there is light in the darkness...

Well, I might as well make this clear before the rumors get out of hand, though I have nabbed some of you already on this so it won't be news to all...

(Er, also, yeah. Haroun and I eloped last week. But, not what this is about. Ahem.)

A month or so ago, the Professor approached me with a proposal regarding the creation of an annex to the school, located on the West Coast, specifically in California. As the plans formalized Haroun and I were asked, and agreed, to go set it up and get it going. Others will be going with us, to form an emergency response unit as we have here – Piotr and Warren will be transferring there with us to form the core of the West Coast team, along with Haroun and myself. Others may come and go (or return) depending on the needs, here and there. We'll also be looking into adding people to our staff there, while we build the location up for training of mutants, offering as we do here at the school both a safe haven, or a place merely to adjust to new abilities, depending as ever on the preference of the students, teenagers and adults alike. (We'll be needing help, without a doubt, so don't be surprised if we heist some of you over now and then, yes. *coughs*)

I'd have Haroun post something, but he's already drooling over potential plans to have a go at designing a smaller (much smaller) version of the Blackbird, so saying that he's a bit busy right now would be the understatement of the year. ;)

So, that's the long and the short of it, really. We'll be heading out there for preliminary site inspections in a few days, most likely. Any pouncing and offers of ideas/suggestions are more than welcome, as will be visits and calls and emails.

...

I'm going to miss you all. Which is silly, since we're hardly going that far away and we'll easily be in reach, but I'll miss you all nonetheless. It's been an unforgettable time here, at the mansion, with so many things learned, so much change and progress made and so many new friends and family... ah. I'm losing words now. Pretty sad for a songwriter, no? But I'll miss you all. As silly as it is since we're not going so far away at all, I'll miss being here, with all of you, very much.

(So. Come visit often, yes. And call. And email. Lots.)

All my love,
Alison.

Off to airport to pick up Lorna. Be back soon.

Rise and shine, people!

Oh wait, that's me...

Right! So, to make a long story short and get right to the point of things or else I'll babble non stop and we'll never get to the end of this and boy will you be trying to make sense of it all and hey, look at that, there I go babbling... Ahem.

Short version. No babbling. Without further ceremony and getting to the point and- right.

Asked Haroun to marry me. He said yes.

:D

(And yeah, that's why I've been glowing on and off for the past days. Oops.)

So, in the spirit of Doing Stuff for the holidays, everyone mind dropping me a "of a final and definite nature type decision" comment to let me know if they're going somewhere or staying, for both Christmas and New Year's? Well, if they haven't already done so to Forge's post anyway. :D

And then, who wants to volunteer for something (be it cooking or gift wrapping or generally "more decorations, more!" type stuff)? Also, I'm thinking a few school outings would be fun, though I had mostly sleigh rides in mind. We can probably either work out a trip to Central Park or we could see about contacting someone to come over here, at that – it's not like we don't have the grounds for a nice sleigh ride in the woods, mm? (Cain, would that be okay?)

Anyone else have ideas or suggestions? Anyone want to go sing carols in town? Any particular Holiday activities in mind?

Also, we need a Grand Snow Fight soon. (Ororo? Can we, you know, kinda sorta schedule some of that really nice and clumpy snow some day? Or is there some due already that you might know of?) Complete with huge ice forts (I'm looking at you, Bobby!) and the such. And hot chocolate with the little marshmallows (I insist on the teeny marshmallows) after.

To start with, as some of you may already know and some not, Haroun was infected by another mutant with a deadly spore a few weeks ago. Upon our return here he had to be isolated in the medlab, obviously, and drastic measures had to be taken as a result of what happened.

Over the weeks, several decisions were made by the medical staff and Haroun, in those rare moments of awareness where we could confirm things with him. In the last two days, the medlab staff saw two very large steps in the process leading to Haroun's recovery take place. Note that these could not have happened without the tireless work of several of the students of this school as well.

Yesterday, Haroun was stripped of all the cyberware in his body. All of it.

Today, thanks to intensive radiation therapy, the spore itself was finally flushed from his system and is now deemed to be entirely gone.

After he's had a bit of time to stabilize... new, upgraded hardware will be grafted back into place, and new software will be used to deal with the man and machine interface.

I have no words to adequately express my gratitude and admiration for the medlab staff, Jean, Moira, Hank and Madelyn, nor everyone else who helped, including Forge, Doug, Kitty and Paige specifically for the hardware/software, and everyone else from the medlab assistants to all the students and staff who spent time in the medlab making sure everyone else could do their work without having to worry about anything else. And those of you who kept me from slowly falling to pieces. Thank you. There is another, whom you have likely perhaps seen now and then while in the medlab to whom we also owe a great deal - Dr. Jonathan Hawksmore, the man who originally implanted Haroun's first set of 'ware and upon hearing of the situation, immediately volunteered to come and assist in any way possible..

Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to go back to holding Haroun's hand. It's been too long since I could even touch him… and we're not done yet.

Not by a longshot. But we're halfway there, and that in itself is nothing short of a miracle.

Thank you all. So much.

The lightshow didn't work and in fact, seems to have added insult to injury or something. Big time.

...I ran for it. Don't let Nathan rope you in to try and help more. Though man, potential opera singer there, if you ask me.

Back to work for me!

Everyone should go laugh talk to Nathan now. It's very amusing doing that when the telekinetic baby keeps interfering by smooshing the keyboard. A smart kid, is Rachel. Getting in all that she can while the getting is good and she can get away with it far too easily. ;)

And I went looking for the camera earlier today, planning to take pictures of Haroun blowing bubbles in his sleep and did not find it. Waking up from a short nap of my own just now has given me the reason why – Haroun on a picture taking rampage, it would seem – he'd been planning this for a few days from what I can make out thought the cheerful cackling. He's snapping more as I type this, too. Silly man. I'd wave him off or something but I'm laughing too hard at his antics right now.

Well, I'm done with the things I had to do today and now I'm sitting down (late, I know!) to read the latest Harry Potter, so try not to whisper about it too much if you see me nearby with my nose buried in the book please! ;) Mind you, it'll be easy to spot me anyway. Miles was halfway through when I checked in on him yesterday, but he's setting his copy down now and we'll be going through it together from the start – so if the recroom is already locked down for discussion on the book, just let us know and we'll migrate elsewhere. Possibly somewhere near the kitchen, where the snacks live, mm? Considering how fast he tore his way through the first five books after he found my copies once reading on his own was on the list of "Things Miles Does" I'm thinking he may give me competition on the page turning this time around.

And since I have a small green someone wanting me to make additions to this before we head off to read... I'm told that Bill and Charlie are actually Artie's favourites these days. Miles remains set on Harry and Dobby, for his part. Hagrid and Dumblefore aren't far off though – Hagrid for near to real life reasons at that, which Miles pointed out to me with much delight.

*grin*

Ahem. I'm off to find a hiding place read a book now!