This weekend Brandy and I went up to Tarrytown to see Keller Williams, a one-man band that Brandy used to follow pretty religiously. On Friday night we had a girl come to see the apartment. She was a Long Islander who is planning on finally getting the hell off the North Shore. She was really only beginning her search, so we don't see much chance that we would be living with us, but she did score some good points when she mentioned one of her pet peeves as not recycling and we got into this huge conversation about recycling and composting. Since we had to get up early the next morning, Brandy and I decided to stay in and drink one of the last bottles of wine we got from the wine club membership my dad and stepmom had given us for Xmas. It had a shockingly strong flavor but was pretty good nonetheless and we had no problem polishing it off.
I had to get up at 7:30 so that I could have breakfast before the two hour trek to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx where I have practice. It is pretty ridiculous that it takes me longer to get to practice, which is in the same city, than it does for me to get to school in another state 45 miles away.
After practice I had lunch with my team at a diner before attempting to meet Brandy on the Metro North train at Marble Hill. We had planned to meet right after practice and have lunch in Tarrytown, but Brandy had to return to the apartment four times for forgotten items. I had a turkey burger and suffered from diner's envy as everyone else's food looked much better than mine. The wasabi mashed potatoes were pretty damn good though.
After lunch I tried to make it to the train station to meet Brandy's train, but it turned out to be a little further than I expected and my knee was bothering enough to discourage running. I was about half a block away when all of the arriving passengers came pouring out and one informed me that, "shit dude, you just missed both." So I ended up waiting 20 min for the next one.
In Tarrytown we stayed with a CSer from Marseilles, Antonin, whose brother was also visiting. He turned out to be very cool and we had a lot of excellent conversations about France, America, Champaign and wine. They also told me that the were impressed with my French from only one year of study, but that French people are worthless at learning languages anyway.
The show was at the Tarrytown Music Hall, which is the oldest music hall in Westchester County and is absolutely gorgeous. It is red brick with all these little eaves and windows. It is relatively small and intimate on the inside with awesome wall art. We checked out the balcony for awhile and it is almost better than sitting down below, although everyone was standing below. The place is also a non-profit and is run by a bunch of old and relaxed volunteers. Actually, it seems like this is representative of much of the workforce in this town. The show itself was pretty cool too. Keller does a pretty fun show and I got quite into it. There were these two drunk girls, Brandy suggests Jersey girls, jumping around in the front row and by far the most into the show, until they disappeared for a little bit and came back completely fucked up. They went to the front again for a bit and just looked really disoriented and then one of them rushed back to her seat with an abominable look on her face and sank into her chair. The other one was not far behind and was not spotted for the remainder of the night. Nothing like getting too fucked up to enjoy your favorite band.
Today we started the day with a long conversation about France and USA again and then had overpriced breakfast at a diner before coming home.
I am reading this book called The Discovery of France, A Historical Geography by Graham Robb, a historian of France who spent a lot of time cycling around the country. He makes the conjecture that the fact that France exists as a unified country is pretty shocking given the history and the differences of the people and past, and even present, local languages. It is very interesting and highly recommended.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Madison and home
On Thu I woke up too early, but since I was already awake we decided to hit up the basement taxidermy exhibit, which was yet again no disappointment.
That evening we went to my favorite place, the Union to meet up with Michelle's CS host, who was strangely there with her boyfriend watching her ex play a show. It was especially strange the fact that she could not be seen by her ex because she had been banned from watching his shows. We spent the entire night there drinking beers with some CSers who came out and Jennifer, Jennifer's new man, Hanna, Terra, Jeff, and for a pleasant surprise, Jen's mom and stepdad, Craig. Craig and I shared a moment when I was shocked to hear him going on about nutrition and how horrible and unsustainable our industrial food system was, and then I told him my feelings on unions. Hands were shaken and mutual shock was expressed.
I got way too little sleep and had to get up very early for my presentation. I had only practiced twice and was fairly nervous. It actually went pretty well and I think that the people were good to me due to my obvious newbieism. It felt good to be presenting and be the expert in front of all these people.
