"I am a fool; thou art nothing"

Shazz: Stop drinking so much! It does, as Judy Abbott said, dreadful things to your liver. (I should be one to talk...) Yeah, I was joking. Well, at first. Then I started thinking about it: at what other point in my life will I have such an opportunity? I would be a fool not to take advantage of it, and you wouldn't want a fool for a sister, would you? Four glorious months in an ancient city... Well, three. I'm teaching through the end of May. I'll look into tickets, though, ok? Your sheets have at least a 500 thread count, right?

I've been reading Bellow. He's bellowin' mah mind!
Seriously, he's just astounding. I think he's ruined me. Nothing can be as good as this; no one else is so precise, so exact, so original. It is inevitable that I will hate whatever I read next. I daren't go to the old stand-bys (Pride and Prejudice; The Exiles; ... I can't think of a third) for fear of tainting them. Oh, good lord. Did I just imply that P&P could be tainted? I am smitten. I am in love with a dead man. Great. Just what I needed.

I think I'll drown my sorrows - convalesce, if you will - in some beautiful city far away from year. A cobblestoned city, replete with smoke and coffee... hmm...