Stratford was fun. We drove up Friday, which took about 11 hours. There was a lot of construction along the way. Saturday we saw Much Ado About Nothing and The Glass Menagerie. Much Ado was really great, the comedic leads were hilarious, and we had front row seats off completely to one side, but the stage is roundish and sticks out into the audience, so it was a neat view. Glass Menagerie I liked less. At first I thought it was something lacking in the play, and I do think it's a lot less subtle on the whole than something like Streetcar. But I've come to think it was actually that the guy who played Tom wasn't so good. Poking around the reviews, the reviewer also makes the good point that they played the script too light, which makes it hard to latch onto some of the deep sadness that holds the play together. So, it didn't really connect the dots and I left feeling like a lot of emotion was missing.

Between plays Saturday we had a nice dinner at the Olde English Pub, which had really fabulous dessert. We went back Sunday just for dessert. Sunday afternoon we saw Coriolanus. I didn't think I was going to like it after the first Act, but that was all fighting and stuff, and it got way more interesting after that. The lead was good, and the costumes and lighting were interesting. I didn't get to see a big set change at the Festival Theatre since both plays were Shakespeare and didn't have big sets. But they had one on video from a prior season.

Monday we drove back. Between a late start and going to see Niagara and tons of horrible fog and rain, we didn't get home until 2am.

This coming weekend: engagement party Friday for Court and Dave, and then AC for the weekend!

<1138>

Again last night I couldn't fall asleep. I know I probably just need to bite the bullet and get up early one of these days (oops, I guess tomorrow, when we're going to be driving all day), but it's really irritating to waste several hours trying to fall asleep.

I dreamt that there was a small, dog-sized elephant that someone had as a pet... it seemed to be kinda fuzzy, so maybe it was even a Snuffleupagus. Anyway, it was still a baby, so who knows what kind of eventual size it would be. It was fun to play with.

<1846>

Something's been up with the internet since yesterday. As in, it's busted. Lucky for me my neighbor has a stealable connection. Also, strange, however, is that the DirectTV is also busted. It gives me the HBO message on every channel, you know, the one that says I don't get that channel call to subscribe. It's possible that Bill has cancelled it or forgotten to pay the bill. But I feel like there's some datalink it uses to determine what channels we get. If there's some general problem in the area with data moving over the wires, maybe it affects both. Which means my neighbor has cable internet? Or I'm making up a theory to explain two disparate events? I dunno.

<2237>

I have to say that despite only getting 4 hours of work in on a good day, they're pretty productive 4 hours. These folks are getting their money's worth. Cuz I know when I work 8 hours, I slack off a lot of those. This paper is getting closer to done.

I think I might have to play some more DDR.

<1801>

Summer has turned into travel madness. Cambridge (along with Pittsburgh) is behind me, but ahead this weekend is another English sounding place, Stratford, ON for the Shakespeare festival up there with Lynn. The next weekend I'm going to Atlantic City to see the Boston old peeps. Then the next weekend (with the 4th in between!) I'm going to the Eastern Shore for Saturday and then hanging with Court and Ami probably on Sunday. That's July. In August is the big trip to somewhere with Am, and then at the end of the month Q's wedding in WA (which reminds me to call my mom). That's insane. And I'm sure that won't end up being all.

<1752>

End-of-quals party was fun. Lots of folks from different years showed up. The HPM kids got screwed with crappy topics, and HBSers enjoyed all the wonderful broad obvious behavioral topics you could imagine. The party was at Shucker's, and some of us moved on to Red Star and then to Max's for karaoke. I sang some Carol King, but I was a little past the optimal stage of tipsiness for good singing, I have to say. I ended up hanging out with some random guy, and I can honestly tell you nothing about him other than he lives in Annapolis. I blame that beer Ken had me order... I suspect it had a higher alcohol content. Anyway, it was a fun evening, and I made it home okay even though the dumbass cab driver failed to turn down my street and I walked from Charles St and 32nd after snarling at him for failing.

Today I'm not really doing anything productive.

<0044>

This cold is finally catching up with me... I've been fighting it off for two days now, but it just keeps creeping in.

To the two friends I had on myspace who are also like half of this page's readership, I've killed off my myspace profile. Too many annoying people! Loud noises coming from profiles! Grah!

Tonight we tried to go to the symphony, but they aren't doing student rush until Saturday morning. Lame. So we had Thai food and watched The Red Violin at Lynn's.

