I'm supposed to be at Sam's birthday, but here I am at home on the internet. Circumstances were beyond my control, but Francis said, "You aren't missing much, I was just worried about you, and the girls were pulling their hair out." I always feel like I could disappear forever and no one would know, but the truth is that whenever I don't show up somewhere it seems like I ought to be, everyone wonders whether I've died on the way. I said, "Oh, no, I'm okay," but I think my voice got wobbly because Francis asked if I was alright. It just shakes me up a bit when I make people worry. See, I admitted loving my cellular telephone and it got back at me by making me a person who doesn't remember anyone's phone number by heart. That's how appliances are.

Anyway, I'm all jittery and if I lived in Brooklyn I would probably just go to Sam's birthday now, but from here I would probably get there just before too late. I'll see all of them tomorrow anyway, my only problem now is getting to sleep before then. When I warm up and stop typing it should work itself out.

Otherwise, I was expecting a call from Mr. Shortz, but it never came. It said, "after 3 p.m. on Thursday," but I accidentally left the phone off. That night at about 2 a.m. I sat up in bed and thought, "Oh no!" and turned the phone on. There were calls, but none from Mr. Shortz. I'm better off, I fall apart under that kind of pressure. It's easy when I'm in bed half asleep, but then most things are. Except! Somehow, last night, I hurt my leg in my sleep, and there's still a bit of ache. It's a new level of clumsiness. I had creepy dreams and woke up sore. Things go that way at the end of the year.

I'm pretty excited about next year. I always love it when a month starts on a Sunday, and this is even better. We have terrible plans for this year and it's going to be so good.