Romeo and Juliet were Never Really in Love: the Debunking of Popular Urban Myths

This is day three of the exile (can it really have only been three days? I can hardly believe it). Today I escaped into the wider world, which was about as frigid as anything can be in W. New York at this time of year. I think my hands near froze off on my way up to the library. But I managed to have a fairly productive morning looking at Keener's commentary on the gospel of John, which is wordy as anything, but full of good information. I honestly wished I had more time to spend with it, but it was hard to focus b/c I didn't get to bed until late last night and I had to be up early to go to the library this morning, so I was definitely falling asleep while reading. Not as bad as usual, but still I was glad when lunchtime was over. I will have completed almost all the research that I need for this fine paper just in the past few days if I stick to my plan. I rarely stick to my plans, but hey, a girl can dream. Today I actually got a ton of stuff done. I worked on all these applications for things and I wrote some poetry (basically crapful, but I'm still trying to tackle the whole formal poetry thing and it was better than last time, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I also got to watch Rush Hour at lunchtime, which was quite a nice change of pace from all these movies I have been watching about death and war. I mean, there is a lot of death in the movie, but there's also a lot of great comedy, which makes up for it somehow. I thought of you a lot Hope, but I couldn't get a hold of you this afternoon by phone, so I had to content myself w/ our movie instead *tear*.

Anyway, all of that is superflous, here is the real news. I am becoming acclimated to my state of exilic solitude to the point where I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. This is, of course, a sure sign that my brain is going soft, but it makes everything in the immediate present fairly enjoyable, so I will ignore any potential long-term effects. But, for example, I get to play my music as loud as I like. Today I was singing a long to "War" at the top of my lungs, which I can do b/c hey, who am I going to bother? And furthermore, I have to say that I have been cooking the awesomest, tastiest meals for myself lately, not that there's anything wrong with the food that I eat normally, there's just something about still taking the time to cook something tasty, even if it's only for yourself. But the real sign that my mind is going round the bend is that I now talk to myself quite freely and openly. I find myself, as I have always expected that I would, to be an excellent conversational partner. It is grand to finally have some company again (aka-the sound of my own voice) after this time alone. I have a glimmer of hope that perhaps I might be able to become a decent hermit after all. I think honestly, it is just finally starting to sink in that there is, in fact, no one else here, so I can do what I want and not have to worry about looking dumb. Hooray, inhibitions are gone. Bring on the madness. All things considered, I think we should all be glad that I'm not doing anything worse than talking to myself and singing too loud and laying around reading Real Simple in the middle of the afternoon. Think of all the others things that I could be doing w/ my social inhibitions gone...