Yesterday the heat was unbearable. Reading was an athletic event, otherwise why would I be sweating so much? Rather than battle the heat, I decided to do what anyone in my position would do: run and hide. So I called up Teymour and asked very flatly, “Can I use you for your air conditioning? I want to come over, set up camp, do math, and not talk to you.”

He remarked that there were worse ways to be used, and that, conveniently he was leaving to study somewhere else, so the appartment would be mine. I rushed over with two backpacks stuffed full with books and a laptop. Ian and Caitlin both answered the door. She was on her way out, but only to fetch her laptop and to return. She didn’t have air conditioning, either.

Teymour left, as promised. Ian and Caitlin kept me company, however. The three of us working on our indvidiual pursuits, periodically breaking the silence to play some Polish rap or sign up for the GREs. Eventually, we gave up long enough to make dinner.

Caitlin oversees what’s being made and by whom. So I sit on the couch and write emails while Ian preheats the over and Caitlin strongly urges me to take a glass of wine. How could I refuse?

We sat at the kitchen table to eat, as the entire living room was still hosting our computers and my library of books. And it happened. We had skirted around it before. But last night someone said it. I can’t remember who. It could’ve been any of us, really. But the point is someone said it.

“We should all pick a grad school and go there together.”

Someone was bound to say it. We had been warming up to the idea all day. We each threw around comments like, “This is so nice. I feel so academic.” “This is what grad school must feel like.” You get the idea.

I opted for UChicago. They wanted Berkeley or Stanford. I want snow. None of us really has any say in any of this, any how.

We finished dinner with some port from Portugal aged five years, which Ian had given to Caitlin for her recent birthday. Even though my birthday isn’t until December, Ian said it was still close enough to hers for me to have a glass. So I did.

We sipped to Star Wars Episode 6. I finished up a section of my thesis and sent in what I have of the chapter as my tutorial paper at just about the same time as the Rebel forces overcame the Empire.

Maybe there’s something to that.