I worked 2.5 hours today. I'll be lucky to get that in tomorrow before the end-of-quals fiesta.

<2210>

So, I didn't really end up working yesterday because I realized stuff I needed was actually *at* work. TV Night went kind of late, so I slept in, and then R wanted to meet with me. I decided to exercise and do all that good stuff beforehand, so I dind't get to his office until like 2:30. But, in excellent news, we're both excited about my dissertation project, and the timeline is good, and it's going to rule. Esp if I can find some funding. I just looked at tomorrow's pay stub online and it seems my stipend is officially out. Suck. I really need to put in some actual work hours or something. I have enough savings to last me for a good long while, but still. I've been slacking off this week in terms of work.

At least I don't have quals. Bwahaha.

<1641>

I love being in grad school and able to be extremely lazy. I mean, flexible with my time. Today I had a meeting at noon, so I planned initially to go to school and work a few hours, go to the meeting, and then work some more or go home and work. Then I opted instead to exercise this morning. Then I went to catch the shuttle but it didn't come so I drove in, and then, since I was out with my car, I went to Towson and shop shop shopped, and now it's 4:30 and I hav yet to put in an hour. But while I was shopping, I loved every minute of my not working. I also bought basil at Trader's and now I'm on a basil/tomato/mozzarella fueled ahhhhhh. Hmmm, maybe a glass of wine, and I can just luxuriate until TV Night.

No, I'm going to try to get a little work done.

It's also sunny and lovely out.

<2348>

Okay, so a quick survey of the fiction section in the living room indicates that I am definitely missing a decent chunk of my books. Am mentioned she might have a couple of boxes. I hope they're around, because there is some good stuff missing. Also, I'm going to need yet another bookshelf given the number I hope exist.

Cambridge! It was pretty great. Tuesday I got there no problem, and the weather was only decent that day... it rained all the other days. I got my housing, bought some groceries at the nearby Star, and chillaxed until karaoke. Karaoke was pretty fun and not at all as horrible as some folks had warned. Everyone got in, and the singing was decent. I was disappointed that a) the songbook had new stuff, but nothing really good; and b) they started late. I sang Heaven is a Place on Earth, which was fine but not great. After that, Danny, Dave M. and I went to Noir and acted hoity-toity and then went to Kong for bad food. I ate way too much crap this weekend.

Wednesday I woke up to pouring rain. I had already intended to ditch the lunch gigs, which was an even better call given the weather. Class Day we performed from essntially behind the stage and we got to hang around under the big tent and in Mem Church, which was weird. But they never put up the bandstand tent until Thursday, for always mysterious reasons (because often it's been quite hot on Class Days past). So, even though Seth McFarlane did all his voices, the amusement of watching them emerge from him was dampened by the fact that we were behind the stage. I still have to watch the video online. But it was pretty fun and we didn't get as wet as we could have. After that I went to Brookline for some dinner at Q and Megan's, which was lots of fun. They have a nice apartment that has a wine fridge.

Thursday I got up at 6 am, which I knew wouldn't be early enough to make the official call, but I also knew it would be just perfect to make yard sound check so long as Latonya brought both pairs of cymbals, which she did. Yay sleeping later and being lazy! I had breakfast and packed up clothes and lunch and didn't rush at all. It was drizzly, kind of like the early part of my Commencement, but it never got too poury. The morning went just fine, with all the usual great pomp and circumstance, boring honorary degrees, and then graduates conducting. For lunch there was crusty beer consumption and general laziness, because we're far too old to go out in the rain on those lunch gigs. It was great. As we lazed about, the cheif of HUPD came up and told us we were on rain plan, hereafter known as RAINPLAN! This is the first time this has ever happened, because usually the plan is just to have people suck it up or go watch the broadcast indoors. It was sort of annoying for us because we have a tent and it was only drizzling, so we would have been content not to move. Anyway, RAINPLAN! involved moving the entire shebang to Sanders. We played onstage at the beginning and went down to Loker during the boring financial report and Larry's speech. Then we came back up to play, sat on the stage during Jim Lehrer's speech (which was excellent, arguing for the benefits of mandatory national service), which was mighty cramped, and then we played at the end. So, it was nice in that we didn't have the whole long fight song playing at the beginning and end, but overall it was pretty lame.

