Dear God in heaven. I will never, let me make this perfectly clear, never eat hummus and tortilla chips and lemon squares and pita bread and bits of icing from a chiffon cake and three Sprites and root beers at 2.30a ever ever again, I promise!

Went to bed at 4.15a, woke up at 6a wishing I was dead. I was so sick. "Melissa will never forgive me ever ever ever if I vomit all over her guest room/bathroom/hallway!" I thought, but I didn't really see how I could avoid it.

But somehow, somehow, God was good and I managed to go back to sleep and sprang from bed all rested and refreshed at 10a. See?

Hard to imagine why no-one wants to have that be the first thing they see every morning when they awake, huh?

I decided, before I went down, I would damn well finish that scarf, and I did! Unfortunately, I had never bound off something in class, so I just had the paper with the diagram to work off of, and I cannot read diagrams, they look like abstract art to me.

It took me 45 minutes to bind it off, and I'm pretty certain that I did it the hardest way possible, since I had to use my fingernails and I'm almost certain that that is not the recommended method, but I did, in fact, finish! Looky, cookie!

See the needles next to the scarf rather than attached to it? Pretty cool, huh? I started it on 31 May, finished it 23 June, that's three weeks and three days, I can make another six or seven more by Christmas. I can't wait to get more wool!

Staggered downstairs sometime after 11a and sat and mumbled with the equally exhausted Elizabeth and Melissa, Greg, intelligently, stayed in bed until around 3p.

Melissa fried up the rest of the crab cakes and we ate and chatted and managed to regain our humanity after a few hours, then Elizabeth left and Melissa drove me to the train.

Fortunately, the ride home was the three hours that it should have been, not four, and I arrived home in better shape than I arrived in Philly the day before!

When I got home, I watched Married in America on A&E.

I had watched it before, last week, and I thought that this was part two, but really it was both part one and part two, so I just watched the whole thing again. I love projects like this, going over the years, like Michael Apted's 7 Up series, that I have watched since 28 Up. This idea, of following nine couples from marriage through their tenth anniversary, if it gets that far, is fascinating.

Here are my thoughts on the couples:

Betty & Reggie, the black man and white woman who have known each other since they were five years old and have been dating for eleven years. I think they are going to make it, they just seem to be so much a part of each other and of each other's lives, that I think that they can get through whatever life might throw at them.

Amber and Scott, two white Southerners. Not. A. Chance. They have known each other about one minute, they don't appear to know each other, they are not in step, it's clearly a surface attraction. This is the couple that I believe will be at least separated, if not divorced, by the second film, eighteen months from now.

Brenda and David, the two Mexicans. Nope, I don't think they are going to make it, either. I don't like him much, he said this one thing about his step-daughter, whom he has basically raised since she was little and since her mother died, well he said that he thought that she'd end up eventually fading away back into her mother's family, and that that wouldn't bother him, even though she considers him her dad. What a creep. And I think that the fact that Brenda is so much more white collar and ambitious and successful than he is will end up being a problem.

Vanessa and Chris, the Columbian woman and the red-headed cop. My favourite couple by far, and the ones that I have the most faith in that they will make it. They appear to really know and love each other, they make each other laugh, they seem to have talked things out, What they want for their futures appears to be the same thing, but also I just plain like them. There is something about her face that is so open and honest that I wish that I knew her and was friends with her, and he just seems so solid and dependable and funny, I want them to come to one of our family barbecues. I will lay money on the fact that, if only one couple is left standing at the end of the ten years, it will be them.

Cheryl and Neil, the Filipina and the Jew. This couple I am wavering on. I want them to make it, I like them alot, but I think it might not happen. There appears to be alot working against them in terms of religion and family, but they really seem to be aware of these possible pitfalls, and they are in therapy in order to head problems off at the pass, but they might be too big to overcome. I'm rooting for them, though.

Carol and Chuck, the white trash couple. That sounds like I'm being mean about them, but that's really the only way to describe them. They are in their mid-thirties, they are both grandparents, they have had five failed marriages between them, she was abused, he's been in jail twice, they are both recovering substance abusers, he lives in a trailer behind his parent's house, she has really bad teeth, he's a tattooed biker, there is no other way to describe them.

Do I think the marriage will last? Well, I feel the same way as I do with Cheryl and Neil, only opposite. Cheryl and Neil look like they could make it, but I'm leaning towards no, while Carol and Chuck look like they haven't a chance in holy hell, but I'm leaning towards yes. It might be because, out of all of the couples, they are the ones that I want to beat the odds and make it. They have been through so much unhappiness in their lives, more than any two people at their relatively young age should, and they deserve to be happy and at peace. And they really seem to be right for each other and to love each other, I just hope that they can survive this uphill battle.

I wept watching them dance together at their wedding the first time I watched it, and I wept this time.

Nadine and Frank, the black couple. I have a reasonably good feeling about them, there's the fear that he might be too immature, that she might be forced to be his mother, that she might be too staid for him, but it seems as though they could be enough for each other. There's a twinge of maybe not, though.

Toni and Kelly, the lesbian couple. It's amazing the pressure that they are under, something that even the inter-racial couples don't have to deal with, that every part of their lives is coloured by how everyone else in the world reacts, even their families. These pressures that the straight world doesn't ever have to think of, it's really interesting to see it all laid out like that.

At first, I thought that Toni seemed to be much more intense about the relationship than Kelly, but it seems just that Toni is just a more intense person all around, that doesn't mean that Kelly feels less just because Kelly is more laid-back. I have a good feeling about them, a really good feeling.

Donna and Todd, the third set of New Yorkers, both white. It's peculiar, they don't seem to be a couple. They seem to like each other, but they seem to be more roommates than fiancees or boyfriend and girlfriend or lovers or whatever. Very odd. Of course, they haven't said how long they have been together, so maybe they're into the comfortable companionship portion of the relationship, or maybe they just are not demonstrative in front of the cameras, but it all seems a little cold to me.

There's a whole bunch of WTC foreshadowing going on, that I don't particularly enjoy, but with three New York couples, it has to come up sometime. And there it is. Of course, it's not gratuitous, they lived three blocks away from the WTC, they were in the air going on their honeymoon when the planes hit, it affected every New Yorker tremendously, but I wish that they hadn't made it so obvious that it was coming.

So there you have it, out of nine couples, two definitely no, three definitely yes, two maybe leaning towards no, two maybe leaning towards yes. We'll see how right I am in 2004!

And, in order to make you realize that I don't always look like I do above, here's another cute picture of me in braids!

Today's horoscope:
Emotions are intense and a confrontation could occur. Be sure your facts are straight before making any accusations. Use humor to defuse the situation.

One year ago today:
"Maybe it will start writing your entries for you!"

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Last Updated Wed 26 June 22:50:09 2002