Written Tuesday evening, until further notice.

Well, I'm back now, settled into my regular, real life, and focusing on the primary goal of the moment, which is to become employed.

I'm hopefully going to start temping tomorrow, and frankly, I'm not even interested in a legal job. I just want something to do that will start bringing in at least a miniscule amount of income, since that's more than I'm getting now.

Something very exciting happened while I was traveling, and that is that Athena started writing again! Yay! Welcome back to the party, girl... we've missed you!

Tara and I had our first Mag Night tonight. We share a magazine addiction that knows no boundaries, and since she just quit her job to go back to school for her master's and I have no money period, we decided to institute Mag Night, where we settle into a table at the Barnes & Noble on the Plaza (an upscale outdoor shopping area) and read books and magazines to our heart's content, and then, brave little toasters that we are, put them back instead of buying them.

It was great. I read Entertainment Weekly and Movieline and two stories out of Roald Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, one of my favorite books from childhood. Tara picked up a couple of other mags and also read some from one of her textbooks.

Also in the cafe were a row of students with textbooks and highlighters, and I caught sight of the cover of one of their books: "Contracts and Sales."

First-year law students, evidently from UMKC, the only law school here in town.

I admit it, I had a pang. The first few weeks of law school was one of the most exciting times in my life. I definitely don't want to be back there and have to do it all over again, but I did feel a small rush of nostalgia at that exhilaration, when it was all in front of me.

Okay, now it's Thursday. I had a wicked sore throat by the time I went to bed on Tuesday night, and when I woke up Wednesday morning, I felt like I had been run over by a truck.

I have a cold. How stupid is that? Colds in the summer are the worst. All day yesterday, no matter what I did, I could not get my body temperature regulated. If I was chilled, I'd crawl under the blanket, and in ten seconds I'd be sweaty. Ugh.

I slept almost the entire day. I was exhausted anyway, from nearly three weeks of non-stop traveling, but I don't think I needed to get sick as well.

I feel better today. My head still feels thick and I'm still a little hot, but I can at least stand up without feeling woozy. That's a good thing.