VOTE FOR ME.

It's been said before, but let me say it again. Friendster is a big fat popularity contest. I am not bitter, however. For once, I am winning, with 48 first-degree friends and no less than 95,758 charming individuals in my friendship network. Numbers like those could afford me a seat in a cyber congress or something. Yay for hunting down summer camp friends. I've kinda become a Friendster snob, too. When people write me random "wanna be my friendster?" emails, I first throw my head back and laugh. Kinda cackle. First of all, no one talks like that except NEW kids. Secondly, um, NO! Hahahah. Cackle cackle. Then I give my screen a weird look and delete. Which is not the way to increase my numbers, I now realize.

But more to the point, I have begun to view people who don't have testimonials as 'shady'. I see them as shadowy figures of a conspicuous and shameful nature rather than what they are, which is probably "people with more of a life than me and mine." I see a profile with no testimonials, and I must wonder. Does this person *literally* have no friends? Are the friends unable to muster up one or two flattering comments to sandwich in between juvenile and irrelevant inside jokes? Are the friends sending me a secret message directly meant for me saying "This person is no good. Run, don't walk, in the other direction"?

I don't view the fact that I actually think about this stuff to be a good sign at all.

But you have to occupy your mind. I'm trying not to think about the upcoming trip I have. I leave for Chicago at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Well my flight is then. I will be up stumbling in the dark at a beautiful round 4:30. I will then spend 6 days working intensely, networking with the literary elite. I have packed my glasses in the hopes of finagling my way into a few VIP parties (Janeane Garofalo is a speaker). My professional endeavours will be interspersed with socializing with my high school friends and some cousins.

Going back to Chicago is always a bit tough for me. It doesn't help that two of my best friends recently moved within a 2 block radius of my ex (and no, they are not roommates, let alone friends. This is the sick hand of fate at work.) Blah. Will I be walking down the street and be forced to confront what I masterfully avoided for three years? I mean, why have closure when I've had such wonderful fodder for girl bonding armchair analysis sessions?

And there's the whole 'hometown' thing. I've beat that subject to death, but it will be weird to go back to the town where I have no home. My brother and sister do it from time to time; jump back onto memory lane. But what need have I to go to the streets where I once walked with pegged jeans and army boots, oversized rainbow-colored flannel shirts, and a backpack full of teen angst? None, I tell you. Unless TC is in town. That would change things.

I like to think I'm not related to the girl i was when I lived in Chicago. At the end of the Madonna show last week, lights blazed that read "Reinvent Yourself". In a way, I think I did that the minute I walked out of graduation. I didn't look back once. Granted, I haven't become a megamogul sexpot like SOME people whose name rhymes with Fadonna, but I feel like I've moved lightyears past where I was. Which I think is the general notion of reinventing yourself. Improve yourself. Cut the shit out that you just don't dig. If the number 60035 makes you queasy, spend your Orbitz dollars elsewhere.

I love the city, but I don't love who I was or what I went through when I was there. Rather than dwell on it, I've left it behind. Maybe this time I'll just be a visitor. I hear the Sears Tower is nice.