We drove around the Dells a bit and hiked out to this nice secluded spot to look at the nice nature that does indeed exist there. We got back in time to meet my mother, have dinner at the Essen Haus and head back to the union to watch this bluegrass band. Their songs were all the same. Brandy made the comment that songwriting must be the easiest part of the guy's job. But they had a great stage presence and were fun to watch.
Fri I finally got the sleep I needed.
In the morning we went to the farmer's market and then up to the top of the capital from which there is a great view of the city. I met my mother's cousin, who is a geology professor UW, for the first time and we had lunch together. He is a talker and get right into it about why he thinks global warming is overrated and is a dangerous thing for environmentalists to get too excited about. He gave some compelling evidence about the self-selection of climate scientists and the fact that your career is basically over if you do not totally accept warming, and some other facts about the reliability and variability of data, meaning that it is still very uncertain. The danger in everyone embracing it, even for the good intention of reducing pollution is that if it proves to be false, then those who have attached to their goals the importance of fighting global warming will find that they suddenly not taken seriously. Anyway, interesting discussion.
On Sunday I was dismayed to find that my favorite restaurant in Madison, Clevelands, had been renovated to be a nicer Greek place. Fuck that shit. I hope they go bankrupt, greedy fools.
We ended up taking way too many stops and back roads and didn't get to our camping spot on Lake Erie until two. My one experience with Ohio state parks leaves a negative taste in my mouth. First of all, they are insanely expensive, $21 for a tent spot, which was no more than a paved parking space with a few square feet of grass and a picnic table. Then, at seven in the morning there were these fools with a power blower right outside making ridiculous amounts of noise so that I could no longer sleep. Seems someone had decided to waste a bunch of stimulus money on some make-work which included having several people doing the job of one to repave a perfectly fine camping road. I mean come on, it's a camping road so even if it wasn't already completely smooth, who cares? I don't mind that someone decided to create jobs for people, but they could have at least been doing something useful like removing invasive species or bringing back swamps. I'd rather they were on welfare than doing useless work.
Despite the early start we again made so many stops that we didn't get home until after two. On the bright side, I got to get some pictures of the Healthline bus rapid transit in Cleveland.
That evening we went to my favorite place, the Union to meet up with Michelle's CS host, who was strangely there with her boyfriend watching her ex play a show. It was especially strange the fact that she could not be seen by her ex because she had been banned from watching his shows. We spent the entire night there drinking beers with some CSers who came out and Jennifer, Jennifer's new man, Hanna, Terra, Jeff, and for a pleasant surprise, Jen's mom and stepdad, Craig. Craig and I shared a moment when I was shocked to hear him going on about nutrition and how horrible and unsustainable our industrial food system was, and then I told him my feelings on unions. Hands were shaken and mutual shock was expressed.
I got way too little sleep and had to get up very early for my presentation. I had only practiced twice and was fairly nervous. It actually went pretty well and I think that the people were good to me due to my obvious newbieism. It felt good to be presenting and be the expert in front of all these people.
We drove around the Dells a bit and hiked out to this nice secluded spot to look at the nice nature that does indeed exist there. We got back in time to meet my mother, have dinner at the Essen Haus and head back to the union to watch this bluegrass band. Their songs were all the same. Brandy made the comment that songwriting must be the easiest part of the guy's job. But they had a great stage presence and were fun to watch.
Fri I finally got the sleep I needed.
In the morning we went to the farmer's market and then up to the top of the capital from which there is a great view of the city. I met my mother's cousin, who is a geology professor UW, for the first time and we had lunch together. He is a talker and get right into it about why he thinks global warming is overrated and is a dangerous thing for environmentalists to get too excited about. He gave some compelling evidence about the self-selection of climate scientists and the fact that your career is basically over if you do not totally accept warming, and some other facts about the reliability and variability of data, meaning that it is still very uncertain. The danger in everyone embracing it, even for the good intention of reducing pollution is that if it proves to be false, then those who have attached to their goals the importance of fighting global warming will find that they suddenly not taken seriously. Anyway, interesting discussion.
On Sunday I was dismayed to find that my favorite restaurant in Madison, Clevelands, had been renovated to be a nicer Greek place. Fuck that shit. I hope they go bankrupt, greedy fools.
