So, I have a cold, and it's awful. I feel like crap, my head is stuffed, and generally I'm pissed off because it's such a nice day and I can't enjoy it because the past two really cold days made me sick. But on the bright side, since my condition this morning was somewhere between "able to grunt and nod" and "able to hold light conversation," I got through by just coasting and listening to what people have to say, and nodding, and I guess that masked pretty well how bad I felt. I'd say about four years ago, when I was in eighth grade, my dad spent about an hour talking to my friend's older brother, who was training for the Olympics. I watched, wondering how my dad, who didn't seem particularly interested in that stuff, could keep talking like that. So I asked him, "how could you keep talking with Kevin for all of that time?" He told me, "People love to talk about themselves. If you listen, they'll never stop going." And it's so true.

Check out the school newspaper's new website at http://my.highschooljournalism.org/md/silverspring/blake/article.cfm?eid=2803&aid=36823 (this goes to my column that I wrote for the last issue). I saw this going up this morning so I wonder if everything is exactly as it should be.

Speaking of the paper - I heard that Gili's sister, Maya's spanish class was talking about the horrible, horrible break-up letter that ran in the Unclassifieds on Friday. "Tell Angela I'm sorry," Maya says to me this morning. It's really a shame that Michael would break up with Angela like that - in the school paper. It must be really embarassing for her. On the other hand, it must be really embarassing for him, given that she started cheating on him because Angela's friends kept telling her that she shouldn't be seen going around with this "skinny white boy" . . . what's it matter if she's black and he's white? That's an even bigger shame, especially at this time at this school.