there is one grand thing

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, baked beans, damn, damn and damn.

    (Math 100. Remedial algebra class. Didn't study math enough in high school, scored badly on math bit of SAT.)

    Damn.

    Anyway, just for kicks, here is a picture of me at La Plaza in Los Angeles taken last Saturday as I was being taught the history of the city along with most of my freshman class and a few upperclassmen. I had a squinty face but I like the lighting. (Photo by Roommate Courtney, who is very good.)

L to R: Mr B the director of student activies, Freshman Luke, me.

    Cannot wait to get my own camera. Also, extra notes:

• Mother and I have begun abbreviating "The Scarlet Pimpernel" to "Spimper" for ease of texting. It amuses.
• My Auntlet sent me - wait, have I talked about my Auntlet? She's an older woman who is one of my very best friends for life, she's not an actual aunt but I've known her since I was nine years old and within the past year or two we've become very close friends, she's the most extraordinary woman and she absolutely adores me and I literally am not even sure why - anyway my Auntlet sent me a care package containing a stuffed carrot toy/pillow thing with a happy face and arms and legs and his green leafery is boxer shorts so he's kind of upside-down and so hard to describe so here's a webcam picture:

     ...and she also sent me:

• one fancy kaleidoscope with three color-stick-things which one sticks into the kaleidoscope, 
• one tiny toy bird thing which one can stick into things and 
• two wooden tops which look either like apples or acorns, I'm not sure, but probably just mutant apples because they're red and green. 
• (Mother sent me a care package full of snacks and junk food. Thanks, Mom, I love the gummy dinosaurs!)
• I believe my Auntlet is also sending me a memory-foam mattress pad, orange Christmas lights for my dorm room and new clothes, because she's just amazing like that. She's like my fairy godmother, personal Santa Claus, Daddy-Long-Legs, cheerleader, number 1 fan, antiqueing buddy and therapist rolled into a great big beautiful mess of love and support. And why does she love me so much, anyway?! She sees right through me and understands me and loves what she sees and I don't even feel like I've deliberately revealed much of my self to her but I don't need to because she gets me and it's very alarming and unsettling because I'm a very private person and thought I was more mysterious and obscure than that augh. BLESSINGS AND GREAT FORTUNE ARE WEIRD BASICALLY

    Time for class now. Between classes and interacting alllll the tiiiiiime with other students, every day I am more and more convinced that I'm a complete idiot and haven't the wits of a fish that was dropped as a baby. It's very Socratic.
 
(post-class PS: the title of this post is from my notes on the word "monists", which I learned today in my philosophy/theology class)