We ended up taking way too many stops and back roads and didn't get to our camping spot on Lake Erie until two. My one experience with Ohio state parks leaves a negative taste in my mouth. First of all, they are insanely expensive, $21 for a tent spot, which was no more than a paved parking space with a few square feet of grass and a picnic table. Then, at seven in the morning there were these fools with a power blower right outside making ridiculous amounts of noise so that I could no longer sleep. Seems someone had decided to waste a bunch of stimulus money on some make-work which included having several people doing the job of one to repave a perfectly fine camping road. I mean come on, it's a camping road so even if it wasn't already completely smooth, who cares? I don't mind that someone decided to create jobs for people, but they could have at least been doing something useful like removing invasive species or bringing back swamps. I'd rather they were on welfare than doing useless work.
Despite the early start we again made so many stops that we didn't get home until after two. On the bright side, I got to get some pictures of the Healthline bus rapid transit in Cleveland.
To Madison
The following day we shockingly got going right on schedule. That didn't stop me from having the longest day ever, but I'll talk about that later. We had a nice drive through back roads for the first couple of hours. Everyone slept for most of the time, which I simply do not understand. I absolutely cannot sleep on a road trip, even in boring country, for fear of missing something. Eventually we got on US 30 and began powering our way across the plains, before I diverted once again to some lovely back roads. It's really amazing how pleasant boring flat plains become just be getting off the godforsaken freeway. I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely despise driving on freeways and especially turnpikes where you are stuck with worthless oases. Ugh, if you call that traveling, you probably call puking enlightenment. I do not hate freeways, in fact I quite like them. They are fantastic feats of human creation and are incredible for getting you to point B in minimal time. I just cannot stand traveling that way if it is not necessary. I quite like it when I have the occasion to write three two letter words in a row. OOh, time out for amazing sunset on the roof, post thunderstorm. The sun is just coming out under the cloud deck, over Midtown.
The green of the vegetation and the black of the soil of northern Indiana is just spectacular.
I dropped Jordan off at his parents' place on the South Side and was plugging quarters into the meter in front of Mike's place in Lincoln Park at 8:05 - quite impressive when I predicted an 8:00 arrival that morning. Liz was there already and they both had a laugh at my handlebar moustache, which I sported for the trip after shaving off the rest of my 6 month beard. I wished to relax a bit, but I was in logistics mode as Mike's (rideshare Mike) father had gotten misinformation from Mike's girlfriend about arrival time and had already arrived in Madison at noon. This was to be the first time they ever met, so quite an event. I had told his father earlier that I expected to be in town by about 2, but now Brandy's flight had been delayed two hours and I had to pick her up before leaving Chicago. The catch was the neither Mike nor his father had a cell phone. His father is a trucker and was just sitting in his car waiting for him at a truck stop. For an added kicker, Brandy had left her cell at home so I could not communicate with her either. I came to the quick conclusion that I could put Mike on the 10:15 bus to Madison and get someone to pick him up and take him to the truck stop at 1:30. Jennifer was at a show and in no condition to drive anywhere, so I reluctantly called Mel and she agreed. We rushed downtown to put him on the bus, giving him money for the ticket since he was out of cash. We were there with less than ten minutes to spare and all cheered. As soon as I got back to Chicago Mike's place, other Mike called and told me he missed the bus because he had been an idiot and gone to the bathroom in the station. I directed him to the bus to where we were, expecting him to become totally lost. Luckily he made his way back and after a brief nap we headed out to get Brandy and get moving. Eventually Mike's dad called and we told him the scoop, which he was not excited to hear.
We got in close to four and I died for a few hours.
The green of the vegetation and the black of the soil of northern Indiana is just spectacular.
