Beth and Josh and Ava, I love the nail stickers. I was tempted to put one on at work today, but since I've had my favorite Chief (no, really, I'm not being sarcastic, she's my absolute favorite Chief) coming by my desk or looking at my nails while we're in the locker room in the morning this whole week counting the layers of nail polish I have on over the previous chipped layers, there's been a little much attention on my fingers as it is and I figured I shouldn't push it.

Barbara, if you're reading, I love the beautiful ...shawl? ... I tried it on, too, and it's even more beautiful on because it hangs so pretty-like, but I didn't want to just fold it up somewhere between uses, so it's draped across my loveseat like a blanket, and it looks just gorgeous.

.....

In other news, of course, I'm excited about the upcoming Patriots win this Sunday. There will be lots of folks staying up to watch the festivities overnight, though I have the early watch the next morning and may need to miss the last few minutes of the game to make it on time. I hope I can go home early that day, but (if not) of course Redbull exists for such a time as that....

I am tempted to even make a statement something the likes of: If all my Boston teams win all their respective sports titles over the next year, I know I ought to get me back to Boston after I get out. There are other options, but I think that is the most likely for me at this point. After two years of not driving here, getting back to Boston and driving everywhere but the city itself can't be a bad transition, though the snow and the cooler summers will take a little adjusting. But of course it's not REALLY just through sports teams that my footsteps will be guided, especially since I'm not REALLY all that into sports..... all the same, my lack of completely passion in the sports world itself makes it all the better a way to get suggestions from complex realms.

Anyway, it's way past time to be getting ready for bed and resting my poor little brain for a while.

I've added gestures to my Adventures in Arabic series, btw... like the sweeping motion (with your fingertips down, back of your hand towards the ceiling/sky) that means finished or go away, and the accompanying word that would best be spelling in English something like "(ch)hallas" where the (ch) is a hard h somewhere a mix between chalice and hard, or the way that Chanukkah can be pronounced. So whenever the Arabic woman starts talking to me in Arabic or makes a smart comment, I just tell her "finished" in Arabic (and always with the gesture) and she laughs because she knows that's one of the few things that's stuck with me, but I manage to use it almost every single day anyway. There are a few other gestures that I have incorporated into my non-verbal vocabulary, and the thought hasn't missed me that it'll be really fun when I do get back to the States and I'm using all these words and gestures that others probably won't be so familiar with, but I think they're there forever, just like "might could" and "fixin'" have stayed put since I succumbed.

Ok, goodnight.