.:a book for catherine:.

I have this wonderful friend, Catherine Riley, let me tell you about her.

First, she is the one who is responsible for my semester at Oxford. I went into her room last year, thoroughly depressed with life and she said, "ok you need to look at this". She showed me the Best Semester website and at first I thought, "naaa..I don't really want to study abroad". Two days later I was in her room again asking to see the site. Every time someone asked why I was studying last semester I simply said, "Catherine Riley".

Second, I am so jealous of her mind that comprehends theory. She took one semester and now she can apply any theory in the world to a text, just off the top of her head. A professor and I were talking about her at Starbucks one night last year, she said Catherine just has the kind of mind that works with theory, she just plugs everything into the right places and it works. We both agreed about how great she is.

Third, she keeps me laughing. Always. On the worst days she has me laughing so hard sometimes we disrupt class...apparently. :)

Fourth, before I left for Oxford last term I promised I would steal a first edition copy of a book out of the Library for her. Well, that didn't exactly happen (although with their "security" in the Lower Camera, it probably could have). But I happened to be in Jericho one afternoon, walking down Great Clarendon Street in front of the Oxford University Press and discovered a little thrift store. There I found Catherine's book.

Catherine. We need to have tea.