My day today was mostly spent doing whatever Cathy wanted. We were up early watching her favorite cartoons. For my birthday she gave me the new pair of pajama bottoms I'm wearing as I write now. I was also given an invitation to her girl scout troop's "Me and My Guy" dance, my first in three years. She had her choice for breakfast... egg nests. She had her choice for lunch... a Filet-o'-Fish sandwich at McDonald's and an hour in the Playplace. We stopped at the library on the way home from lunch, where she picked out a couple videos for the weekend. She watched them both and we had time to play some games together as well. She had her choice for supper... kielbasa, sauerkraut, and dumplings. We had birthday cake and she sang to me before we both blew out candles. She asked me to read from Charles Dickens to her as she lay in my bed, tired and ready to fall asleep.

During the day we burned incense and shared a few hugs... but for much of the day she sat on me... on my lap while at the computer or on my back while we watched our shows. She loves me so much, and our time together is as precious to her as it is to me.

Catherine's been asleep for about four hours now and I should be getting to bed as well. My sleeping bag's spread on the floor, and my throw pillows seem to call me. I'm so tired.

I had a good day and another good week. Still... it feels as though something's missing. Is it my old friends? Is it my former students? Is it the girlfriend I long for but have yet to meet? I don't really know, maybe a combination of a lot of things.

I'm in a better place than I've been in over a year. My work hasn't been as gratifying as it is now in a long time. Little things like having refrigeration, electricity, and a telephone are once again taken for granted... as they should rightfully be. So many things in my life today are so much better than when I first started writing this journal. Yet I know I'm still a work-in-progress.

I'm still climbing up out of the valley and I see blue skies up above me, but I don't yet know what lies beyond the next ridge. I suppose it's the same for my students. I read email over the past three weeks about their first year in college or their last in high school... of jobs and boyfriends or girlfriends... of dreams as bright and as hopeful as my own were twenty years ago. I can't help but be excited for them... and for some reason I feel younger on this birthday than I have in a while.

I, like my young friends, hope and dream of wonderful things. I, like my young friends, am taking steps to achieve them. I, like my young friends, have no clue what's going to happen next. I, like my young friends, feel impatient for the good stuff to arrive.