yarn

Alison is a great calming influence. Bless her. She always imparts the soundest advice. It's amazing actually. She doesn't just tell me what I want to hear, or what I should hear. She's just... reasonable. And accurate. I usually can't stand advice, and I never think of seeking it from her, but when she does dole it out, it's golden.

In this case, she didn't really have much advice per se. It was just the way she reacted to my latest drama. It was exactly what I was thinking and feeling, but couldn't put into words. It's great when someone gets you.

We met for coffee and cake, then moved on to alcohol and junk food. Woo! In all, we talked for four hours. No wonder why I often leave our sessions hoarse. This time I also left prepared to sit Richard down for another chat.

I actually ran into him on his way home from uni, and we stopped at the grocery store to get dinner. While waiting for the veggie burgers to grill, we had a mini talk. Nothing too emotional, no tears or anything like that. I knew exactly what I wanted to say, almost rehearsed, and I said it, and Richard said: 'Have you been talking to Alison about this or something?' Damn he's good. Anyway, after having said my bit, he apologised again for all the anguish and intimated that he is now leaning towards marriage again. Phew! No promises yet.. he said he doesn't want to say anything now and then change his mind tomorrow. So he asked for a few more days, which I graciously allowed, and we had dinner and all was peachy.
He had a paper to present today, his very first paper presentation. I figured it wasn't that big a deal. I mean, it wasn't his paper. All the lab people are assigned a scientific journal to keep an eye on, and once a month they summarise any important findings revealed in their journal. But the poor boy was so nervous. After all, it was the first time he was presenting to his new colleagues and supervisors. And some of the supervisors were specialists in the topic he'd be covering. Aww. He worked so hard! Not only did he read the paper about a million times, he practised his presentation five times. I could only stand to hear it three times.. the other two times he presented it to the fireplace in the living room. Precious.

I probably shouldn't have told you all that. I bet he'd be embarassed. Ah well. Pretend you don't know.

So today I left the house. And not only that, I spent MOST OF THE DAY outside! I know! Crazy! It was quite full. It all started at 10.30am, at the dentist. Then I went into town to go yarn shopping. And I bought a hat. And sexy underwear... for my sister for Christmas. And then I got my watch fixed and perused knitting manuals in the bookshop and found an Aden cd at a secondhand record shop! Wow!

All that excitement lasted HOURS. I didn't get home until nearly 5, in fact! I was initially hoping to stay out late enough to meet Richard and see a movie, but in the end I was too tired. A girl can only handle so much excitement in one day! I think I'll need to spend all day tomorrow recuperating.