I dropped Jordan off at his parents' place on the South Side and was plugging quarters into the meter in front of Mike's place in Lincoln Park at 8:05 - quite impressive when I predicted an 8:00 arrival that morning. Liz was there already and they both had a laugh at my handlebar moustache, which I sported for the trip after shaving off the rest of my 6 month beard. I wished to relax a bit, but I was in logistics mode as Mike's (rideshare Mike) father had gotten misinformation from Mike's girlfriend about arrival time and had already arrived in Madison at noon. This was to be the first time they ever met, so quite an event. I had told his father earlier that I expected to be in town by about 2, but now Brandy's flight had been delayed two hours and I had to pick her up before leaving Chicago. The catch was the neither Mike nor his father had a cell phone. His father is a trucker and was just sitting in his car waiting for him at a truck stop. For an added kicker, Brandy had left her cell at home so I could not communicate with her either. I came to the quick conclusion that I could put Mike on the 10:15 bus to Madison and get someone to pick him up and take him to the truck stop at 1:30. Jennifer was at a show and in no condition to drive anywhere, so I reluctantly called Mel and she agreed. We rushed downtown to put him on the bus, giving him money for the ticket since he was out of cash. We were there with less than ten minutes to spare and all cheered. As soon as I got back to Chicago Mike's place, other Mike called and told me he missed the bus because he had been an idiot and gone to the bathroom in the station. I directed him to the bus to where we were, expecting him to become totally lost. Luckily he made his way back and after a brief nap we headed out to get Brandy and get moving. Eventually Mike's dad called and we told him the scoop, which he was not excited to hear.
We got in close to four and I died for a few hours.
A Pittsburgh
I am back in town now after about a week traveling to Wisconsin, again. Several months ago I submitted an abstract to a Midwestern ITE Regional conference because it was in the Dells, and I figured, what the heck, if I get in I can do some visits at the same time. I decided to drive out there since I had the time, I’m getting quite sick of flying, and with even a half full van, the environmental impacts are probably less than the flight.
I first offered the trip up on CS, and then later on Craigslist. I love logistics and planning these things, but it was still a trying experience with all the last-minute cancelations, and other nonsense. We had a couple cancel because dude’s sister decided to get married, another girl who was bringing a friend canceled because she got free tickets to Bonnaroo, another canceled the day before b/c despite the fact that we had met and discussed this, she somehow did not realize that we were taking two days. then on the day of the trip, one girl calls me to tell me that she only has half of the money, but had the rest at her apartment in Chicago. I asked her what she was going to do about food for two days and she said she had three dollars in change and could live off of crackers because she was “used to being broke.” To me this means, I’m good at stealing and getting suckers to buy me shit. This was sounding really sketchy, I was in a hurry to get out, and I didn’t really want to be the guy who brought some spanger trash into our host’s house, especially since I had just met that guy too. I told her to she would need to find another ride, despite her whining and assertions to her non-sketchiness. I loaded up the other dudes, at least one of whom I might add looked a bit more sketchy and broke than she was, with his torn up jeans, but everyone else had the dough, so we were off. I had to remind myself the kind of shitty shit I wore when I was in college, and everyone turned out to be really cool anyway.
We got to Pittsburgh in very reasonable time, and after some nice stretches of rural roads. Pittsburgh itself is a very cool looking city in my opinion. It is a large Rustbelt city built over numerous hills and in the valleys of two converging rivers. There are steep streets and bridges everywhere. I love seeing stately hills that are part of the city visible all around. Little clusters of homes and building fill up every conceivable niche in the hills. I saw two four story apartment houses next to each other that were bounded by the freeway on one side and a rock wall on the other three sides that appeared to have been cut out for the sake of these buildings and could almost be reached from the upper windows. It is very typical PA city housing which means lots of brick row houses and very tight streets. I think from an aesthetic and location viewpoint I could definitely live in Pitt.
When we got there, we all relaxed around the Pittsburgh ride share's house for awhile before walking the dog and going in search of food. On this little food search I found that I was among kindred spirits as Jordan exclaimed with pleasure that there was a Royal Crown Cola vending machine, and Mike was as impressed and pleased as both of us. I'm simply not used to meeting people who even know what RC is, much less share the love I do. The machine however did not reciprocate our love and chose not to vend a damn thing and I never actually did get a taste of the best soda of low enough quality to be served in a can. I have certainly become a soda snob, which I can add on to my beer, food, chocolate and coffee snobbery. I really believe that life is too short to settle for crap, especially when it comes to edibles.
