Who are you, and what have you done with my friend Jaynel?

I may have been M.I.A. for awhile, but I'm around. I'm not myself lately. I'm eating weird combinations of starches, consuming caffiene by the truckload, and staying up very very late. Even though I write every day, preparing applications is different. I didn't go home for Christmas, and I haven't gone snowboarding with friends. I turned down a free trip to Vegas for New Years. I've become a recluse, spending my winter sending out my writing samples and my personal statement to a few schools. I just know that getting an MFA is my calling after studying in Iowa City this summer. It's a degree I never knew actually existed before last June. But as easy as creative writing is for me, the personal statement is hard. You're supposed to write about yourself...for two or three pages. I can't wait to get back to "real" writing. After a hundred revisions, I am so sick of myself already.

Most of November and December was consumed in applications. As promised, I got an invite to GenenProm, Genentech's swanky annual holiday shindig. It was at the San Francisco Marriott. We were coralled in several lines and had to be scanned with blacklight laser beams and invisible ink stamps. (No telling if they simultaneously took DNA samples.) The party was akin to the Oscars, hosting at least 7,000 people. It had three dance floors with separate bands, a casino, free henna and temporary tattoos, and psychic readings. All three of my roommates work at Genentech, so they had tickets, and I scored an extra ticket for Andrew. I wore a Ralph Lauren gown with pearls and he wore...a suit. Really, it was stunning. We invented this new dance, and we drew a crowd and clap circle. We'll see if it catches on.

A couple nights before Christmas, Andrew and I met my friends Kimberly and Leland in Dolores Park for "Unsilent Night." It's an event that started in New York City in the early 90's. Each person brought a boombox, and the organizers handed out cassette tapes and CDs. Each has a different sound. We walked throughout San Francisco's Mission District with the boomboxes on our shoulders, as the music mixed into beautiful, unpredictable sounds. Andrew thought that he'd skip our CD ahead, but his boombox was super crappy, so it just kept playing the first part over and over. Even so, it was peaceful going through the city, watching people gather at their windows with their children to wave.

Here's wishing you all the best in 2007. I hope you get into the school you really wanted, are surrounded by laughter and good health, happy friends, and that you fall forget-the-world in love! (uh...so that's what I want. Forgive me. I'm still in "personal statement" mode, where it really is 'all about me.')