Sadly, I spent all of today in my dorm room. All day. Writing my paper or avoiding writing my paper. Or snacking on pita bread and bananas and peanut butter. Peanut butter tastes like home.
I also did the rest of my homework, I guess. I'm really glad that I bothered to read Midsummer Night's Dream earlier this week, because I would definitely be in trouble if I still had it left to read. I could probably sneak through class based on what I remembered, but I definitely wouldn't pass the quiz!
For Arabic, I got to do fill in the blank sentences like 'My dad works for the oil company' and 'I live in Zamalek', the last of which I'm not entirely sure I spelled correctly. I see the word so often in English that I've never bothered to look up how it's actually spelled in Arabic before.
The highlight of my day occurred when during one of my mini-breaks, I visited Neil's Magnificent Oracular Journal for some encouragement. If you go visit it, please read the instructions before testing its magic. They're important. Anyway, I asked the oracle whether I really could finish my essay well in a timely fashion. The reply of the oracle? 'Sure.'
Knowing that the words of wisdom the oracle produces are drawn directly from Neil Gaiman's very own blog, I immediately felt better about my essay, and went back to writing. A little while later, I tweeted at him, expressing my thanks for the oracle.
@neilhimself just wanted to say thanks for your magnificent oracular journal. Q: 'can i really do this?' A: 'sure'. made my day. :]
A little while later, I checked twitter again, only to find this waiting for me:
@bellmaison it is magical and oracular.
He replied! I was fangirling all over the place, it was awesome. So I tweeted back:
@neilhimself it certainly is. even when i ask 'how is my hair today' and it tells me 'And there are sheep' i remain awed by its magic.
And then, just a few minutes later, from Neil:
@bellmaison at that point it is being Deep.
Honestly? Day. Made. I couldn't have been happier. Then my friend Nicole tweeted me, and said:
@bellmaison you and your cute conversation with neil. i can hear you fangirling halfway across the world.
Which was also awesome. And completely true, she probably could hear me. Nicole knows how much I love Neil, since she's the one who stood in line with me until three am to meet him and have our books signed when he visited UCSB.
So, yeah. Writing an essay and having a twitter conversation with Neil Gaiman were the highlights of my day. Nothing, not even waking up early tomorrow to catch the seven o'clock bus, is going to make me forget how awesome today was. Nothing.
