People walking past me, I can�t hear a word they�re saying.....

I had a very nice time at M & N�s birthday party last night. M is 40 (or will be on Tuesday, actually) and N turned 50 the day before yesterday. People whom I don�t normally hang out with were there, such as Lynn whose daughter is just a couple of weeks younger than mine although she is 10 years older than I am. We got to talking about the joys of 18-year-old daughters, and when I revealed that Little Princess was staying the night at her boyfriend�s, Lynn exclaimed, �You let her?� I explained that she is an adult and I cannot prevent her, but that we have this agreement that I don�t curtail her movements and she lets me know where she is. Lynne couldn�t believe that I was so liberal. Is this so unusual?

Also at the party were the head of the APBU and her husband, who happens to have the same first name as my husband, and with whom I had a most interesting conversation about movies, namely Monty Python missives. He has this charming British accent and kept saying �telly�, which I found so cute. Their two children were there too, cute kids. N�s wife K�s mom was visiting from out west, and it seemed as though she and I were always getting in a conversation and never properly finishing it due to interruptions. Several people cancelled: my erstwhile Greek professor and his horse-loving wife; and the Duchess and her husband the Duke, saying they weren�t feeling well. Unfortunately other people did show up, including the aforementioned British-born biological physicist and the soprano wife of the new tenure-track professor in my own department with colds, and I fear that after shaking hands with the former I will soon be sniffling like the latter. Sick people should stay home!

M was wearing a gorgeous dress she had bought in Jordan this summer all embroidered by a Bedouin woman. I remember always wanting a garment like that, and being disappointed when my mom returned from Israel on one of her visits when I was a teenager with a blouse factory embroidered in a similar fashion. M looked lovely in it.

I just looked out the window and noticed many people running down the street and remembered that today is the annual Terry F0x run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. It�s a cool day out there, the paper predicting a high of 11�C. I hope those people have warm clothing waiting for them at the finish line.

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