Hi guys, it's Ken.

(It's long but please read it. Please.)

Hi guys. I haven't posted yet about Cornell because I've been really busy. Sometime soon I'll tell you about it. Mostly I'm having fun and waiting for my Verizon cell phone to get here so I can actually call you. (T Mobile doesn't get any reception on North Campus, where I live. More on that later.) But even though it's 1:26 AM right now in Ithaca, and I'm really tired (not to mention out of practice writing), I feel like now would be a good time to write something. Here goes.

I have never really been the type to miss people. Sleepovers, summer camp, whatever, I would almost totally forget about the other people in my life and focus on what was going on. I didn't really think about my parents or siblings or friends all that much, even though I liked them.

One of the things college has shown me, though, is that although there may be cool people anywhere I go, they're not you. They don't have the same sense of humor, or they're not as laid-back, or they're not as understanding... not yet, anyway. I can't think of any less lame way to say this, but the people who read this blog are some of the best people I've ever met. I'm not just going to find extra copies of you guys hanging out in random places all over the United States. (Which would have surprised me if I'd heard that back in spring. Hey, it's a big country.)

With the exception of Patrick and maybe Misha, you're not going to end up here at Cornell. So when I miss you guys, which happens upwards of five times a day, I walk to my computer and check this blog. If there's something new, I read that. If there isn't, I read something old and smile at it and then I get up and finish my beer. (Ha ha just kidding.) I am sitting here writing this because this blog is such an important part of my life right now. (I know this sounds more and more sappy the farther along you read but important things sound like that sometimes. Please bear with me.)

Ben told me a while ago that he's tired of people thinking this is his blog. It's not, anymore. It's our blog. Enough of our lives--our lives, not just Ben's--has been recorded and discussed and remembered here that it's become, at least for me, something almost... sacred. ESPECIALLY since I can't see you anymore. I don't have pictures of you guys and I don't have a working phone and I don't have my cookies and this is how I feel like I'm sitting on a couch across from you laughing and chatting about whatever random crap we used to chat about.

Here's my point. This blog isn't here for us to work out our issues with each other. When we have issues with each other we can use AIM or a phone, or we can complain about it in some livejournal somewhere or talk to another friend about it. This blog is here for us to keep in touch. It's here so we can hang out. Of course things are changing now, and of course there's gonna be some friction there. But please, for my sake if no one else's, store it somewhere else. In fact, call or message me. Just, before you ever hit "post comment," think about each one of the twenty-odd names on the left side of the screen reading what you wrote and hearing what you said. There have been a lot of times where I hesitated over the comment button and just closed the window for that reason. If you see something turning into an argument, and you're part of it, leave my couch and my buddies for a second and talk about it outside the room, okay? If you can't bring yourself to do that, I just really wish you would hold off on posting until you've at least discussed it with someone.

I'll say it again. This blog is a place for me and everyone else to feel safe and be who we are. I wish there was an irritation filter so it could stay positive, but there isn't, so you have to do it yourself. It makes me so sad when I load this page to feel better and more at home and I end up feeling like home is farther away than it's ever been before, or that the home I remember isn't going to be there anymore when I get back. (It won't be home if we're not friends.)

As Misha said, "I like it better when everybody is just okay with everybody else." Can we do that? Swallow the little annoyances and if they get too big find somewhere else to blurt them out? Because I don't want to lose this blog--I don't need anything else to miss right now.

Can I get an amen?