I was trying to find a picture in iPhoto and searched “dog” and this picture of Nicole the Polish Girl and me shaking hands in an elevator in Tokyo came up instead?? Does my computer think I am (junkyard) dog in the sense that I inexplicably always seem to be hanging out with babes? Hey, relax! They’re just my friends!

(Nicole, give me the go-ahead and I’ll come to Warsaw at the end of September as you suggested I should. I will gladly take that five-hour train ride to have a wild night with you and your brother again. Lord knows I could use one of those . . .)

Anyway, this is what I was looking for:

A few hours ago, someone very special to me reached out from the abyss and told me she missed me in a way that almost made me cry. I miss her too. I replied with this, and then told her how much she means to me, just as she had.

I went looking for some pictures we took the last time I was with her and found these:

Of course she would own a wearable lower half of a mermaid . . . and so naturally I had to try it on.

That trip to see her, as well as the one I took the previous summer, are something akin to north star memories. I keep them frozen behind glass because of how deeply meaningful they are to me. Their significance only grows in this place, the further those days get away from me in time. When my mind begins to turn toward The Dark Path, I think of that time I spent with her and am rescued from my despair. In hindsight, both trips were only three days long, and yet those six days remain salient in my mind. It’s just true that they are some of the happiest memories of my life and it’s because I spent them with her.

And now I really am crying . . .

I love you, Pallas . . . thank you for loving me too.

:,-)