Now I have seen cool dogs, but this little bitch is amazing. She is a border collie with unbelievable energy and affinity for catching shit in the air. So ok, she can catch a tennis ball with unbelievable accuracy at about 5 feet, yay. But the amazing thing about this dog is that she can climb trees. And I do mean climb trees. All Sam had to do to get her excited was to yell, "Millie, there's a squirrel, there's a squirrel!" and point up in the tree. She would bolt to the tree and shoot up to the branches, which were about at the height where I could reach with my hands, and then back flip off and land on her feet, albeit rather ungracefully with a face plant. She did this repeatedly, and supposedly she can actually get into the branches when there is a squirrel up there. After grabbing some Thai food to go, we headed over to meet our host for the night, Amanda have a beer and eat our food. Speaking of beer, don't mind if I do.
Amanda and her friend, who is a personal chef for some rich people, were friendly and immediately very talkative. The first thing I saw when I went in was several bikes and bike parts everywhere, making me an instant fan. Most of the bike stuff belongs to her roommate who was unfortunately not present, but she uses her bicycle for work every day, so she gets the seal of approval. The beer was good, the Thai was marginal, and then we were off to the karaoke bar where we were to meet up with Sam again and several local CSers. A complication arose at the door when one of my riders, Jordan, became exasperated when he realized that you had to be 21 to enter. Apparently in Rhode Island where he schools you only have to be 18 to enter, 21 to drink. He assured us that he would be fine in the van since he had plenty of homework to do. The other non-local Craigslist rider also decided to hang in the van since he didn't want to spend any money. I didn't want to leave them sitting on their asses in the van, but we were meeting CSers, so the remainder entered. Sam was there, and soon several more CSers showed up and we had a group. I was quite impressed with the CS Pitt response I got since it was so last minute. Everyone was pretty cool, but for some reason we kind of all just hung around and the conversation was a bit forced. I think it had something to do with the physical configuration of the group, but I wasn't too happy about it. One of the CSers informed us that there was a bar across the street that didn't card, so after a few songs were sung and beers drunk, I got everyone going with the hope that the change of venue would improve the dynamic, and we headed to the other place with the van folks amongst us. Sure enough, it did and conversation began to flow more freely, despite the presence of some shyness in the group. However, by that time everyone was a bit tired. I think the van guys would have been happy not going out and just did because we went through the effort of moving. In the end though they got the benefit of conversing with some white haired vet with typical shorts, long white socks and unbent armed forces baseball cap. I did not get to enjoy his company, but he was vehement about his Irish heritage and his status as a Vietnam vet. Since sleepiness was setting in and an early morning was imminent, we departed rather quickly. I drove Sam and those who would sleep at his place up the hill to his house because it was pouring and then crashed like a baby on the blow up mattress in Mr. Handiman Bike Dude's room.
I first offered the trip up on CS, and then later on Craigslist. I love logistics and planning these things, but it was still a trying experience with all the last-minute cancelations, and other nonsense. We had a couple cancel because dude’s sister decided to get married, another girl who was bringing a friend canceled because she got free tickets to Bonnaroo, another canceled the day before b/c despite the fact that we had met and discussed this, she somehow did not realize that we were taking two days. then on the day of the trip, one girl calls me to tell me that she only has half of the money, but had the rest at her apartment in Chicago. I asked her what she was going to do about food for two days and she said she had three dollars in change and could live off of crackers because she was “used to being broke.” To me this means, I’m good at stealing and getting suckers to buy me shit. This was sounding really sketchy, I was in a hurry to get out, and I didn’t really want to be the guy who brought some spanger trash into our host’s house, especially since I had just met that guy too. I told her to she would need to find another ride, despite her whining and assertions to her non-sketchiness. I loaded up the other dudes, at least one of whom I might add looked a bit more sketchy and broke than she was, with his torn up jeans, but everyone else had the dough, so we were off. I had to remind myself the kind of shitty shit I wore when I was in college, and everyone turned out to be really cool anyway.
We got to Pittsburgh in very reasonable time, and after some nice stretches of rural roads. Pittsburgh itself is a very cool looking city in my opinion. It is a large Rustbelt city built over numerous hills and in the valleys of two converging rivers. There are steep streets and bridges everywhere. I love seeing stately hills that are part of the city visible all around. Little clusters of homes and building fill up every conceivable niche in the hills. I saw two four story apartment houses next to each other that were bounded by the freeway on one side and a rock wall on the other three sides that appeared to have been cut out for the sake of these buildings and could almost be reached from the upper windows. It is very typical PA city housing which means lots of brick row houses and very tight streets. I think from an aesthetic and location viewpoint I could definitely live in Pitt.
