"If you were to microwave a Peep to expand it and then put a Cadbury Egg inside it, and then eat it, would that make the Peep a cannibal?" Alessandra raised this question tonight. Allana, the Ukrainian (Vitaliy, I think his name is), and I laughed.
"No," Allana said.
"But it does!" Alessandra insisted.
"You're very special," I said with a laugh.
We then went into a discussion about microwaving things to expand them and then putting things inside them and whether that makes them cannibal--we decided that if you expand a person and put a person inside her, that doesn't make her a cannibal but pregnant... unless to be pregnant is to be a cannibal, in which case the world's got some major problems.
Confused? Well, we had a lamb roast tonight. Some fine cooking by the good man Ross, as usual. Tonight's Jason's final night with us--he returns to China tomorrow for a few months before he comes back to Australia to begin uni. Ross had told us to invite some friends to join us for dinner and so I did just that. I asked Alessandra if she'd be interested just before The Gathering and told her she should feel free to invite a friend or two. She did so. Thus it was that she and Allana got to experience the household of 52 Higginbotham Road.
Tonight was a night of memorable moments. Ryan spoke profoundly: "I've remembered things since my earliest memory." Jason hit in 13 pool balls in a row--his new record. We poked fun at Dom's bald head. Alessandra chatted in Portuguese with Leandro. A kookaburra decided to come into sight. We ate a glorious lamb roast. And the conversation was just generally good.
Alessandra was one of the first people on this expedition that I met--she was among the handful of people who arrived early to LAX when we set out. And we sat in the terminal chatting about Steinbeck. Our agreement on Steinbeck gave me a good first impression and I'm glad to have found my first impression appears to have been correct. Alessandra appears to have all the makings of someone who could become a close friend and that makes me happy. And tonight was really the first I'd talked to Allana (another Drama person) much and she's quite awesome as well. These two are intelligent, witty, and quite fun to be around. They're the kind of people one would want to seek out and I've had the good fortune to be in Australia at the right time, at the right place so as to have friendship simply fall into place without any difficulty.
My good fortune lately has been incredible. On the way from the school, Allana told me that some of the girls in her Directing course were very complimentary of my instruction while working on The Stronger. Apparently, rumor has it that I'm a pretty good director, good to work with--at least from a first impression. I fell into the assistant director position by good fortune, just as it was good fortune that put me at LAX early enough that I was in that first group and thus got to sit and chat with Alessandra from the get-go, and it was that same good fortune that put her and Allana into the same household, which resulted in my lovely evening tonight with these wonderful people.
It's still early on in the semester. It's still Week 1 of classes. And friendships are growing quickly. And I'm loving every minute. I'm in a place that I love, doing what I love, with people who I'm pretty sure, with just a bit more time, I'm going to love. Everything's fallen into place so neatly. It is wonderful.
There's one more quote from tonight worth recording. It came from Ross, who may or may not be a Christian: "It's a bit romantic, but, in a spiritual sense love is just a four letter word for God and God is just a three letter word for love. They're the same thing. One and the same."
And that's all I'm going to say about that.
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