Yesterday was drizzly and steamy and gross. Before meeting Mia at 5, I wandered in Gangnam.

I went to see the National Library, but it wasn't very impressive. And it wasn't air-conditioned.

I found a small shop selling soap made out of vegetables (or was it vegetable oil?).

I wandered some more and was captivated by the sight of orange flowers on the ground, brought down by the rain, huddled on the brink of an evil-smelling drainage grate.

I went to the new Kyobo bookstore and speed read a terrible mystery called "The Babysitter," after which I felt like I'd fed my brain a Big Mac with biggie fries and coke.

While walking with Mia, she suddenly recognized and called out to someone who she had worked with in L.A. in 2000. The girl (Yale College, 2001) is a rising second year at Yale Law; the boy she was walking with (Yale College, 2000) is a rising second year at Yale Med. The perfect Korean American couple -- I didn't think they really existed! She should lay off the eyebrow tweezing, though.

Crushed by lack of sleep (5 am sunrise wakes me up every day), I went home, thought about J and cried for a little while, then went for a 40 minute run, after which I felt better and read Jo's Boys til 11 pm.

[Confidential to the Ringleted One: H.B.!]