looking forward to next week

I'm trying to keep myself awake a bit longer, though for some reason I'm exhausted. I just don't want to wake up at 6am tomorrow...
Anyway. So yeah, I'm looking forward to this weekend and next week. Tomorrow I'll meet my buddy Chris for lunch at Starbucks, then Shelly and I will meet up and she'll come back to pukou with me to spend the night at my place. Spending time with Shelly is great fun....she's like a little sister, and I enjoy having someone to share things with. Then Saturday, the 2 of us are planning to get together with Alycia, a woman I've been dying to spend more time with, but the summer's been nuts for both of us with her sister visiting, then Landon's family visiting, then the 2 of them going to Xinjiang. So now I want to focus on really getting to know her better... and since I took myself off the roster for the worship team this weekend (I seriously needed a break after leading for 2 weeks then being sick), she and I will have extra time on Saturday to hang out and maybe shop and wander xin jie kou a bit.
Then the arrival of dearly-missed people starts... first with my fiance, whom I haven't seen in a month and a half (the same day my family went back to the US, Raul left for a camp then to Lanzhou). So a reunion is sorely needed...and it'll come on Monday! :) Then Tuesday, Megan arrives from the states, though I won't see her til the weekend. Wednesday is Maryann, Kennedy, and Tehillah's arrival from the states. And sometime in all this, Bryant, Cherry, and Shekinah get back from the Philippines.
I cannot tell you how nice it will be to have everyone back...
whew, it's been a long summer. Particularly August. Part of me thought it would never end.