Turkey Festival (Minnesota)/Mid-Summer Festival (Michigan)/Summerfest (Oregon)/Cornfest (California)/Summer Celebration (Washington)
2004-07-09 @ 10:50 p.m.

Life took a turn for the better today. It's the little things that make me happy nowadays. The fever's gone, to wherever it is fever's go. For now, at least, I'll pop Panadol till tomorrow just to be safe. I got my B for Mathematics after all! Damn, just realised that it means I can't say I aced my Common Tests. A, C, E, D. Get it? Ironically, the best thing that happened to me today was Mr Purvis's confirmation that I didn't screw up the analysis of Duffy's A Healthy Meal, though I think I did get a little "heavy" in some parts, as he calls it. Why was it that today all I wanted was to feel unabashedly proud that my work was singled out? I feel stupid now, but at that moment, I wanted to laugh. Just for that moment, I wanted to believe, oh so badly, that I was brilliant. (Perhaps this reflects a deep-seated insecurity that the real me can never measure up to the expected me. I want myself to become that other self. How? I ask myself that every day now. I don't want your understanding, I want the answer to reconciliation.)

I think Mr Purvis was a little nuts today, even for himself. Must have been the bag of nuts he ate. You are what you eat! (Hey, he made that quip, not me. I'm merely recounting an amusing anecdote.) So our class had what passes for a lively discussion, meaning more than five people spoke during the lesson, not counting Mr Purvis and Daniel. Poor Daniel, Mr Purvis has taken to cutting him off almost every time he speaks up. I for one don't think it matters, because what Daniel says often sparks off a comment from another person. Ah well, no matter how silent his classes get, they're far superior to Economics lectures with Mrs Helen Tan. Reputedly one of the best teachers in the department, it is a mystery to me how she can lecture while half the lecture theatre is busy talking, and then feign mock anger at our lack of comprehension later. Ah. [Pause] I shall creep away and begin my research on Harold Pinter. I've got some dialogue that I think works very well in a Pinteresque style. Need to be sure that I'm not completely going off in the wrong direction before I put it down on paper. Happiness is a Marks & Spencer mint.