I am unpacked and my room is (mostly) clean. It only took a month-plus (admittedly a month that a) included a week and a half of me doing nothing because I'd just gotten my wisdom teeth out and b) was fairly hot, off and on, so moving boxes of stuff and working in my room was unfeasible). But I have now successfully absorbed an entire* dorm room worth of stuff into my already-full-of-stuff Philadelphia-home room**.

( Cut for lots of long babbling )

So I guess what I'm saying is, "High School Miriam, sometimes I feel like I don't know you at all. I'm pretty sure that I'm happier being now-me than I was being you, which I suppose is a good thing, at least from this end. I'm glad that I/we/you got back into writing. I may sometimes wonder a bit about your decisions, but you managed to pick a college where I had a marvelous four years, and I will say that you definitely had good taste in friends.


( footnotes on the above cut )

My mother sent me our annual christmas letter this afternoon so that I could proofread it and make sure that she wasn't saying anything totally unacceptable about me. It was rather strange, firstly because I was present for my mother talking about me as if I wasn't there, which hasn't happened since I left for college (me being present, that is, she often talks about me when I'm not actually there), secondly because Christmas letters drive it home that it is really almost Christmas, and that I am nearly done with my first semester of college.

Where did all the time go? A semester of high school took much longer than this. Even while I was watching the days and weeks fly by it seemed to be moving faster than usual. I'm told that time moves faster as one gets older because a year is a smaller faction of one's total lifespan, but surely 19 shouldn't be all that different from 18 - as opposed to time suddenly moving in large jumps as it has started doing lately. I hope that things slow down a little next semester; college costs way too much to rush through it like this.

My mother is talking about moving the furniture in the living room again. This must be some sort of penance for going to college - I though we'd moved a year's worth of furniture over Thanksgiving break. With any luck, none of this lot will have to go up and down stairs.

Viola has already left for Winter Break - that seems very strange to me. I seem to recall that she started comparatively late as well.

I've been working on my final art project lately - a papagaio kite, based on the Brazilian design. I'm quite pleased with how it's going, but wish that there were somewhere to put it in my room.

This has been a rather disjointed entry, leaping from topic to topic, but that's how I feel tonight.