My best friend from HS/college just had a baby.

Now, plenty of my friends have had children before, including most of you, so this probably shouldn't seem like she was the first woman to give birth. Still, it's kind of mind-blowing to me.

This is one of those times where I wish I wasn't quite so famous for giving books as gifts. I mean, as I said in the note, every library has to start somewhere, but I almost wish I could send something more personal.

Okay, I owe Peter David an apology.

Not only did he not cheat his way out of Shatterstar and Rictor kissing, now that X-Factor has come back to New York, they're being written as a couple. And given everything else, I also kind of like that while most of the rest of the team seems to be handling this (not that I would expect Jamie to be nonplussed by anything), the normally easy-going Strong Guy is the one having trouble getting his head around it.

I do object to Marvel sticking a $5 price tag on #200, where there's the main story (Franklin and the still annoying Valeria Richards hire Jamie and Co to find the MIA Sue), a back-up which finds Siryn still messed up, hiding in her dad's castle in Ireland and having an unexpected run-in with one of Jamie's dupes, entries from the The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe featuring bios on almost all of the present and former members of X-Factor (Rahne, of course, is not mentioned), a two page spread showing tiny copies of the 200 covers of all the issues, and a reprint of the first issue of the MadroX miniseries that started them down the road to a new series. I'll give them credit for there being next to no advertising in the book, but I guess I felt for that kind of money, there should have been more NEW content, not just repurposed stuff. Also, while the material is mostly pretty strong, the reasons given for Monet's return to the team are kind of weak.

Next month, a field trip to Latveria.

I can't quite get my head around this.

My chemistry final grade was the highest grade I'd gotten on any of the tests.

I was so completely sure that I'd messed it up horribly. Now, I have no idea what kind of curve was in there, but it was such that I ended up with an overall grade that was higher than my overall biology grade.

It raised my GPA by a tenth of a point already, and that's moved my BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics, math) GPA, which is the biggest part of a potential med-school admission over 3.0.

I honestly have no words. I would probably be crying if I weren't so damned cold.

I don't mean to sound like Harry Kim, but I'm starting to think this might actually work.

Now, that was more like it.

Finally got around to seeing Julie & Julia because I can't seem to focus on studying for chemistry. It's not that I know it's not important, it's just all multiple choice with no free response, and it's hard to prep for that beyond just looking over the material and making sure I know the formulas and constants. Anyway, when somebody told me about a year ago that Meryl Streep was probably going to get an Oscar nomination for a movie that I'd never heard of, I probably wrote it off entirely. Then the advertising started. Then I found Julia Child's My Life in France and The French Chef. It's really, really hard not to love her. So, two movies for the price of one. Julie Powell's self-indulgent whinefest of a cooking experiment (credit where credit is due: I give Powell credit for allowing the film to happen, because while it's a positive story, she doesn't really come off all that well), and Julia Child's adventures in post-war Paris. I will say that Amy Adams and Chris Messina give good performances as Julie and Eric Powell, and Adams' relentless perkiness is one of the reasons why Powell's half of the movie isn't completely pointless. But you're here for Meryl as Julia Child, and you won't be disappointed. Streep has been known throughout her career as being a master of the accent (I loved her rough New Yawk nun in Doubt), but she does the impossible and gets the cadence and trilling tones of a woman who is embedded in popular culture largely because of her voice. I mean, I think at this point, it goes without saying that Streep is going to turn in good work, but this is something else entirely. I don't know why Nora Ephron didn't just try to make a biopic. I know that's a little out of her depth, but Julia's story has all of the emotional beats of the movie--hell, I was blinking back tears when she finally received word that Knopf wanted to publish her book. The Powell portions are disappointing, but the Julia portions more than make up for it. It feels a little weird to say this--but even though the film is uneven, Streep really does deserve an Oscar for her wonderful performance.

Fifteen people out my bio lecture of more than 200 got A's. Yeah, I was one of them. I checked my transcript just to be sure before I came on to say that, just in case I ended up with egg on my face.

I guess I've always been aware that I am supposed to be "smart." I don't like putting it that way, at least not out loud for two reasons: 1)it's pride, and pride is one of the few sins I have no real attraction to, and 2)I'm not a good judge of myself. William & Mary is a pretty academically rigorous place, and after having been a big fish in a small pond during high school, it was very humbling to be among true peers. God, that sounds so conceited. But it's also true about how it felt, and it was also humbling to watch my friend Liz, who I will be in awe of for the rest of my life, graduate Phi Beta Kappa in three years, at least magna, possibly summa, with an acceptance to UVA School of Law, which is one of the best law schools in the country. I think my class had a Rhodes scholar and possibly a Fulbright as well. Me, I'm just bright normal, I suppose.

But here's the funky part: maybe it's just that I'm out of practice, but ODU doesn't seem any less academically rigorous than W&M. There just seems to be a more diverse talent pool. And then I start to wonder if I actually did myself any favors thirteen years ago when I picked the "best" school out of my acceptances. I don't regret it, because I don't think I would be nearly as comfortable in my own skin if I hadn't, but it's kind of food for thought. My Ivy League friends are very fond of saying that W&M practices reverse snobbery because we weren't able to cut muster at an Ivy. Which gets the instant retort that we get our A's the old fashioned way: We earn them. I think it's basically friendly rivalry that doesn't always feel so friendly.

Anyway, I still can quite get my head around being at the head of the pack, rather than just a middle performer. I don't quite understand why I was the person people asked for help in my chem lab. This is stuff that I thought was way beyond my grasp, and suddenly not only am I able to process complex math in a way that makes sense, I can explain it to other people. Even some of the rudimentary quantum mechanics that we talked about suddenly makes sense to me, and I'm the person who tried to read A Brief History of Time about four times before getting hopelessly confused and deciding that I didn't need the nerd cred that badly. One of the young ladies in chem actually said to me that she thought I should have my own show on the Discovery Channel where I explained physical science concepts because I'm funny and explain things in a way that makes sense, and that's honest to God one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me.

I need to deflate my head post-haste. Chem final tomorrow at 9:30, all multiple choice, standardized. Constants to get into my brain (6.022*10^23, .08206, 6.626*10^-34). formulae to memorize( E=hv, PV=rRT, d=m/v, Ek=1/2mv^2).

I ended up with a low B on the final, and I'm not terribly happy about that, but my overall grade is a 96, which is kind of cool. Actually, scratch that, it's very cool.

Not a time to be complacent though.

It took me longer to find a parking spot than taking my actual bio final did. Also, I'm not entirely sure why, but out of the entire lecture hall, the guy who was roughly the size of Godzilla chose the seat next to me.

In fairness, any other day, I would have thought he was hot, but I was just too busy to get worked up over it.

Out of the entire class I was the first to finish.

Other than that, there were questions, and I answered them. Anything beyond that is beyond my current ability to express.

I know you change your mind about DC's editorial direction about as often as most people change their underwear, but I'm telling you this as a DC Nation fan:

Leave Bruce Wayne dead.

I know there's no chance of that happening, but from an objective standpoint, the growing pains that Morrison has been exploring in "Batman & Robin" and the absolutely stellar job Greg Rucka has been doing with Batwoman in "Detective" are about 1000 times more interesting than Bruce Wayne has been in years.

I quibble over the fact that each arc of Batman & Robin seems to be some iteration on the same thing, but even with that, it's still better than any of the books leading up to RIP were.