have kindly sponsored

Gareth was absolutely my saviour this past week. Not that him coming to Detroit resulted in more things getting sorted out, or anything at all, but at least with him there my parents all backed off me a bit. We spent all week sufforcating under the details of the wedding and trying to avoid getting involved in the confrontations brewing between my parents. For the most part we succeeded but it was difficult not exploding when they kept harping on me over little things like whether the musician played flute and violin or just flute, when they had yet to put a deposit down on a new place.

I have to admit that I did not completely keep my cool. I managed to make a few passing comments such as: Does it matter whether the musician plays anything at all if she is going to be doing it in the streets? Gareth and I escaped to Chicago for a couple of days before returning to London. We had such a good time. The weather was gorgeous, the city was beautiful, and we had a brilliant time. We stayed at my best friend's place that was walking distance from loads of shops, restaurants, bars, and even the beach.

We managed to get seats next to each other for the flight home. When we arrived our flatmates told us they had booked for a big group of us to go to a lobster-fest the next night. Twelve of us packed around a table and stuffed our faces in honour of our safe return - hey it was questionable considering the volatile situation at home - and a safe flight out for a good friend leaving for a work assignment in Oman. And we had another reason to celebrate as well right before he came out to see me Gareth received a letter from the University of London saying he had been accepted on to a PhD program for this autumn. From this day forward he will only be referred to in this column as The Professor.

03 May 2000

Stacie Lewis