There must be magic

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

Mr. Gradgrind, Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

Sorry Mr. Gradgrind, but I refuse to believe in a universe based entirely on fact. The universe can't be based only on fact and science. If it were, why would we have emotions? Why would we feel terrible half the time and ecstatic the other? Why put ourselves through so much pain and trauma? If the universe were based on fact, we wouldn't need this. We could be moist robots going about with logic and reason. But we aren't. And to me, that means that there's something out there logic and reason cannot explain. Our emotions are our ways of navigating that which we can't quantify. And that's magic.

I had an awesome day today. I fixed a problem with VSNS Lemon's new code, which I celebrated by playing the Hallelujah Chorus. Then Ms. Sukalo called, and we agreed to meet at 2:30 at Starbucks, as she's in town this week. At 2:00, Carly logged onto MSN. She's also a former student of Ms. Sukalo, so I thought it would be cool if she came along, and I invited her. So we both went to Starbucks and had a great visit with Sooks. ^_^

Then I picked Cortney up from Kakabeka and we went back to my house, where we cooked dinner. My dad was out of town again until tonight, so I cooked dinner for the second time ever from scratch. I did the same diced chicken type dish. It was good to have some help though. After dinner, Cortney and I watched the first disc of nip/tuck; she ended up lending me the entire season. :D

Too often I feel lonely over my lack of a real social life. It's too easy to become withdrawn, especially when one doesn't do things with friends often enough. Days like these that remind me of how great my friends are ... these are days worth blogging about, so I can remember them years from now.

It's scary, sometimes. My peers and I are growing up. Our parents aren't driving us to each other's houses anymore; we're driving ourselves around. While preparing dinner with Cortney, I realized this experience was one of the most adult things I've done since I turned 18, because my relationships with my friends are changing. No longer fuelled by the day-to-day interaction of high school, our friendships endure because of what we hold in common and new types of interaction, like making dinner together.

Now if I can survive this weekend from Hell, then there's hope for the future after all! :)