Tonight's ramblings:

I'm sleepy. So sleepy. Naptime didn't help today. Sad.

But I still had a pretty good day. One class this morning, then I just sat around in the union and talked with Erin and Ben and Brooke. And then made myself scarce when the mayoral debates started. Yech... politics. Especially local politics.

I decided today that one of the most important things in my relationship with a person is that I can read them and play off them. My sister and I do that well; we know what the other is thinking and saying, and we can take a concept and run with it. On a really good day it can be like a jam session or great improv comedy. I've noticed recently that I can do the same thing with other people, too, but it's sort of odd. Some people I've known for a long time, and I still don't have a good enough read on them to be able to do that. And some people I've only met recently, but there's already that dynamic between us. I don't know what causes it, but I know that when it works, it really works. I feel closest to the people that I have that sort of chemistry or whatever with.

Even more interesting is that it's not a competitive thing. The idea isn't to one-up the other person, but simply to keep the game going. The outcome is poetry or comedy or music. I don't even think I could write the sort of dialogue that occurs on my own; I'd have to have my sister or someone help, give each of the characters a voice and let it run.

I guess I just really like looking at interpersonal relationships. I'm no psychologist or sociologist or whatever, but I AM a writer, and the one thing I've noticed (and a lot of my other writing friends will back this up) is that writers tend to do a lot of observation, listening to conversations, paying attention to minutae that most people would just ignore. Today I saw the last bright-yellow dandelion of fall poking up from underneath a pile of dead leaves in the park, and I know that few people would have even looked at it twice--if the saw it at all--but it made me instantly think of writing a poem (which I haven't done yet, but I've been mulling it over all afternoon).

So tonight I want to claim the writing part of myself. I am a writer.