xp_communication | Letters from Chicago

June 13, 2004

Dear Jamie,

I love you. I think that’s the best way I have of starting letters, and it’s true. I love you and I miss you. Also, happy anniversary, early, and damn my parents for not letting me be there for it. Maybe you will get this letter by then, but I don’t know.

Went to dinner the other night with my dad. Sometimes I wish I was staying with him, not my mother, since he understands me more, but I do love my mom. Anyway, we went to this little Chinese place, and I kept thinking about you. Dad must have known something was up, so I ended up talking about you for twenty minutes. He says that you must be an ok sort of guy, because I like you so much and I told him you were wonderful. And you are.

Thank you for writing back before. I hate the US post with a passion, because unlike my beloved email it takes a week for you to get my letters, respond, and me to get the responses. Phone calls are much better, but when I suggested that to my mother she got this Look on her face. Told me that if I called you too often I’d have to start paying for the phone bills, and I wouldn’t mind but... I wonder how many minutes of your voice I can get out of my allowance every week.

How are band practices coming? I know it seems totally out of the blue, but my friend here, Sara, kept bouncing up and down and squeeing when I told her my boyfriend was in a band. It has apparently garnered me ‘cool points’ of some sort, although the fact that you’re neither the lead guitarist nor the lead singer is less interesting. I told her that was silly, and besides, Doug and Jono are not my type. Also, Sara seems to think that People Covered in Fish is a very silly name for a band, but her older sister says it’s very non-normative, and thus cool. Sara’s sister is an art major at U of Chicago, and I have no idea what she is talking about most of the time.

Damn. Have to run. I see the post truck coming down the street and I want to get this in the mail as soon as possible.

Love you so much,
Kitty

June 13, 2004

Dear Al,

Hiya! How go things back in NY? Just wanted to write and say hello, because a) there’s nothing to do in Chicago that I couldn’t do and have more fun in NY, and b) I miss you guys so much. Also, c) met a fan of yours the other day. Turns out my friend Sara’s older sister is absolutely wild about you. Considered taunting her with the knowledge that you’re one of my dance teachers, but decided it would be too cruel. Besides, she knows you teach at Xavier’s and doesn’t know that I go there, so I thought it might be impolitic. Although she’s totally cool with the whole mutant thing, I don’t know what anyone else here would think about it.

How’s Miles doing? Hope he’s been having loads of fun during his first NY summer. I mean, the heat’s dreadful, but it’s no better here or anywhere else. You should take him to the Roosevelt gardens and let him wander around, cause they’re really pretty.

Hope things at the school aren’t too psychotic. It’s summer, so in theory things are calmer, yes? (Theory, such a nice place to live. Far better than the neighboring town of Retrospect.)

I’m doing well here, or well enough. Am being forced to spend a lot of time with my family, but it’s ok. I do love them, even when they drive me nuts.

Anyway, hello and hugs to everyone.
-Kitty

June 13, 2004

Hey Amanda,

Bet you weren’t expecting to hear from me, huh? Mainly just writing to say ‘hi, how are you?’ and all of that. Hope you’re staying cool during your first summer in NY. I’d say that the weather gets better, but it’s only June and it really doesn’t. Hope you’re at least not allergic to any of the assorted flowers of death that are blooming by now.

Did you end up signing up for any of the summer classes? If so, good luck with them and I hope they’re interesting. If not, what’re you up to? Also, still taking those lessons with your Dr. Strange? (Seriously, weird name. Suits the whole being a teacher of magic, though, I guess.) Hope they’re going well.

I’ve seriously got too much time on my hands here. When even I think I’m studying too much and that I should be doing something else with my holiday it’s obvious I’ve got a problem. Ah well, at least it’s something to do.

Anyway, hope you’re well, and love to everybody at the school.
-Kitty

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From:

x-crowdofone.livejournal.com

Dear Kitty,

I love you. Hope that doesn't start sounding like trying to get that "out of the way," because no, and I never get tired of reading it in your letters, but . . . eh. Is paranoia a symptom of withdrawal? Anyway. Happy anniversary to you back, probably late a couple of days but maybe on time if I get this in the mail right away . . . and happy birthday, too, which has a better chance of being on time. I'm still thinking about what a good "happy birthday, happy anniversary, welcome home, I love you more than oxygen, let's never do the seven-hundred-miles-apart-for-three-months thing ever again" present would be. I've decided Sirius (the star, not the Harry Potter character) is probably not a good idea, because it'd do bad things to local gravitational forces. And also it'd take forever to get here even by FedEx.

I'm very glad your dad doesn't want my head on a stick. You talked about me for twenty minutes? Hope you didn't have to repeat yourself too many times.

We'll have to do math on the phone calls. I already tried, but talking to you as much as I want to put a gigantic dent in my college fund. Don't spend all your allowance on me, though, there's books, and movies and stuff like that . . . go out with your friends and have fun, I want you to.

And speaking of friends, I'd be miffed about being less interesting than Doug or Jono except I think that's pretty standard billing for drummers. Probably because we sit in the back hiding behind the drums. Maybe I should start wearing silly hats? But I'm not miffed, because I already have all the groupie I want, even if she isn't here to group, or other things that sound like group. I miss you.

And People Covered in Fish is a very good name for a band. Give Sara a copy of Good Omens.

Um. Question. You had one. Practice is going pretty well, we're really starting to sound pretty good, I think . . . and actually, it's a good thing you brought it up, because I'd been meaning to grab Jono about something he said when we were talking about set-list for the barbecue, about maybe starting to write our own stuff so we aren't just a high school cover band, and I think that would be fun. So thanks for reminding me, I should track him down. All the stuff I tend to come up with is about you, and so would be weird to do with the band because I can't sing, Doug . . . would be weird, and Terry might be weirder. Maybe collaborating would help with that.

Miss you. Mom has been making very interesting noises at me over e-mail (well, very interesting sentence fragments, although there was that one wav attachment of what I think was a cow being sick, which was her comment on Aunt Mona's latest e-mail tirade to Dad about how it was wrong to keep me being a mutant a secret from the family and more wrong to let me announce it on CNN like I did, because now pretty much the whole world knows and she's ashamed, or something. Mom and Aunt Mona never got along.)

Where was I? Oh yeah. Interesting noises. Will know more in a week, tell you then, could be very very good, love you more than anything.

Miss you more every day, but love you always,
Jamie