we had such a time with the nohrnbergs tonight! we were with them from 6 in the evening till 2 in the morning, and i think we could have gone on if i hadn't had to get home to pack, and bob to work. nohrnberg barbecued the steak himself, out in the rain. i wish i had been able to eat more, but even with good teeth steak is hard work on a sleep-deprived and excited young person who had also been given a large lunch a few hours before. more's the pity, because the food was really good. the dessert was especially toothsome, an orange cake with lots of almonds and a chocolate coat, and i need to email mrs n for the recipe. bob pointed out in the car later that i was much quieter than is my wont - and this was because i had in fact only been in their house once before, at the renaissance gathering, and i had met mrs nohrnberg exactly one other time, if i count that time i ran into them at the charlottesville airport. i really really like her, and there's something a tad girlish-wayward - well, maybe wayward is not the word, nor is rebellious - but a little playfully defiant about her that is very intriguing and i like the way she laughs aloud - so unaffectedly enjoying herself. (remember laughter, you'll need it even in the blessed isle of ever after?) and i love the way the nohrnbergs tease and "argue" with each other all the time, openly and happily, the way my own parents do. there is something about seeing your teacher at home - that makes them even more - human - than they are - and you find that you love them more for it. and both of them told hilarious stories about their relatives that i wonder that professor nohrnberg doesn't just write a play about them. one of the funniest ones was when mrs nohrnberg told us how much her family disapproved of him. she remembers her mother on the phone, coldly telling an inquiring relative that she wanted to marry "some nobody from california." that was glorious. we toured the nohrnberg basement too - i can't believe the number of books professor nohrnberg owns - and that's me talking! i wish - i could live in his basement for a year and read. i always knew nohrnberg knows everything, but my understanding of "everything" has just expanded. and they gave me a graduation present!! which under bob's urging i unwrapped to discover a gorgeous hardback reader editon of the complete poems of emily dickinson, which is not the johnson edition. i'm terribly excited about it particularly because i've just been thinking about dickinson lately. nohrnberg had wanted me to work her into my fourth chapter on educational riddles, and the dickinson i currently own is an unannotated volume with 50 or so poems so slender it doesn't even do as a paperweight. and suddenly *crow* i'm holding a complete (complete!) dickinson and a beautiful beautiful edition too!!

the thought occurs that possibly one person shouldn't deserve so many wonderful people in her life.