Today is July 8th, 2004. That means I have spent 9,256 days alive and outside a uterus, and that European release of Halo 2 is currently 124 days away. More importantly though, today is a special day in the lives of two persons I know.

Elinore Faustino is the girlfriend I never had. I met her only once, during one week in May 1999, in Lilburn, Georgia. She was the first girl I kissed with a sense of deep, sincere passion, and the first girl I felt I might really want to make love to. We were both so innocent back then, and so idealistic. It was the first time I went to the United States, and the first time I went on a bigger trip all on my own. Many things have happened since then, and some things may well have changed. When we talk nowadays, we often wonder how much of what we were then we would still be, should we ever meet again. No matter how you look at it though, that one, Georgian spring week was magic. With Elinore's entrance into my life came my first attempt at trying my wings, finding out if a dream; a sense of ideal, could be pursued and caught up with. And I found that it could.

Noelia Ollvid is the only Internet-originated friend I have that I see in real life on a somewhat regular basis. As someone who reads my site now and then and still meets up with me, she probably knows me better than most, as far as dark sides and discrepancies between my allegedly charming and thoughtful online self and my lethargic, part-time isolationist offline persona go. At times I find myself wondering what feelings I really have for her; and if there is no enamoring, why ever not. A difference between us, I think, is that Noelia is more solidly anchored to the real world, instead of letting herself go with every impulse or passion that pops up. Out of a majority of people in my life with various social or emotional quirks, she is a peculiar influx of normalcy. And through all that, she holds on to me and stays in touch with me, even in times where I have been reclusive enough to warrant otherwise.

In England, or in Vienna, or in Uppsala, or in Vietnam; Happy 22 and Happy 23 to you, loved ones.