Old people went to Uno's for dinner. Afterwards some departed for reunions while the younger set waited for Sam's dumb ass to get to town. I just knew he would have to make an appearance. We hit Charlie's for a drink and then headed to the party. I was at the party until kind of late, shakin' my booty thang. And I got to talk to Clark on the phone, since he decided to teleconference in to the party. :-) That was cool. Most of the seniors are going to be around this summer and/or in the fall, so no real permanent goodbyes to bummer things out just yet. :-)

Friday I had lunch at Merck with Matty, which was nice. Then I bugged Court for a bit and wandered around Fenway and Copley. I haeded back to Porter for a nap, and then met up with Court for dinner in Brookline with the work crew, for Jane's retirement. That was fun, and there was a ton of food, and we put on a cute little play about how no one was supposed to bug Jane about work stuff but everyone did anyway. Afterwards Courtenay and I met up with Matty and Jer at the Publick House, and it was quickly clear why they are such fans of the place because it is definitely a beer snob heaven. Court went off to meet Jack at the airport (he was supposed to get in earlier, but his flight was delayed), and the three of us stayed past the last T, sadly, because that meant a $20 cab ride back to Porter. But it was good to go out.

Today I bummed around then went to the airport. Even though the weather continued to be horrendous, I still felt bummed about leaving. I have a pretty fun and social life here, but then I go back there and remember how it's just at a whole nother level of activity, and then I feel sort of dissatisfied. But, it was a great visit.

<0824>

Saturday I busied myself by going to the Book Thing, which is amazingly awesome and I have to be careful not to go there too much. It's dumb I hadn't been there at all since it's right up the street. It's like a huge bookstore where all the books are free. I brought a few and left with a few, including a book on dissertation writing/motivation that I'd been eyeing at a B&N and would have bought last time I was at the one here if they'd had it. After that, I headed to the library to browse through journals for a few hours.

I managed to download most of this week's TV night eps (I ended up just buying scrubs out of desperation), but I can't seem to get Big Love anywhere. :-(

Yesterday I went on a 7.7 mile hike up at Gunpowder Falls. Oh man, are my legs ever sore today. It was pretty good, except down by the river there were parts where the trail was mostly just climbing over lots of big rocks or traipsing through thorny plants. The latter was definitely true at the end when I took the scenic river route recommended on this website... this guy likes to do the hike in winter, though, when I'm sure plants are not such an issue. I have to wonder what all those rocks would be like in winter though... less mossy, but more wet and cold. Anyway, it was great, and it was nice to get outside. It was only a short drive north, which was good.

Today I need to do laundry, get some dishes cleaned, pack, work on this paper now that I have the real comments and not some report on Ethiopia, and exercise.

<1010>

Boo, I got dissed on the Armenian lady fellowship. I'm totally going to become a Commie now just to spite them.

<1353>

Google calendar! When did that pop up! I might have to start using this instead of iCal just so I can have it everywhere... even better would be if they'd synch them... oh score, I can totally import and export from iCal. Kickass!

I'm still waiting for the damn dataset on this paper. I keep reminding my boss. She asked today if I really needed it, and I gave some good reasons, but didn't mention that the regression table I have from the report is a mess and unusable. So I have two hours left until I bounce to Happy Hour, and I'll have to spend them actually editing what I have so far and inserting references and other crap that is way less fun than playing with a dataset.

I hope people want to go out tonight, although I think the crew is actually going to the baseball game, which is sad because they didn't ask me to go. Then again, the fact that they're all going is probably why so many of them are coming to Happy Hour, so I guess that's good.

<2250>

Oh, if only I could tell you ladies *my* recent stories...

People just have *no* idea about me.

So, after Happy Hour I went with E and Trish for delicious pizza and then to Brewer's, which lacked cute boys more than usual. It was nice to go out at any rate.

<2309>

Someone on the bus smelled like him today and had me most distracted from my reading.

Back to the weekend! Tomorrow I'll go to Happy Hour after work. Then I think Saturday I'll try to hit the Farmer's Market and Book Thing, moving on to the library for some journal perusal, and returning to look for grants, jump on the NRSA, and spend some time with Ev Rogers. Sunday I want to go hiking, and I think I found some promising places nearby. Monday will probably be a crazy day at work trying to get a paper out, since my boss sent me the wrong file and then left ofr Brazil. She'll be back. And then I'll be outtie on Tuesday for Boston, possibly trying to squeeze in a morning meeting about NIMH funding priorities beforehand, but I'm kinda doubting that will actually happen. Anyway, major business, but I'm feeling pretty great about it all.