Still tension-free in September.

I'm going to see Mom next week for a day, then Dad and family for a week and then Mom again for a few days. I'll be gone for 10 or 12 days.

Got a new bike today, a road bike. Now I can start suffering like a pro. I even found out about some group rides I can go on. This weekend's will be my first. That'll be fun.

Talked to Steve today. He was in Eugenie, down from Portland for the Labor Day Weekend. He's had a long summer, working an internship three days a week and a coffee job another two or three days a week. He's a barista. That word sounds effeminate. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a female word in italian.

Was poking around on the computer and Limp Bizkit's MI2 theme song came on. For a while in my senior year or during my first CCC year, it became a personal theme song. The chorus, "Now I know why you want to hate me," became a mantra. I had to bus' my ass to keep up with stuff during that time. I was constantly working; 12 grr didn't fall out of the sky and fall into my lap. This year's tuition might.

While talking with Mom tonight, the phone was passed to Uncle Ron. We talked about the WSOP, maybe the first thing we've ever had in common, then he wanted to assure me that he'll help with tuition. Either his attitude or bank balance has significantly changed in seven years. My La Salle tuition was grudgingly paid and now he's telling me not to hesitate if I need help with tuition.

What supports the idea that he's become nice since I announced I was going to SOU? (Recall he gave 2.5 grr to help me out.) Possibly my distance has led him to think I'm actually a good young person, one worth supporting, because he understands what is missing. Maybe he doesn't want me moving back in. Maybe he wants to vicarously earn a college education through me, because of all the things he's earned, that is the only obvious deficiet.

What supports the idea he was always a nice guy and now has a comfortable balance? He did help with La Salle tuition. Perhaps all his opposition was based on economic health, then meager and now glowing.

I believe both, that we've both changed in the last 10 years, that he has alwyas been compassionate but intially had trouble showing it, that I was immature and unable to understand this, that then he couldn't support La Salle because it was expensive but now college isn't because his paychecks are much greater now.