renata gave me a wake-up call this morning, asking when cynthia's brunch was. "11am," i told her, and i only knew this because i'd checked the night before. "did i wake you up?" she asked, perhaps hearing the sleepiness in my voice. "no, no, i was going to wake up at 10am anyway," the time was 9:30. "is it snowing yet?" i asked her, then press opened the blinds to reveal a landscape covered in white. i went back to bed.

before i showed up at cynthia's parents' place in belmont, i drove across the street to pick up a gift cantaloupe. the weather condition wasn't very good, the roads were covered in snow, and the car would occasionally slip and slide, but i made it in one piece.

cynthia's father greeted me at the door, followed by cynthia. the place was crowded with their friends, circling a table filled with breakfast food. i saw anand, whom i haven't seen since our 10 year high school reunion 2 years ago. his sisters and his mother were there as well, but that was the extent of the people i knew. i helped myself to some bagel and lox, washed it all down with some milk and some cranberry juice. i met cynthia's boyfriend josh, who surprised me at first with his knowledge of the chinese language until i remembered that was his area of academic expertise. he wanted some dirt from cynthia's younger days at belmont high school. renata showed up with her friend trayce, fresh from a snowy providence drive, although if you blinked you'd have probably missed them, as they only stayed briefly. everyone gathered around the television to see some video footage of abigail's performances out on the west coast. toby was the last person i knew to arrive. there was little restraint when it came to advertising my weblog amongst those who knew about it to those who didn't: at one point josh even disappeared to read up on my life then come back with some questions. as much as i love the attention, the more people who know about the blog means the less opportunity i can to write about them: the fact that you're reading this probably means i won't write anything bad about you (that goes into my private mean blog which is offline). i also managed to check abby's ibook, trying to figure out why her laptop couldn't connect to their wireless network.

i left around 4pm, went straight to my parents' place about 10 blocks away. my happy holiday was nearly cut short when once again i avoided being a christmas statistic: a lincoln town car ran a stop sign, narrowly missing my car by mere seconds. i watched as it sped away, wiggling back and forth in the slippery snow. i wait for my father to get home before i had dinner with my family, leftovers from yesterday's meal. when it was all over, i got a ride back to cambridge, didn't want to stay too late and have the snowstorm get even worse.