Responses to comments [which are almost all by KK] -
Don't stop writing cos I love reading your comments! They are a source for reassurance for my meagre existence in cyberspace!! (and possibly in real life)
Is sad how I'm dependent on unpersonal electronic media to keep up with people. Someone please invent teletransportation - sans the accidental genetic mutations as in Flythe movie. I know you think of yourself as a roach sometimes in the midst of a Darwinian biodiversity struggle, but I really don't fancy myself as a non-mammalian species, esp. of the bug sort.

and re: B'day plans - [omigod don't want to get any older]
Have for a fleeting sec thought of self-termination, or staging my own death as an accident, cos it's so much better and more romantic to die young. (see James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix etc.) But it would be too ungrateful towards my parents, friends and family etc. Plus it's wimpy not to face aging with grace and dignity.
So actual plans: will invest in anti-wrinkle creams (thx Hermione for all the samples);
and am still debating whether I should take off to Providence / Montreal for the three day weekend, inspite of ass-whooping midterm right after Veterans' Day.