#%*&^@ SCHOOL!! So, I'd been joking with friends that I'd be �dropping off the face of the earth here in a week or two�, referring to the start of real work (after the first week) at school, but it's not so funny now. I haven't seen anyone this week since I got back from my weekend. Carlos called me some time during the weekend, I got the message and called him back on Tuesday night. Nice chat. I guess I could have been social on Wednesday night, but I was watching the Latin Grammys, people. My sexy Colombian rock-star boyfriend won five awards, did you see that? �Te quiero, Juanes ! I know you were all watching too, so, did you see his camiseta that said �se habla espa�ol�? I want that shirt.

Pues, the weekend-- I left Melissa and Ogden on Friday afternoon. That morning we had just hung around the house talking about school and life, showing off photos of the last few years, eating pastry, stuff like that. Melissa took me for a drive through Ogden, and it's a nice little town. In her words it's got lots of potential, and I'd agree with her there. There are blocks and blocks of fantastic old buildings with big trees out front, and the town could be so cool if there was some vision. She says it could be �the Boulder of Utah�, implying the best of it without all the artificiality and weirdness (because, if you've been there, even if you think the people are freaks you have to admit that Boulder's beautiful).

En route to Provo I headed south to the big SLC-- well, just the airport, where I parked too far away from the terminal but at least I found Erin, and then we hit what I think was rush hour near American Fork. I say I �think� it was rush hour because this was about 7pm on a Friday. Huh? So, we got to Angela and Chiant�'s new house, got the tour, ate, etc., and spent most of the weekend eating, catching up, and hanging out with some of their rather attractive friends. I got to play the guitar and look sexy, and Saturday night I cooked for everyone and looked sexier. I was able to see the family that I have out there-- my favorite uncle and his lovably nutty wife, my cousins and their exotic foreign wives and my beautiful nieces and nephews. So, I'm a little biased, but we've got some good genes. I wouldn't quite say he's my favorite, but my nephew Lucas is certainly the most interesting. His father is my cousin Jared, who married Camila, a brasileira from Sao Paolo. Lucas looks like his mother and is therefore drop-dead gorgeous at the tender age of three, and he speaks no English, only portugu�s (though Jared tells me that since he starts pre-school this week he has no choice but to quit just listening and to start speaking). So, Lucas has always been a pretty child but I used to resent him because he didn't like me. When he was really little he didn't like women at all unless they were young and blonde and he could easily mistake them for Camila. I, being un-blonde, was not among the elite of accepted women. For a while I was dating a guy who spoke Portuguese, and when I took him to Jared's for lunch he immediately endeared himself to Lucas by cooing at him in his own tongue. I had been trying to get Lucas to like me, or at least accept me, but he still cried when I held him, sometimes when I looked at him. Now he was crying when I held him and reaching out for my then-boyfriend. Grrr. So, now (hoy en d�a now, that is) Lucas is less afraid of women and other people but he still doesn't like the sound of English. I spoke to him in Spanish, which he understood, so he likes me but I'm sure he thinks I'm stupid or have a heinous speech impediment (can I three-year-old suspect such things?). He likes me, though, gave me hugs and kisses and all, and that's gratifying.

I was dreading driving back through holiday traffic on Monday, so I was easily persuaded to stay an extra day and just drive back on Tuesday. I left a copy of my homework with Angela so she could fax it to Dr. Doerr and left just as the sun was rising. It was pretty day, and a good drive. Driving through the desert on a pleasant day can be good for the soul. Without pleasure (or pressure) of anyone else's company I was left with my CDs and my thoughts. Not bad company, after all-- I turned off at Crescent Junction for a three-hour detour into Moab. I know people who complain that it's �gone commercial�, but I'd never been there before it �went� that way so I still think it's one of the happiest places around. I had a late breakfast and managed to walk around (I wouldn't quite clal it hiking), just enough to stretch my legs and breathe. Back on I-70 I drove east into Glenwood Canyon-- some of the most breathtaking highway miles on earth-- and up and through and over the Rockies, and into the night of my very own room where my supper was waiting for me. I have a beautiful life, �saben?

Anyway, school. The weekend was fantastic but I realized that those hours I spent driving could have been very, very precious in the library. I was so thrilled about having three day weekends all smester, but I'm not going to be able to play like I'd wanted. I need to sacrifice, though, because my espa�ol has hit a plateau and if it's going to get any better in my current non-immersive situation I have to work my tail off. Sigh.

So, I have no classes today but I'm off to the library. Chao.