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.