161001, 1544hr, illinois time.

i wanted to call home this morning, but my phonecard wouldn't work, and i got so frustrated. my brother was on icq though, so he offered to call me instead, and i finally managed to talk to my mom - the first time in the past 2 weeks, since her birthday. naturally, both my parents were quite concerned about the anthrax scare, but i guess it's comforting for them to know that i'm stuck in this ulu low risk campus. my dad warned against going to chicago anytime soon, and my mom wants me to come home this winter instead of florida, my dad even offered to pay for my air ticket if i wanted to fly home. i feel quite obliged to go home, just so they wouldn't worry, cos i can understand how a trip to florida must seem so dangerous to them right now, getting this information overload in the media. but i'll feel terrible backing out of the florida trip as well, just cos tk has put in so much of his heart and soul planning it. i just hope the anthrax thing will blow over soon, or at least blow out of the florida area. i managed to convince my parents that since i wouldn't be visiting any governmental or media organizations, i would be rather safe. maybe disneyland would be a potential terrorist target. hmm.

my dad was so funny today. usually, when we talk on the phone, i would start the conversation by asking him if he missed me. and then he would hum and haw and whatnot, then finally say, "yeah lah, miss you lah." so today, he pre-empted me, and asked me first if i missed him. i cried foul, said he broke the rules, and then he sounded hurt, like i didn't miss him. so i finally said i missed him. and then we went on with our usual conversation about my studies, the weather, the terrorists, blah blah. he just wanted to make sure i missed him, i guess. heh. man, we can be so childish. and he's already a 48-year-old uncle, ok. i bring out the child in him.

my mom was very worried about anthrax, i had some difficulties explaining why the anthrax bacteria makes a difficult bio weapon - the difficulties in cultivating and spreading the bacteria in the form of fine spores. all in mandarin. for a moment, i forgot how to say "not contagious" in chinese. whoa. but i think she's pretty well informed about all these anyway, she's not some old ignorant housewife. think she just wanted to make sure there's really no threat here on campus. she passed the phone over to my dad to talk to me about coming home for winter though, so we didn't talk for long. ah, but at least she sounds fine, i was just paranoid.

my little brother was so sweet, offering to call me up. and he didn't miss me, apparently. heh. nah, i know he did. he wanted to chat on icq, but i had to go for my 9am class, so i couldn't. he sounded fine too, so i'm not worried about him. i reminded him to take care of mom and dad, sometimes i get the little nagging worry that he doesn't appreciate the time he has with them the way he should. oh well. maybe i'm just paranoid again.

can't believe it's only been 3 months since i left singapore. it feels like such a long time....

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something very stupid happened to me today. i was walking up the stairs from my room in the basement, when i tripped and fell. ouch. i was carrying this whole stake of notes, and books, and one of the books fell behind the washing machine, which was just next to the stairs. the washing machine was huge and heavy, so it wasn't like i could move it out to reach my book. [my international relations textbook, by the way.] so i climbed on top of the washing machine, and tried to retrieve it with a broom. how stupid can i be. i ended up pushing the book further down, and into the darker dirtier whatever unknown crevices there were behind the washing machine. did i mention how old and dirty my house is? seriously, if you can imagine filth at least 3 inches deep. i spent a whole 20 minutes trying to hook the book with a broom, before it finally occured to me that i probably would have better luck with another route. so i finally plucked up my courage, went into the blair room [the extremely scary room where the creaky water heater, power fuses and whatnot mysterious things are] to climb through years worth of spider web and dirt to get to a small space beneath the stairs, next to the washing machine. i stuck my hand through another thousand years worth of spider web and dirt to pick my book up. oh, and i found this pen i thought i lost too. it was under the stairs.

i feel so stupid. and dirty.

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japanese word of the day: momo. it means peach. i remember, because when i visited my brother in kyoto, one of the japanese guys i met had this really long name which i couldn't pronounce, he said i could call him momo. and i thought that was really cute, that he was called peach. heh.

i like peaches. i just bought 6lbs of peaches 2 days ago.