ah. caught up on all my blogs and newsfeeds, gchatted with friends halfway around the world... for some reason, i am filled with hope. today is a good day.

next week, my brother will be in cleveland. we will explore ohio city, coventry village, and other "boho-chic" neighborhoods in this somewhat trendy-urban but rough-and-underground post-industrial city. we'll eat at shaker square, which looks like it belongs on the set of a movie, and attempt to pay for a meal at lola, (new) iron chef michael symon's tasty brainchild. we are the poor man's version of the finer things club.

my roommate and i have our mini-christmas tree up. this weekend, we'll be having people over; her IV students are coming over for a movie night and mine are sharing a xi fan brunch. we're going to project the movie elf onto one of our walls.

good times ahead.