Back from Philly and Wilmington. well-rested, well-fed and generally relaxed. I stayed with Amy in her gorgeous Philly apartment for two nights, Laura and Jorge in their enormous guestroom on Sunday night (seriously, it was at least as big if not bigger than my apartment in Hong Kong), and had lunch with my parents on Monday (lamb and saffron rice -- yummy). Plus, I got back home to find the cats alive and all my electronics still here. Score!

So now it can be told that one of the main reasons for schlepping my ass out to Philly was to meet the mythical Darrin, my sister's boyfriend (and I'm not just saying that because he Googled Jersild and found out I had moved up from page 14 to page 6. Whoo-hoo!)

Oh, digression -- the other thing you will discover, if you Google Jersild, is Syndrome de Jersild. We have a Syndrome named after our family! This sounds horribly exciting and romantic ("Oh, my love! I would pledge my heart to you, but our happy life together is not to be, for I am stricken with [gasp] Jersild Syndrome!"). It isn't. The page is in French, but I'm pretty sure I can tell what "anogénital éléphantiasis" translates into. I'm most distraught. I just hope the syndrome was named after the doctor who discovered it, not the patient it was originally found in. Urgh.

Anyway, Darrin is way cool. We like him, even though he is Canadian. (Heh. Kidding!) Not only did he deal well with me, but he survived a visit to Jeremy and Becky's more or less unscathed.

Jeremy, as I have probably mentioned before, is a friend of mine from high school and one of the most -- hell, I don't even know how to put it -- Original? Weird? Self-actualized? Completely insane? the list goes on -- people I have ever met. If you have a low weirdness threshold, you probably won't get Jeremy. That would be your loss. Jeremy is the sort of person I can call and say "You have an exciting opportunity to host this year's Jersild Day celebration!" and he won't hang up on me. So we descended on their house (with food -- I wasn't so rude as to assume that they would both house and feed us) and shared stories of giant insects, practical jokes perpetrated, Arabic grammar, Vietnamese pronunciation and more. Much enjoyment.

I also got to pick Jorge's brain about Puerto Rico (he and my sister have started a sort of sideline taking Spanish-language classes to Puerto Rico where they can practice their Spanish skills and learn about the island) for my friends Christine and Brian. Jorge knows all the coolest places you wouldn't find otherwise. Huzzah!

And to top it all off, I'm back in time to watch Angel! Life is good. (And my expectations are small.)