursday, when we left, the weather was as sharp and clear as a chime. wednesday, our full day, was alternately soggy and harsh. we braved its bipolarity to trek to the general store for tortillas which they didn’t have. didn’t matter. the cold made us giddy and we sang against the wind all the way home. it was a very condensed day: ben and i didn’t emerge til 2, and by 8, i was soused. in between we played monopoly and ping pong. ross baked excellent apple pie and bruschette.
what else. some reading, some publik radio. it seems like a short stay but it wasn’t so much. the weather seemed happy to see us and happy to see us go; i guess we were there the right length of time. i’ll add more details as i remember them. for now i have to go talk to my grandparents. finally, after so much time w/ other people’s, my own family.
now we’re making instant-dinner. at 8:30, the bunny and pop will swing back to pick us up. the only dark spot in all of this is that, while packing, i found my long-unconsulted tarot cards. 
i am not a superstitious or spiritual person; still, i’m perversely, irrationally attached to my cards. and they did not portend entirely good things. often it’s hard to figure out precise meanings til later. before this semester, for example, i did a bunch of readings and the chariot, a card that means “war” and which i’d never gotten before, kept appearing. didn’t make any sense to me. now of course it does.