Yo,

Hey folks! Things have improved since the last I wrote for you. I've finished with school until next January. I haven't gotten my report card yet but I think got all A's except for maybe astronomy, which was really difficult for me because of all the math and physics involved. Blechh! Now I'm back in L.A with all my old friends. I'm really glad to be back. I had a very lonely year at school.

Just before I took my final exams, I went to see the doctor for a checkup on my leg. After examining my x-ray, he said that my femur wasn't yet strong enough to have the brace re-moved, but I begged and begged and promised that I'd be very careful and miraculously, he consented. Unfortunately, I had just eaten a huge lunch, so he couldn't give me any anaesthesia, for fear that I would vomit grilled-cheese chunks into my own lungs and die. So he had to remove the brace without giving me any anaesthesia. That really fucking hurt. He basically took a pair of pliers and wrenched the metal rods loose one by one from my leg-bone. I cried and almost passed out but a very nice nurse let me hold her hand through it all.

Now I'm 100% better and so happy. I can do all the things I couldn't do before. I can wear normal pants. I can wear normal shoes. I can run, I can skate -- heck, I can bowl if I want. My friend Justin and I play soccer on the roof of the hotel every day. It feels damn good to be active again.

The best news of all, though, is that, after much struggling, all the songs are written and the weezer album will soon be finished. I think it's coming out real good. I hope you all don't hate it. There are some lyrics on the album that you might think are mean or sexist. I will feel genuinely bad if anyone feels hurt by my lyrics but I really wanted these songs to be an exploration of my "dark side" -- all the parts of myself that I was either afraid or embarrassed to think about before. So there's some pretty nasty stuff on the there. You may be more willing to forgive the mean lyrics if you see them as passing low points in a larger story. And this album really is a story: the story of the last 2 years of my life. And as you're probably well aware, these have been two very weird years.

10-4 good buddies,

See you soon!

Rivers