Matt Smith,

It was nice to finally get to talk to you the other day. It made you more real. You know how you have those friends? The ones you talk about but never hear from? I'm constantly telling Matt Smith stories: the McDonald's french fries that were my back-to-school present that I now keep in my car, the time we realized there was a feeble little tree planted in honor of the "friends and family of Duquesne University" who were lost in the September 11th attack ("it'd be a shame if someone flew a plane into it"), and the Four Eagles of Catholicism. But then you're not here. And so the stories seem as if they never happened.

I'm supposed to be writing a journal entry for my Communication History class and writing a paper for Medieval Drama right now. But, in doing the journal entry, I realized that two of the essays that were assigned reading are not actually in the book that they're supposed to be in. Moreover, they're not in any book. I mean, I guess they're in SOME book, SOMEwhere. But they're not in any book that I own. Or that Emma owns, because I haven't actually paid her for the use of her books yet. I think initially I was supposed to pay her $75, but then we made dinner one night, and I paid for the groceries, which came to about $32. So, $75 minus her half of the dinner groceries ($16) is $59. I guess when we bought the groceries I said something like, "Don't worry about it" or "I owe you money anyway," but what does that even MEAN? Does it mean, "I'll pay for the groceries AND I'll pay you what I owe you?" Or does it mean, "I'll pay for the groceries, and then I won't owe you as much?" These are some of the rules that should be written down in the General Rules of Friendship. But I don't think there's a chapter on Lending Money to Friends, because you're really not supposed to do that. Everyone does it, though... saying "I'd rather lend it to you than to someone else," or "At least I know I'll get it back," even though most of the time, they don't get it back, do they? It must be one of those rules that's meant to be broken.

All in all, I guess if you ever needed money, I'd lend it to you. I'd break that rule for you. But you're getting back from Spain on your own wallet. (Don't really try to fly home from Spain on your wallet though. You're not any good at flying without your wallet's help. Even if you do hold out your arms like an airplane.)

Love,
Meredith