Came home this evening and went out for a long walk. Did about four miles. It's something I plan to keep doing into the autumn. I walked up to the Arts Centre, then back down through the cathedral square and all the museum/state office complexes, then home through all the little side streets in my neighbourhood. The little Psyduck iPod came with me. I like walking. Late-afternoon or evening walks remind me of Vienna, or the Wooster Square neighbourhood in New Haven...or walking up Orange or Prospect to Caterina's. But I liked doing it, and I'll be keeping it up. I may start walking from here up to the wine bar near my office at night once the weather is a touch less humid.

Ms. Chang is in St. Petersburg tonight. I'm envious, but I hope she's thrilled and starting to do her first forays into the city. She called me on her mobile late yesterday afternoon. She'd flown up to NYC from Miami, and she was standing in line at the British Airways boarding gates at JFK. She was carrying a copy of Bakhtin's "Dialogic Imagination" with her. Not my choice for in-flight reading (I tend to read travel memoirs while traveling), but the key book in her life right now. Libet called to say how excited and anxious she was (fears of lost luggage, of ending up trapped in London with a missed flight) and that she was glad that she and I had been able to talk about what the semester in Russia means to her, and that I'd always been supportive--- been her cheerleader for doing a Russian Lit degree and for going to Russia. I can't be anything else--- I've known Ms. Chang since 2004, and she's always been a girl I wanted to see do well. And we've always clicked, even on levels that have nothing to do with twisted phonesex. We're close friends--- even her marriage hasn't affected that. It means a lot to me that she's my friend. I'm going to Russia, she said, but I won't ever go out of your life. That means a lot. She's not ashamed of anything we did, and she knows that while, yes, I'll always find her incredibly hot and wicked, I'm her friend first and foremost. It means a lot to me that I have value to her, and that we can still talk for hours, even if it's now all about Russian history and Russian authors rather than Corona bottles and Incestuous Sibling fantasies. She called me there as she was boarding her flight. I was touched. And I felt valued.

There are other girls--- a very dear friend who's finishing up her two-year college in Baltimore this semester, a girl who's a fine, fine writer, and a lovely girl just on her way back via Germany from a summer in South Korea ---who've made me feel valued this week. I've told one of them that her friendship and affection have been key things in my life these last three years--- three years this summer ---and that I'll always be her friend and comrade-in-arms. After all...a girl who knows all about electronica and ambient music and reads voraciously will always have a place in my heart. Wherever her life and loves lead her, I'll be her friend. Like Ms. Chang, I do find Lissy majorly alluring, but I'm not there to be a disruption or a problem. I'm there as someone who cares about her. I told her that and she IM'd back to say that she'd wanted to hear just that, that she wanted me there, too. So--- value. Just as the girl in Korea thanked me for being her sounding board and confidant this summer. Loyaulté me lie--- Richard III's motto, and mine, too. I've felt valued. That means something.

Things I Need To Do:

---Keep walking in the evenings

---Rebuild my German. Keep reviewing German every night. Ask Kelsey at clush to chivvy me along on this.

---Get small study desk to put in front window as writing desk.

---Get office chair for computer desk

---Get new mobile phone, upgrade plan

---Read more fiction

---Talk with Joely about trip to Baltimore in October

---Get digital camera, take photos...

---Price Comfy Chair

---Listen to university radio, go to dance clubs, explore new music

I think I will be devoting time to that list for a while. It's all easily doable. And I have to remember that. So many things are doable. It's all only a matter of will.