Ah, some free time in front of the 'puter. Just pounded out an article for Whore's Boudoir, so that's a bit of a load off. It's a day late and a dollar short (to steal the expression), but what the heck.

Spent the day at Mark's place today. It was a low-key afternoon; we watched some tube, had some lunch and I finished reading my book for tomorrow's class... not necessarily in that order. Had a scary moment with a sneeze and some nasal bleeding from that, but it passed and then things were okay.

Poor Mark spends the days in a pretty quiet mood, which just seems to be accentuated by the fact that he can't really speak. Conversations are held with yes or no questions, or a notepad nearby.

I didn't have to leave for my class right away, so I wound up hanging around after Mark's dad got back, which turned into me not going to my class, which turned into an invite for dinner... which was good, 'cause it learned me that I actually like shrimp. We had a shrimp stirfry and I found it quite tasty. I'm a polite dinner guest, so I wouldn't have said anything if I was served a food I vaguely disliked anyhow -- and Ben's aware of this and brought it to his parents' attention. Friends who know how to read you and who watch your back are great. :)

I had a number of great conversations with Ben's dad; before he left, we chatted about Ben and Mark and their personalities, and then after dinner we chatted about the war in Iraq, bilingualism and multiculturality in Canada, and telemarketers. Lots of fun.

Afterwards, I went downstairs and watched an episode and a half of Buffy with Ben and Mark, then their dad drove me home, which I greatly appreciated.

It wasn't much different from slugging about at home, except I got up early, spent less (read: none) time on the computer and had no cats crawling on me. So... it was somewhat different. :)

Anyhow, I'm going to try to get an email or two finished off and head off to bed. I had other things to write, but now I've forgotten them, so I guess I'll just close by saying that Mark's teaching me a lot about strength and dealing with the hand you're dealt through all of this. I know I wouldn't deal even one-tenth as well as he is, and I'm really impressed.