In two days, Mike and I head up to northern New Hampshire for the wedding of one of my oldest friends. I met SB our freshman year of high school. She's the only person I went to high school with who I actually see on a semi-regular basis. She's as much of a music junkie as I am, except that her taste swerves more toward classic rock. This girl LIVES for Bruce Springsteen. She has a slush fund that always has a few grand in it JUST IN CASE the Boss tours. She's insane. And she found a guy who's just as insane about Bruce. And they're happy -- together as long as Angsthase and me.

I almost didn't end up going because of the dire money situation, but I'm scraping together every last penny because if I didn't go, I would feel terrible. I'm the only high school friend invited, and I can tell it means a lot to her since she bothered to e-mail me last night in the midst of pre-wedding frenzy to find out when I was getting in to town, where I'm staying and whether I'd be hanging out on Friday. I'm so glad I booked the hotel yesterday.

Because we're so slack about getting things together for the big weekend, we're not staying at the big spa resort the wedding's taking place at. It's kind of disappointing, but it's expensive and all booked up. Instead, we're staying here.Tell me that place isn't straight out of Northern Exposure. And this is totally small-town NH, because when I called to book the room, the guy asked, "Is this for the wedding at the [other place]?" When I answered in the affirmative, I got to hear about how there's a bunch of people staying there. Maybe because it's New England, it's more Newhart.

So yeah, I'm in mid-semester hell, and I'm going away for a full weekend. I will not feel guilty about this...