I keep starting to write and then stopping. I can't find a way to start an entry, particularly one I don't really feel like writing. Today, the journal seems like a chore.

"Why don't you just not write today?" Well, that is the easiest answer, but it's a slippery slope.

We'll just forget about Tuesday. It was rainy, blustery, the Sept. 11 anniversary, and the day after Jenn left, the day when I really felt it.



Seeing her again this weekend was like coming up for air after holding my breath for the past seven weeks. Seeing her again filled me with such happiness and I knew the crash that ensued when she left would be crushing.

She gave me a phonograph for my birthday. It's an antique, probably at least 50 years old. It's heavy, musty and in order for it to work, vacuum tubes need to warm up. Very retro, and very cool. And her parents sent me an old single by The Four Esquires: "I Ain't Been Right Since She Left."

Unfortunately, the player lacks a needle, so until I manage to find one, I'll have to wonder just how bad the Esquires, all four of 'em, feel.

I promised her a little Florida heat for her visit; I didn't expect that we'd tie a record at 95 degrees on Saturday. On Sunday, however, it felt like normal again and I don't think we cracked 70 degrees. She bought an adorable sweater at H&M, and we walked down Newbury Street and through the park, trying to spot the subtle changes in the leaves. Autumn is on the way.


Duck!

We partied in Cambridge, hitting up some of the bars on Central Square, staying out past our bedtime (or, rather, past the T's bedtime). We had a romantic dinner at a Persian restaurant that was carved out of a 19th-century mansion at the foot of Beacon Hill. We saw dinosaurs, giant bugs and space ships at the science museum. We road around Boston on a giant duck. (Duck Tour, that is.)



And then I took her to the airport.

It all felt like a dream, and the hardest part about these wonderful dreams is waking up.

Yeah, maybe I'm being a little melodramatic. Or maybe I'm not; perhaps it's right to feel depressed about having to spend a birthday far from your friends, family and loved ones. (Fortunately my mom is coming to visit on Sunday, which will prevent me from being a wreck.)

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Perhaps I'll post some photos later. Everybody loves photos.