Your hair is curly, right?

Nope. Completely flat and very thin. Hmm, let's see if I can dig up a picture in which it's visible.

It's a lot of work!

More than you expected? But it seems like you manage to move things along, despite the outside obstacles, at least from your post. So it seems like it's a go-you!

I've already gotten a few offers from other publications

Oh, good luck with that! I hope the job that is best for you will end up winning you. Do you still continue with teaching yoga, as well?

As for me, well, the semester has been crazy. It was over a couple of weeks ago, and today is the last (out of 2) exam of the students I TA, so no more grading to do (yay!), and I'll hopefully be able to get back to properly work on my research during the summer - I'm horribly horribly behind. Oh, and my best friend is leaving the university and moving. I've been helping her pack in the last couple of weekends (um, meaning, played with her absolutely adorable baby while she was packing), and it's finally sinking in that nothing will be the same again, what with her being so far away. A bit of growing up, even if not straight out of my own actions.

Cereal: I went to look at my pictures from the USA trip (I can't believe it's almost a year since!). I think I found a few with my hair in them (OK, that sentence reads silly): Boston, SF and DC.

OK, now I must repress the urge to look at every single one of those picture and drown myself in lovely memories. Students are about to come in any minute now with questions for their exam, and if I've drowned, it'll be hard for me to answer properly. Scribbling on a wet paper never works.

Do you still continue with teaching yoga, as well?

Yes, I would never stop doing that; it's my favorite thing in the week.

today is the last (out of 2) exam of the students I TA, so no more grading to do (yay!)

That is a very large yay. Congratulations!

I'll hopefully be able to get back to properly work on my research during the summer

Forgive me for not knowing this. What's your research, like, about?

nothing will be the same again, what with her being so far away.

How far away is she moving? My best friend lives in New York, very far away, but I make a point of seeing her regularly. She's in Chicago (where I live) right now, and I'm so excited to hang out with her. It is hard, though, having her not in the same city.

OK, Nilly, I think you should get your hair cut like Jon's wife's.

Would it be traumatic, though, to lose all that hair?

My hair used to be down to my ass, and I have to say, I like it so much better now that it's short. I thought it would be really traumatic to cut it all off, but I feel much more like me now.

it's my favorite thing in the week.

I got to take a krav class from ita, when I was in LA. I hope that one day I'll get to take a yoga class from you. Seeing people actually doing the thing they love, not just talking about it? A very wonderful thing.

What's your research, like, about?

I'm a physics student, and I study the dynamics of data traffic on networks. In lots of fields of study, the subject can be modelled as a netwok (proteins in biology, connections between people, computer networks up to the internet). There are theoretical models of them, that show many combined characteristics in structure of many of these networks, regardless of their origin or size of the objects in them. The data that flows (information, diseases, actions and the like - again, it's a model) is affected by the structure on which it moves, and that's what I'm trying to study.

How far away is she moving?

In USA terms, the distance is tiny. However, she has a young baby, about to start a stressful job, and she won't be here, in the same university anymore, where even if we were both crazy busy, we could sneak to at least buy lunch together, if not actually sit and eat it. The whole fabric of the relationship is changing, in a way.

I think that since we managed to sustain our friendship through so many changes already (studying together, being roommates, her marriage, her moving away once already, the birth of her son), we'll be able to sustain more changes. We'll have to make some changes, fine, but we already have, and it worked. We'll just have to learn how to deal with the new situation. But I will still miss her dearly.

She's in Chicago (where I live) right now, and I'm so excited to hang out with her.

Oh, that's wonderful, that in all the stress of the last few months, what with the wedding and the job, at least the timing of you two being in the same city was such.

The data that flows (information, diseases, actions and the like - again, it's a model) is affected by the structure on which it moves, and that's what I'm trying to study.

OK now that's cool.

The whole fabric of the relationship is changing, in a way.

Yes but I've found that when you can't take someone's being around for granted, you make more of an effort to see that person. At least for me. I see my best friend more than I see my local friends, because I have to plan to see her.

I will still miss her dearly.

Yeah, I hear you. She's online at least, no?

OK I should go to bed now. I feel so lucky to have crossed Interweb paths with you, Nilly!

Rio, I'm the one who's lucky to have crossed Interweb paths with you! Good night!

[Edit: oh, and Perkins, too! I hope you're asleep by now, as well!]

I have some thoughts on parental consent that I haven't seen mentioned so even though the conversation wrapped a while ago I feel compelled to mention them now.

First, having sex is an adult act with adult responsibilities and consequences. They've already entered the realm of adult by having sex, there is no going back. Are they completely adult? No, probably not (hell, I'M not *completely* adult), but in this facet they are being grown-ups whether their parents know it (or like it) or not. If they're old enough to have sex they are capable of safely getting the procedure, and the post-op instructions, and calling 911 if something goes wrong without their parents' assitance.

Hand in hand with that is that one does not commonly involve one's parents in one's sex life. It's generally icky. Deciding to have sex generally means deciding to leave your parents out of a big chunk of your life -- and that is NORMAL. You don't have to hate your parents to not want to share this with them. If your parents DO want to share in your sexuality (in the non-icky way, which DOES exist) they need to raise you that way from the start.

Second, there ARE other circumstances where parent's don't consent to surgical procedures on minors. If a child is hit by a car and taken to an emergency room doctors will treat them before the parents show up. It's my understanding that the injury doesn't even have to be strictly life threatening for them to do so. Even though the child is a minor, the wellbeing of the child outweigh the parents' rights.

Finally, one doesn't have to feel ashamed to feel private about having an abortion. Several of my friends have confided their experiences in me. One I know of for certain (and I assume others) has not. She knows perfectly well my feelings on the matter and that I'd be nothing but supportive -- but for whatever reason she didn't need or wish to tell me and that is her decision.

And on a lighter note, I am in the virtual presence of the two most adorable women alive. Either some of it rubs off on me, or I turn into a toadstool out of sheer contrast.

Trudy, I didn't read your long post because, um, it was long, and it started with words I'm not sur eI understand, and, um, it probably relates to a whole conversation I skipped entirely, and, um, long words, which I imagine you say very quickly and therefore are even harder for me to understand. Or something.

Also, no toading for you! You, who is doing not so bad yourself, young lady! But, oh, with the blushing.

How have you been doing lately?