I had the most incredible day. I woke up to an empty house, filled with streaming light and soft comforters and cheerful thermometers (fifty degrees). I spent the morning walking through the city taking photos, getting into literary conversations with sidewalk booksellers, visiting thrift shops and fabric shops and music shops, and making a mess of myself with the orange I bought for a quarter and which comprised my lunch. Then I went over to Lauren's and she shot a whole roll of black and white film of me in various positions for her photography class, to be developed manually. The great thing about Lauren is that she genuinely likes people and has the confidence to tell them so without feeling like she's putting herself down. She's really an amazing person. I hope she knows how much I love and respect her. I left feeling wonderful. Then my SAT tutor came and we had a great time, because he's awesome and funny and likes brownies as much as I do (I finally gave in and cracked open the batch I made for DaSilva). Then I fixed the dress I'd made the night before and Matt came over to have dinner with us. I had to yell at him to convince him that he wasn't imposing, which was amusing. We tried about fifty shady-looking delis in search of a place that he thought would take his ID, and I finally told him to just suck it up and buy the damn beer. It worked. We got back to Matt's place just in time to meet Lucas and Lily and put a dent in the remaining brownies before Clark came upstairs and finished them off. After half an hour of debate, we finally put in The Empire Strikes Back and proceeded to speak over every line. When Matt's dad came home, we moved to the other room and played music, tickled each other, and watched Matt get his ass kicked by Clark on Super Smash Bros for a while over a bunch of coronas and the cookies Clark insisted on making. Clark was as cynical as ever but still softer somehow than before; Lucas and Lily were so much like Harry and I that I had to yell "you'd better be damn good to her!" a few times just to appease my conscience; and Matt was in such a good mood over Chloe and his status as a second-semester Senior that he seemed much older somehow. I felt like I could see everyone now in comparison with their lamer sophomore selves that I had known and seen how much older and stronger and happier they were. Lily was just me as a sophomore, complete with fear of her boyfriend's graduation and history of being kicked out of kindergarted ballet classes (she's the only person I've ever met who shares this experience). I felt like everyone's sister and mother ("except Harry's, I hope" -Lucas) and loved them all like family. I eventually left and talked to Harry for a while while carrying an empty plate stained with brownie crumbs and thought about how much I love my wondeful nerdy talented curious smart sensitive strong Harry, half energetic little boy, half protective, tender man. I felt safe and happy and myself and warm, balanced in every aspect, purely happy.

It was beautiful.