Today: Got up late, which was ok since I was severely sleep deprived for the last few days, picked up my dad at 30th street, got a haircut, worked out, wrote a school-related e-mail, made a lovely dinner, and now I'm going to post, read, and go to bed. My dinner was salad, homemade baguettes avec beurre, and cauliflower gratin. Also, I decided to buy a book today. I've been sworn off buying books since sophomore year in college, for two reasons: 1) I move so much and moving all my books was starting to be a giant pain 2) it saves tons of money to just get them from the library. Well, I'm not done using the library, but I want to start buying books again. I even regret selling the ones that I did from St. John's. My policy was good while it was in effect, but now I think it's time to start again. Aside from the obvious reasons that they have a valuable use and that I love books as objects, I think they are a beautiful aesthetic element of a space. That might strike some as a stupid/shallow reason, but I find it compelling. I get so much pleasure walking into a room that is stacked with books, especially great ones. I want to look over from my table and see books, have them physically around me. At the moment, my book collection is paltry. I had the illusion of owning a lot of books while Eva and I were together, but most of them were hers, and now I have this depressing, empty shelf looking at me all day. Anyway, the book I bought today was The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, a classic, and a nice one to set me back on my journey of accumulating an excellent library.

Tomorrow: All day work marathon with some French en route.