14 February 2002

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

I got my Valentine a little early - Matt and Barron (Matt's office mate who's stuck with him on this interminable trip to D.C.) decided to come home last night so they could participate in the office league basketball game. So they left D.C. promptly at five yesterday, and got up entirely too early to drive back up there this morning.

So when I got home from the regular Wednesday visit to K.T. and Kevin, he was sitting on the couch waiting for me.

(No, it wasn't a surprise; he'd sent me e-mail earlier in the day. But just because it wasn't a surprise doesn't mean I wasn't excited and happy about it.)

He was up at five, and gone by five-thirty. I went back to sleep after he kissed me good-bye, and when my alarm went off, the only tangible evidence that he'd ever been there was that the cat had already been fed.

An anecdote from yesterday evening:

We were in the video rental place, and had picked out our movies for the evening. K.T. and Kevin wanted to look at some DVDs to rent as well, and so I left them to it and wandered up the DVD aisle, idly scanning the boxes.

My eye was caught by The Mummy Returns. (What you need to understand here is that the drop-dead-sexy Oded Fehr, who played Ardeth Bay in the Mummy movies, is my mental model for my Hall character, Kevil, who is engaged to K.T.'s character, Loria. Got it?)

So I stood for a few minutes, admiring the face in the lower right of the DVD cover. And when I finally dragged my eyes away, I found myself looking at K.T. - who had done exactly the same thing.

We raised our eyebrows at each other, and proceeded to have a giggle-fit for several minutes, while poor Kevin lurked behind us suspiciously, certain that he was the target of the joke.

More Hall amusement:

Karen's character, Cat, recently committed the faux pas of sleeping with someone else's lover. It was a big mess, though the original lovers were finally reconciled. And Cat flounced off, determined to confront her mysterious past before deciding whether to commit suicide over having lost her one true love. (Yeah, she's a little melodramatic.)

Rather predictably, for the Hall, it took her about a week to fall madly head over heels in love with the charming assassin who accompanied her. (Don't ask. Just... don't. If you're not a Hall patron, it will never make sense. If you are a Hall patron, it may still never make sense.) Cat and her assassin are now engaged, having known each other for less than two weeks, mind you.

One of Matt's characters, Bluestar, is a somewhat crusty fellow, given to caustic and wry observations. Bluestar's commentary on Cat's situation: "Oh, I'm terrible, I'm evil, I don't deserve to live, I should just die- Ooh, who's that; he's cute!"

Our On Display assignment this month is to write a love-letter to ourselves. I'm sure a lot of the members will post today. I had intended to. But I'm finding it harder than I thought, and I'm not sure which of several ideas I want to use. So look for it soon... but not today.

--Liz