When we got there, we all relaxed around the Pittsburgh ride share's house for awhile before walking the dog and going in search of food. On this little food search I found that I was among kindred spirits as Jordan exclaimed with pleasure that there was a Royal Crown Cola vending machine, and Mike was as impressed and pleased as both of us. I'm simply not used to meeting people who even know what RC is, much less share the love I do. The machine however did not reciprocate our love and chose not to vend a damn thing and I never actually did get a taste of the best soda of low enough quality to be served in a can. I have certainly become a soda snob, which I can add on to my beer, food, chocolate and coffee snobbery. I really believe that life is too short to settle for crap, especially when it comes to edibles.
Now I have seen cool dogs, but this little bitch is amazing. She is a border collie with unbelievable energy and affinity for catching shit in the air. So ok, she can catch a tennis ball with unbelievable accuracy at about 5 feet, yay. But the amazing thing about this dog is that she can climb trees. And I do mean climb trees. All Sam had to do to get her excited was to yell, "Millie, there's a squirrel, there's a squirrel!" and point up in the tree. She would bolt to the tree and shoot up to the branches, which were about at the height where I could reach with my hands, and then back flip off and land on her feet, albeit rather ungracefully with a face plant. She did this repeatedly, and supposedly she can actually get into the branches when there is a squirrel up there. After grabbing some Thai food to go, we headed over to meet our host for the night, Amanda have a beer and eat our food. Speaking of beer, don't mind if I do.
Amanda and her friend, who is a personal chef for some rich people, were friendly and immediately very talkative. The first thing I saw when I went in was several bikes and bike parts everywhere, making me an instant fan. Most of the bike stuff belongs to her roommate who was unfortunately not present, but she uses her bicycle for work every day, so she gets the seal of approval. The beer was good, the Thai was marginal, and then we were off to the karaoke bar where we were to meet up with Sam again and several local CSers. A complication arose at the door when one of my riders, Jordan, became exasperated when he realized that you had to be 21 to enter. Apparently in Rhode Island where he schools you only have to be 18 to enter, 21 to drink. He assured us that he would be fine in the van since he had plenty of homework to do. The other non-local Craigslist rider also decided to hang in the van since he didn't want to spend any money. I didn't want to leave them sitting on their asses in the van, but we were meeting CSers, so the remainder entered. Sam was there, and soon several more CSers showed up and we had a group. I was quite impressed with the CS Pitt response I got since it was so last minute. Everyone was pretty cool, but for some reason we kind of all just hung around and the conversation was a bit forced. I think it had something to do with the physical configuration of the group, but I wasn't too happy about it. One of the CSers informed us that there was a bar across the street that didn't card, so after a few songs were sung and beers drunk, I got everyone going with the hope that the change of venue would improve the dynamic, and we headed to the other place with the van folks amongst us. Sure enough, it did and conversation began to flow more freely, despite the presence of some shyness in the group. However, by that time everyone was a bit tired. I think the van guys would have been happy not going out and just did because we went through the effort of moving. In the end though they got the benefit of conversing with some white haired vet with typical shorts, long white socks and unbent armed forces baseball cap. I did not get to enjoy his company, but he was vehement about his Irish heritage and his status as a Vietnam vet. Since sleepiness was setting in and an early morning was imminent, we departed rather quickly. I drove Sam and those who would sleep at his place up the hill to his house because it was pouring and then crashed like a baby on the blow up mattress in Mr. Handiman Bike Dude's room.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I am really enjoying life today. I think it helps that I have been rather productive so far, but it is also the fact that the weather is absolutely perfect and I'm working from my house. Granted, I don't get to be outside in it, but all of my windows are open, the breeze is floating through laden with the sound of chirping birds and scents of plant and sea, and all of our houseplants are soaking up the midday sun.
