ferried.

i have returned. while in the northlands, i:

- ate well.
- applauded and hopped around and giggled genuinely for brother #1 (pool-playing-robot-builder), now a college graduate.
- rode various ferries a total of six times, one time alone on the observation deck looking at the late dark lake.
- finished crime and punishment. (i remained enthralled but skeptical until a minor scene between dunya and sonya near the end. then i was slayed. still, the nuances between characters aren't at the level achieved in brothers k; on the other hand, part of this book's appeal is the magnified, obsessive single-mindedness. there's not as much third-person omniscient.)
- donned an iron pinky ring and posed as an engineer for the sake of cheap beer.
- ate breakfast with my favorite girl at our new favorite diner, which is within walking distance from my pennsylvania house (but which we had never investigated, for some reason). our old favorite diner (truckers, 24 hours) was closed.

so now i'm reading nabokov's pale fire (not part of the russian tome sequence, obviously) and picking the next russian installment on which to gorge. the choices are dostoyevsky's notes from the underground, gogol's dead souls, and tolstoy's anna karenina. feel free to vote.