dunhaven; ic community.

Hello, Dunhaven!

Have you meet my super handsome and incredibly sweet, fun cousin, Sullivan Matthews? He's kind of amazing and my absolute favorite cousin.

And, my friends, he's seriously a CATCH.

So, for charity, you would bid on a romantic date with him. You will get dinner for two at Fontanas and your choice of a movie or moonlit boat ride afterward. Alone, with Sully, in a super romantic setting where you will be on a date with him.

Please only bid if you genuinely have an interest in romantically dating my super sweet and wicked cute cousin. Bids of all amounts are welcome! The winner will be whichever bid Sully chooses (because he will also be interested in a romantic date), so amount doesn't matter.

OKAY, COMMENT BELOW. KTHXBYE 😘

TEXTS TO SOFIA

-- Happy Monday.
-- How's it going?

I keep getting emails about signing up for this network and I'm officially giving in, just to make them stop. Not that they were all kinds of incessant or anything, but there was no unsubscribe button and it would be tragic if they kept cluttering up my inbox and I missed all my other important emails, like coupons for Red Lobster (not sure when I was last at a Red Lobster, but okay?) or Steam trying to coerce me into buying whatever game I forgot was on my wishlist is suddenly on sale.

So anyway, hi. I'm here. What have I missed? I'm assuming everything.

I understand that Valentine's Day tends to inspire strong feelings, one way or another, but I always found its history fascinating. The Romans celebrated Lupercalia (yes, those etymologists among you might notice the 'luper' prefix, and yes, this is tied with a cultural perception of a roving, ungentlemanly man being referred to as a wolf) on February 13-15th. This festival kicked off with a ritual sacrifice of a goat and a dog, and once the animals had been skinned, eligible Roman women lined up to be hit with the hides by eligible men.

So, just like modern day dating, really.

Once the fifth century came around, things got a lot less fun: Pope Gelasius I combined a day meant to honor a martyred Saint with Lupercalia in a bid to clamp down on those pesky pagan practices, and a holiday mostly about sex became a holiday about romantic love. Shakespeare and Chaucer popularized the holiday in their works. A brief attempt was made to make the holiday embrace platonic love between friends during the Victorian period to soothe the hearts of unloved spinsters, but that doesn't sell chocolate and cards, and the holiday slowly evolved into what we know it to be today.

I'm ambivalent about Valentine's Day, one way or another. It's fun when celebrated with the right person, and it's just as fun not having to share chocolate. If you try to pass love notes in my class, go right ahead - I'm thrilled you're doing it the old-fashioned way, and not over text message.

[ Filtered to Family + Friends; feel free to assume ]

Sexist Hogwarts. Ring any bells, pop culturally speaking?

For those at the University of Dunhaven trapped in waitlist purgatory, my current available courses are as follows:

Linguistics 101 - an introduction to the scientific study of language with specific focus on the core areas of morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics and phonology.
M, W, F: 8:00am - 9:00am

Linguistics 210 - Introduction to cross-linguistic phenomena and methods of analysis in phonology, including phonological categories, features, alternations, and phonological models for capturing related generalizations; as well as syllable structure, tone and stress, and morphologically conditioned phonology.
T, TH: 1:00pm - 2:15pm

Linguistics 232 - Examines different languages in terms of their historical origin and their cognitive properties with a particular focus on "dead" and endangered languages. What causes language endangerment and death, and why does it matter? Can dying languages be revitalized? How are thought, identity, and culture influenced by language, and vice versa?
F: 5:30pm-7:30pm (I'm as thrilled about this as you undoubtedly are.)

As a reminder to my (current) students, the last day that you can drop the spring semester without penalty is February 29th.

To everyone else - hi, I'm Theo Salazar. Teacher, obviously, relatively new in town and still trapped by cardboard boxes. I'm likely to die in here. You have my niece to thank for getting me online.

[TEXTS TO SOFIA]

-- Do you want to like...actually go to that NYE party together this year?

MARAUDERS & SIBLINGS

Hi, is anyone available tonight to come feel sorry with me and sit and drink hot cocoa in our PJs and watch horror movies and eat ice cream?

Tall British tree turned out to be my dreamer soulmate* and it went back home to plant roots in the UK. I expected it, but I'm still sad and don't want to be sad alone.

*Snape's opinion doesn't count.

[posted around midnight]

FRIENDS & FAMILY OF ELI & CATY

I was going to text various people, but there's a lot of you so just sending this in one group like this seems quickest when I had a moment. Sorry that this is coming out to you so late, but holy shit we're having a baby. It'll be a while yet and I'll keep you guys updated, but I just wanted to give you all a head's up.

SOFIA

Hey, you. It was kind of late when I got home from dinner last night, so I didn't want to bother you if you were sleeping. Thank you for the leftovers and ornaments, though. I thought you were going to spend all week up in Boston?

NAOMI

Let's go into the city when you and Miles are done with dinner.

TEXTS TO EFFIE

-- Hey I've got tomorrow off but working Thanksgiving morning
-- Gonna fly up to Boston just for the day, stop in on my parents and then annoy Sof, Luca and Grant for the rest of the day.
-- If you aren't buried under a mountain of work, consider this an invite to come with.
-- I can promise a trip to Mike's Pastry & Magnolia Bakery.

TEXTS TO SOFIA

-- Warn your dad I'm headed up tmrw for a few hours.
-- Can't make Turkey day, gotta work.

TEXTS TO DAN

-- How's the place? Kid settling?
-- Got plans for Thanksgiving evening?

( Instagram Post! )

I am not good at social media. Never know what to put in or how to use it effectively. But I need to learn. The kid is going to grow into this and I should be ready. So here goes.

I'm Daniel. Just moved here and currently at the Cozy Cottage, though I'm signing papers for a rental on Monday. It's just the kid and I, and we'll be learning more about this place through the weekend, I hope. Is that enough? How do I send

( instagram post! )

( instagram post! )

OH MY GOD

I just came home for lunch between classes, because that's how I do things, and I checked the mail and oh. My. GOD. I had mail waiting for me from the USCIS which normally wouldn't be awesome, but I have been waiting for what feels like forever to receive this particular piece of mail. Because after establishing my residency while on a green card via my marriage that had to be proven not to be suspicious, paying all the money, going through interviews, tests, and so much paperwork -- I, Naomi Shirin McKinnon, am officially going to be a resident of this place that I've basically lived in since I was 14.

And since I'm doing dual, this gif is still appropriate to express my excite: ( Cut for gif! )

TEXT TO ZEKE

-- I think I might be a bad person.

TEXTS TO SOFIA - sent after convo with Zeke

-- Hey, girl.
-- How's it going?

( Cut for image! )

HAPPY BEST THANKSGIVING, FAM!

Since we couldn't make it back to Toronto because of school being school, my brother funded a Thanksgiving meal, apparently under the assumption that I know how to cook a turkey. It's always so nice when your family shows you just how much they support you in all ways.

On a related note, did you know that the internet has a lot of turkey cooking tutorials? Wish me luck.

VERITY

Hey. I just wanted to check in and see if there's been any change. [...] I'm sorry that there wasn't more that I could do to help. Amnesia is tricky, in that way.

MILES

Hi, baby. This is just your annual reminder that I love you. I'm

SOFIA

Hello, you. Tell me something good that's going on, and go.

( instagram post! )