SOUTH BEND, Day 2

Soft white snow falling
Across the frozen campus
December flurries

Still got it with the college chicks. Oh yeah. Two of Jessica's (she's my sister, have I mentioned that?) residents who sent her flowers for her birthday said, "Jess, your brother's hot." And they're juniors -- not like they're naive freshmen. It may be the first time I've ever been called hot -- cute, sure, several times, but never hot.

One of them, Colleen, I passed in the hall yesterday afternoon. I was coming out of Jess's room, and Colleen came down the hall and asked, "Are you Jess's brother?" I said yes and introduced myself and we chatted for a moment in the hallway. Later, when Jess was down the hall talking to them, the other, Kate, ws jealous that Colleen had already met me. Today, while I was in the room warming up from the cold and checking e-mail, Kate came by in flannel pajama pants and sweat shirt and stretched and yawned when I asked if I could leave a message or note for my sister. "Nah, that's OK," she said, and turned back to her room.

Later, Jess told me she didn't feel like introducting herself; she was embarrassed. But to me they practically looked the same with pretty blond hair, and I wasn't so sure it was a different person from the day before.