friday night, living it up at the homestead. sure it isn’t much of an adventure, but you can’t beat the wonderful things like thanksgiving dinner and putting up a christmas tree and watching your first few christmas movies with the family. aww, too cute, gag me, i know.

and already tomorrow i’ll be flying home well-rested and fed, ready to return here in only three weeks for the big week of christmas fun. i already can’t wait and already have to remember to bring my playstation. and more books, lots of books.

this might speak volumes of me, i’m not sure: on the way out here, for the first time probably ever, i was seated in a row with two young women in roughly my age bracket (i almost always get the old people). not only that, i was also in the middle seat, another rarity. what good fortune! you may think. to my left, a pretty brunette, wholesome looking, possibly a year or two older. on my right, an attractive and stylish/funky girl who’s probably a year or two younger, i predict. could be a fun trip. within a few moments of take off, the older has given herself away as a texan as she asked if “y’all could excuse me for a second” to the bathroom from her window seat, at which point the other takes her cue to strike up a conversation with me — i later found out that was the moment she determined the other girl wasn’t my girlfriend and saw the opening.

she’s talkative, smart, is into music — we exchange ipods for a once-over — and is interested in what i’m reading, pulls a nabokov reference on me… so i totally ignore the other woman who comes back and starts grading chemistry quizzes on her tray table (a college TA?! a young high school teacher?! god that could be so hot! what was i thinking!?), but it’s okay because things with this girl are going well and she’s from LA; a much better bet.

then naturally, as things progress and the younger girl and i are flirting and talking, it turns out that she is still in high school. that’s right, i seem to prefer the company of people who still have curfews and study halls to that of sexy young professionals. good job brian, that really shows where you are in life.

of course, she did seem to purposely slip in the fact that she had recently had her eighteenth birthday, so perhaps i should have given her my card…

or perhaps i should just have another slice of nice wholesome pumpkin pie. can’t wait to see what happens on that flight back.

[now hearing this: the desperate need for my own stereo again.]