Back to life.

For the first time in four days I had no reason to wake up early, to get out of bed and prepare to go to the airport or to wake up Casey or to head off on some adventure. So I allowed myself to sleep in, which still got me up at 10 a.m., since I was unable to sleep any more.

And I got back into my routine. Checking e-mail, visiting sites, eating Cheerios in my room at my computer. Then I picked up the stack of receipts and bills and my checkbook and proceeded to get my finances in order, discovering that my phone bill was due last Wednesday. I should get one of those reminders saying �if payment has been sent, disregard this notice,� which I will. And my credit card bill was lower than I expected, so I paid that off (until next month) and took care of another chip of the remaining student loan.

Then I opened my mail from the weekend, which proved to be a lucrative task. Kathy sent money for her share and Lee�s share of the hotel in Cincinnati from last month and I got a letter from Delta informing me that I�ll be receiving a credit of $128 for the flight I missed from Detroit to South Bend back in May -- only two months ago. But it pays for the car I rented to get there, so that�s all I wanted. And I got confirmation of paying off my other student loan, a nice little souvenir for the files. Or something.

It�s hot and humid, New Jersey in July, and I think again how great the weekend was, how fortunate we were to have such great weather -- sunny and warm, yet relatively dry. I�d planned to spend the day inside, sealed in my air-conditioned room, watching TV and �Two For The Road� until maybe going out to dinner with Dave or Jess at Val�s. But I heard Smash Mouth singing �I�m A Believer� again and wanted to find where it comes from, and discovered on CDNow that it�s on the soundtrack for �Shrek.� Reminded that everyone I know has loved the movie and it�s going to be out of theaters soon, I checked the listings and Jess and I are off to the cinema in a hour. On hot, humid New Jersey summer days when you�re not at the beach or by the pool or holed up in your house, the fourth best place to be is a frigid movie theater.

Hooray!

And I was talking with Dave tonight about how on Friday, my answer to the question, "Are you seeing anyone at the moment?" was "No." But by that night, it had changed. I went from a guy with friends and a few online acquaintances to someone in a long-distance relationship. Like I once said, I kind of fell into it.

And it reminded me of a song by a Notre Dame campus band called George and the Freeks. They titled the song "Fell," but "Fallen" always seemed a better title to me:

So please don't mind
but I've fallen in love with you
I tried to help myself but what could I do?
Don't be angry when I try to tell you
That I've fallen fallen for you