light gives heat

I forget about the rest of my life when I play frisbee. I'm not thinking about homework or exams or relationships or all of the variegated problems of the day; I am totally zeroed in on where I need to be and who I need to cover and whether or not I appear totally incompetent. (I was glad I went last night; everyone is so kind.) Now I know why so many of you are so religiously fanatic about it: it's a much-needed escape.

We have to invent new phrases to describe beauty--like that magnificent sunset the other day--for fear of sounding like a collection of Hallmark card clichés. That irks me, but I understand why.

The things that made me happy today:

• Catherine calling me an "edit-trix" (think: dominatrix + Anna Wintour) today.
• Finding a crisp one dollar bill in the copy of On the Road that I bought a few weeks ago. I feel like Dean Moriarty left it there just for me; it's something he would have done.
• The middle-aged couple sitting near me outside Lenoir, sharing a bowl of pasta and smiling at each other while they chewed.
• Grace's drawing of the scene from the last book in The Wizard of Oz trilogy (yeah, you didn't know there were three books, did you?) with Billina the chicken defeating the Nome King. "Don't you know eggs are poison!?" It's taped on my wall.
• Watching the orange leaves spinning to the ground from the window in Lenoir.
• Alex Shearer
• Zoning out during the 19th-century British Novel class; writing instead about Poet Lad and childhood memories (the day we sent our dog away) and stupid phrasing.
• Chance meetings of friends on campus (today it was Brittany and Sam and Rose and Erin)
• It wants to rain.

I just love this photograph. Whoever knows the identity of this author wins 250 points.