On Saturday night we went to Brandy's friend Lauren's birthday party. We were quite annoyed that Lauren was two hours late to her own party due to working late out at JFK, but we sat out in the garden in front of her building drinking with the other refugees, and when she arrived, the party was a great time. After that we went to our friend Joe's moving out party as he has gotten a new place that he intends to make into a speakeasy. That party was winding down and we eventually made it to our house to smoke a hookah on the roof with Lauren and their older ex-Hells Angel, Batman. We watched one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen yet while drinking a bottle of wine that really did not need to be opened. Brandy woke up with a killer headache and by the time she got better, my pain had just begun. I spent the day on the couch in a fetal position. My body simply cannot handle drinking like it used to. After I righted myself, I discovered that my backpack was missing. After several frantic phone calls, Joe informed me that he had seen a black backpack on the stairs in his building, but had since returned his keys and could not get me in. It was midnight and thus too late to go back ringing doorbells so I had to frown and get up early with a note to post. Somehow, the doorman was there early and he let me in to find my bag miraculously still sitting on the stairs. This was a huge relief since that bag had a bunch of random things in it that would have been a huge hassle to replace, not the least of which was my thumb drive.
Yesterday I just worked and met with my summer directed study advisors and partner. We will be doing some sort of research with car sharing and spent a couple hours hashing out potential directions we can go with it. It seems like it should be an interesting project and I'm looking forward to getting started on it. Right now I am frantically trying to get my research done for this presentation I'm supposed to make at a conference in 2.5 weeks. I have less than a week to submit my slideshow and I have done little to nothing. I'm starting to fear that this will be a horrible presentation and I can only hope the my 8 AM presentation time will keep anyone who knows anything away. Actually, I'm more hoping that I can use my charisma to not look like a total fuck since this is a paper in progress, and actually get some interesting feedback.
I fly out to WI for my sister's graduation on Thu, and I'll have to work while I'm there, which is a total drag. I have to find a way to keep my plate clear enough so that I actually have time to relax and do me things, and me and Brandy things because I can see it being very easy to completely erode your personal life in favor of the profession when the profession is very interesting to you. I want to be a professor, and be good at it, but I don't want to be the guy who ends up divorced because I lost sight of the more important things in life.
On Saturday night we went to Brandy's friend Lauren's birthday party. We were quite annoyed that Lauren was two hours late to her own party due to working late out at JFK, but we sat out in the garden in front of her building drinking with the other refugees, and when she arrived, the party was a great time. After that we went to our friend Joe's moving out party as he has gotten a new place that he intends to make into a speakeasy. That party was winding down and we eventually made it to our house to smoke a hookah on the roof with Lauren and their older ex-Hells Angel, Batman. We watched one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen yet while drinking a bottle of wine that really did not need to be opened. Brandy woke up with a killer headache and by the time she got better, my pain had just begun. I spent the day on the couch in a fetal position. My body simply cannot handle drinking like it used to. After I righted myself, I discovered that my backpack was missing. After several frantic phone calls, Joe informed me that he had seen a black backpack on the stairs in his building, but had since returned his keys and could not get me in. It was midnight and thus too late to go back ringing doorbells so I had to frown and get up early with a note to post. Somehow, the doorman was there early and he let me in to find my bag miraculously still sitting on the stairs. This was a huge relief since that bag had a bunch of random things in it that would have been a huge hassle to replace, not the least of which was my thumb drive.
Yesterday I just worked and met with my summer directed study advisors and partner. We will be doing some sort of research with car sharing and spent a couple hours hashing out potential directions we can go with it. It seems like it should be an interesting project and I'm looking forward to getting started on it. Right now I am frantically trying to get my research done for this presentation I'm supposed to make at a conference in 2.5 weeks. I have less than a week to submit my slideshow and I have done little to nothing. I'm starting to fear that this will be a horrible presentation and I can only hope the my 8 AM presentation time will keep anyone who knows anything away. Actually, I'm more hoping that I can use my charisma to not look like a total fuck since this is a paper in progress, and actually get some interesting feedback.
I fly out to WI for my sister's graduation on Thu, and I'll have to work while I'm there, which is a total drag. I have to find a way to keep my plate clear enough so that I actually have time to relax and do me things, and me and Brandy things because I can see it being very easy to completely erode your personal life in favor of the profession when the profession is very interesting to you. I want to be a professor, and be good at it, but I don't want to be the guy who ends up divorced because I lost sight of the more important things in life.
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