Today was incredible. Incredible. I'm reduced to redundancy and illiteracy, a complete lack of fully cooperative and functioning verbs, nouns, and adjectives. So bear with me here.

I spent 8 hours today with my AP English Lit and Grammar (are those the two AP English classes? Well, she taught whatever the two class were) teacher. She is brilliant, and wonderful, and insightful, and inspiring, and an amazing woman, and an even better mother. I see in Ms. S what I want to be when I grow up; granted, she's only ten years older than me. We talked about everything: politics, religion, books, her 15 month old son, poo, Pooh, affirmative action, Iran, and everything in between. I felt like a sea sponge. A lucky, lucky sea sponge with not enough room possible to soak up every wise and good thing she said; I tried to let all of her comments wash over me, absorb into my skin (not just through my ears - I wanted to feel her wisdom), and fill my literature-starved body for at least a little while. I felt like I was parched for great conversation about books and hungry to be challenged to make an assesment of a novel's characters other than that they're "great" or "interesting" -- why, Jen? Explain to me why they make you think this. I don't know if Ms. S knew how greatful I was for what she gave me this afternoon -- a bath in literary insight and care and comfort and history -- but I'd like to think I gave her some modicum of satisfaction in return because I think I showed her, besides telling her repeatedly, how much her instruction was key to my success (and yes, in engineering).

I was glowing the whole afternoon, just radiating joy. My cheeks hurt. Being with her was a simultaneous window into what I hope my future will be, what I've already done well for fulfilling for my present goals (making use of the time I have here, maturing friendships, and nurturing past relationships), and the comfort of reminiscing in the past. *Sigh* :) I'm sorry, I think I'm gushing.

In other news, Katie's wedding was beautiful (I suppose it was Joel's wedding, too) and good fun. I posted some pictures from the reception on Flickr. Saturday night Meg, Biffy, and I went out in Uptown Charlotte. Not quite the wild night we were expecting, but it was still a really, really fun time. I had the most adult, Sex in the City-esque dinner I've ever had. We sat outdoors on the patio, talked about men, life, the future, and wine. And more about men. We danced at the salsa club (I was very proud to have known - or at least heard on the radio down here - most of the songs played, and to recognize when it was time to dance Bachata (sp?) thanks to Danny's previous instruction). We laughed when we walked into an Irish pub and felt like we had just walked in on a fraternity mixer (seriously.).

I've got more I want to say about needless(?) death -- what, if anything, are we learning from all the deaths of civilians and military people in Iraq? what purpose in the grand scheme of things, if there is one, do their deaths serve? -- and the reasons people think they'll know their life's match (disparate topics indeed). I'm starting to collect these reasons, so comment if you've got one. The two I have so far from guys, sources unnamed, are:
1. She will taste perfect
2. I will appreciate her for her imperfections

Today was also exciting in a couple other ways - my new mattress was delivered (mmm a King Koil Queen sized bed), I bought a washer and dryer from Best Buy, AND I got a call from my HR person at work saying I'll be taking my 6 week intro-to-oil (not quite what it's called, but you get the idea) class in .... wait for it.... the Netherlands! Woot woot! I'm so very excited :)

So, life's moving along nicely. I'm off to Boston Wednesday afternoon (I suppose that's today already) to see Kristy (wweeee!) for some sightseeing and Fourth of July weekend fun (tea party anyone?). I'm hoping to update while I'm there, so until then, Goodnight Wonderous World!

And I'm also contemplating adding more links to my recommended section, of other friends' blogs, but I'm not sure - what's the blogging ettiquette? Do you add people just because they have you linked? Or do you only add it if you read it regularly and want to specifically tell other people to read it? Hrm...