There's the weekend long McGuiness conference in Wisconsin, 7 hours away in a tight car riding bitch next to everyone's luggage. I get leg room.

Good news: the sports jacket came in. I'd prefer the wool trenchcoat, but I can survive. I also don't need a tie.

Bad news: my grandmother refused to send my codpiece. She thought the whole idea was silly. Wouldn't have needed a belt. Ah well.

Squaring everything away for this all expenses paid extravaganza wasn't easy. Imagine three thousand coyotes attempting a synchronized jump at 17,500 feet from four 747's in blocks of 500. Now imagine they're all dead. It was that smooth and coordinated.

The pennies from heaven started plummeting when this excruciating pain said howdy a few days ago. It wasn't bad yesterday, but it progressively got worse. This horrible, burning sensation all around and inside me. The damn fire ants again, who knows.

Yesterday I decided to let up a little and spend two hours doing something fun. I decided to watch Golden Boy with a bunch of other people. It was disturbingly good, being that some women had gigantic breasts with minds of their own and a protagonist with a toilet fixation and a penchant for ranting endlessly about weird things.

As Kate (we call her omega for some reason) and I were walking toward the north side of campus, we ran into Miss E. Not sure how I felt about it at first. We're friends now, but it takes getting used to. I walked on for awhile, wondering how perfect it was that the moon was so full and enshrouded by clouds on Halloween. Somewhere in the night I could feel all of the wonderfully odd things people were doing. I almost wanted to go to the graveyard and see if anyone would be there, but I had too much work.

Eventually I passed by where Miss E lives and she called over to me. We said a few things I can't recall, her roommate making a brief cameo appearance in the door. I asked her if I could ask a weird question. She agreed but lightly commented those were the only type I usually asked. Something in me said, "Y'know, there's this whole friendship thing, you could get a hug." I asked, she smiled, and we just stood there for a little while, holding each other while drunk football players in the Sports' dorm across campus whooped into the night.

That love kept coming back to me, helping me as the pain set its claws into my back, my thighs, everywhere. I took a shower and turned up the heat to full. It was scalding. In my mind I was symbolically dominating my body. Scenes of war, famous scenes where one character holds another at gunpoint before the dialogue ensues..I wouldn't stop until part of me gave in.

It did for a little while. I studied 'til 3:30am and tried to sleep. Then it came back. It was absolutely excruciating. I whined there in my bed, temples pounding with blood as every nerve in my body stood at attention. I wanted to howl, but I didn't have the energy. I won't forget 5:30am, chilled and mostly naked as I took another shower to wash it all off me. The water burned against my skin and made things numb for awhile.

I woke up today and it's been work ever since 9:30am. I'm tired. I need a drink. But at least the pain is gone..and I have my friend back.

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