Tired. Was up til midnight last night working on the American Culture book for the Ivy League Educational Institute, and then stayed up for another hour and a half, doing exactly nada. I am dumbness personified.

Finished the darn text, though, so my editor told me to take it easy for a few days and catch my breath before starting on the final book (Language Arts, whatever the hell that means). It'll be great to have only homework to do when I get home at night!

Yesterday morning (which seems really far away), I went with my dad to visit my aunt and uncle. My uncle is dying of cancer. He looks a lot closer to death than he did 4 months ago, when I last saw him. I can't say that I'm really stricken with grief -- I don't really know him. But I feel a kind of empathetic sadness for the frailty of human existence. How quickly it all passes.

I also saw my brand new second cousin (my cousin's second son) for the first time. He was born on January 31, which is actually New Year's Eve on the lunar calendar. I've never seen such a new human being before, and I thought I might be really awed or something, but I have to say, I felt zippo. I even told myself, "Hey, this is brand new life looking up at you. Don't you feel something?" Nein, meinen freuden. I merely observed, in my head: "Look! New human! New human toes! New human hair! New human expressions of happiness and constipation, alternatively! Huh. Yah. Okay, I'm bored."

The new human's older brother is about 4, and is a spazzoid. I gave him a toy truck that J and I picked out in December (I know, I know, I just never got around to visiting my cousins last term), and he liked it, so he thought I might be a potential playmate. Chuh! He quickly became disillusioned, and turned to my father, who's never been much of a kid person, but found the kid pretty funny. My cousin commented, "Wow, look! He caught on right away that you weren't about to play with him." Smart kid.

I'm not much with kids. J is, and I found myself wishing he were there. He would have been an object of great interest to the kids and the adults, I think. And he probably would have gotten a kick out of playing with the kid. I don't know, when I'm around family, I miss J more.

Well, too tired to type more. Not done with dog cafe pics yet. Should clarify, though, that the cafe was not outdoors, like a French cafe or something. It was on the second floor, and it was just two big rooms. Hence, the smell. Not the nice furry doggy smell, but the kind of sickly sweet disinfectanty smell. Which is why I probably won't go back, except if you come to visit. (Wink.)