cristina cervone showed me more of charlottesville in one morning than i knew existed. i made a date with her to go to the farmers' market where she was incredibly nice and bought me a pink peony bouquet and later drove us to a little shack near the downtown mall called spudnuts. spudnuts! what a funny name! spudnuts! sounds like sputnik, doesn't it? cristina says these donuts are made from potato flour, hence the name. i had a chocolate covered one that was crispy and hot and i'd like another one. also, we were going to buy bob breakfast from the hungarian bakery, and katalin magyar, the woman who bakes all these pastries, handed me a carton of chocolate madeleines and those hazelnut kisses i like so much. "i wanted to give you a going away present," she said. that just absolutely made my day. i think what i love so much about the farmers' market is not what could be got, but the sense of knowing and belonging, and being known too. it was such a good feeling walking downtown to the first market day in april and being recognised, to say, oh it's been a whole winter, how good to see you again. afterwards we drove around charlottesville, and i felt a little lonely. i was lonely because i knew - that the charlottesville i could live in is the tiny one bounded in close to the university. my limits are fontaine research park, the downtown mall, the northside library, and sneak reviews on ivy. to come on spudnuts (spudnuts!) two days before i'm going!

but it's also the first morning since - after exams - that it hasn't rained, and that cheered me up too. i saw this time after exams as a time for me to simply exist in charlottesville, to revel in its oddities and kindnesses and take my leave of it slowly, but the rain has made it a miserable, cold confinement. they say the weather will hold up tomorrow, and cristina is going to take me to monticello. isn't that cool? when i said tentatively, "but will you have time - for your own work - " she said, "i can always make time." i think she's a superstar!!