finished much better than it began.

I wish to say that my math class is made up of really awesome people (Just as an example, Naomi ran home to get medicinal chocolate and practically force-fed it to me. Not content with that, she left some with my stuff at the end of the coaching session), that there are few treatments for feeling miserable that compare with watching a sabre fencer and an epee fencer trying to fence each other while holding foils (I was laughing so hard that I could barely referee), and that both friends and food are good things to have, and better things when both friends and food are good.

About Ghengis:
There are animals that you don't like very much, or that don't like you, that you just sort of coexist with. There are animals that are ridiculous, or giant balls of fluff with legs, or that operate on one brain cell per day, but you love them anyway. And then there are animals that are really truly excellent beings in multiple ways, and if you're lucky enough to be close to such animals, you love them like people. And Ghengis was one of those.

I know I've been quiet of late (at least on my own journal), but I feel like I don't have all that much to say. I've been ( reading )

In other news:
In proof of the fact that my room at dad's house is really freaking cold - I could see my breath yesterday morning. In my room. Not all the time, but if I breathed in warm air from under the covers and breathed out outside the covers, the misty little cloud was quite evident. (I decided not to check this morning - I didn't want to know.) Needless to say, this does not encourage me to get up in the mornings. Luckily there's not really anything to get up for, and if I manage to not encounter my brother in the morning before school, so much the better.

I've been house-sitting, so I have been spending a great many hours sitting around with Ghengis's paw or chin on my hand. It's very relaxing. Madison may know how to purr, but she hasn't managed the trick of making the air around her vibrate when she does. Ghengis isn't the best purrer I know, but he's certainly the best among the cats I see with any frequency. And I think Ghengis's old-cat attitude of just sit still and relax - unless, of course, he wants Food or Out, in which case everything should be done immediately - is very calming for the soul (except on the occasions when he's yelling at you and you're not sure what he wants. It was much easier to talk to that cat before he went completely deaf). Everyone should have more cat hand-holding in their lives.

My dad made pork and sauerkraut, our traditional New Year's dish - albeit a few days late. I'm very glad. While my mother did make some for when we had her family over on New Year's Day, she doesn't do it as whole-heartedly and I feel that the result is an inferior product - not that I would EVER tell her so, mind you.

New Year's (Christmas) with mom's family was good. Festivities with dad's family were ( fine )