Here we sit:

Brookie with her old jeans laid out on the carpet, carefully snipping in straight lines to make new summa shorts. She strips down and pulls them on, grabs a cracker and points: "eh?".
"Eh!" I reply. Full conversation right there--this equals love. (translation: "do these shorts look ok? should i keep them rolled up like this or put em down and cut them shorter?" "girl, they're perfect. keep them! love them!" Yep.)
Kenj in her ladylike, side-legged position; she's rockin the high-waisted pencil skirt and flowery printed tee, pointed white flats with bows and her waves pinned back and her crystal complexion. She picks at her red grapes, one by one, chewing thoughtfully.
Kay from my black cell sitting face up on the coffee table: speaker phone. I drift back to five-way conference calls when we were apart ALL SUMMER of 2008. In this moment we conference about the unexpected words Kaylie received today--in the same stack as a wedding announcement and maybe a bank statement or two. Just any old letter, but made overly "complete" with smiley faces and hearts and stars and stupid. (sorry, but it is.) We move on and discuss our similar fall schedules and how we're gonna deck out our apartment and have creative writing lessons and share lots of love cuz we'll just be right there all the time.
Katiegirl is sitting with crossed feet against the wall, big white flower in her hair and suckin on a lollipop. She prompts my daydreams with her indie tunes and photos of "super hot" men with generous amounts facial hair.
I thrive from this life I live, these friends who plopped themselves down in my life, this stage I am at right now. Ask me two days ago and I would have told you I had no idea where my life is going. I still don't--I mean, my eventual destination still shines brightly in my forward vision, but who knows how the stepping stones will be shaped or how often I will have the choice between two equally righteous circles of cement. But I sit on this couch today and declare: I am moving forward. I have goals and I have dreams and I wholeheartedly believe that I will achieve them. Don't you dare tell me I won't. Goaling and dreaming is easy, I'm finding. All you gotta do is goal and dream. Make your story as exciting as you can; scribble down the brilliance of your new home teachers and the goldness of the sun at 8:23 pm and the way music can make your heart huge with memory.

Call me weird, but:

**I absolutely cannot wait to buy school supplies. I talk about this every day and have yet to find anyone who shares my wide-eyed view. They'll come around. Just picture it: a fresh stack of spiral notebooks, crisp textbook pages, sharp pencil tips, bright new ink pens. I might start purchasing early this year.

**I am dreaming of scarves and boots and turtlenecked sweaters and floppy beanies. Watching Harry, Ron and Hermione on their snowy trip back from Hogsmeade actually made me wish for a small taste of winter. But then I realized I'm just fine with the hundred degrees of heat, cutoff shorts and dirty barefeet soles.

**My smile just now was all the way wide and I suddenly became giddy...this is HUGE! My gums are still a bit gaping, but the healing process is coming along nicely and I can smile normally again!

K, bye. Smiley face. LOL.