City Girl.....or not

Today was my first, very anticlimactic, day of school.  Biomedical Chemistry, here I come. 

I got my new student ID which I named ScrappyII.  For any of you who saw my ID from undergrad, I looked homeless so my roommate Giti named it Scrappy.  Turns out, 6 years later, I still look pretty 'scrappy'.  But it was a good laugh.  

The campus of my new school is very urban, which is much, much different than CU.  It is in Center City and spread out over about 5 city blocks.  This means every Thursday I get to spend some time downtown.  

Having not ever really spent much time in big cities as an inhabitant, I am still sensitive to all of those good, and not so good things that come along with urban living.  For instance, on my way out of the train station this afternoon I saw a couple, obviously drunk and homeless, with a little baby, in just a diaper and a shirt (It's still cold here), screaming its head off.  I wanted to steal the baby from them and take it home.  The situation made me feel really sad, mad and helpless all at the same time.  It even choked me up a bit. Then I passed several homeless people on my way to the building where my class was.  I have the hardest time with these things.  I think to myself, maybe if they just had better parents?  Or a better education?  Or somebody to give them a hug every day and tell them "I love you and you are worth something, please don't make that bad choice"?  Is this where that little innocent baby is going to end up?  On the streets of Philly, just like his parents?

And then there are the 4 high school kids who skipped school and picked a random guy to beat up. In the middle of the day.  The guy ended up dying.  And this was in the "good" part of town. And all I can think about is Colin, in the "bad" part of town.    

But, then I walk past all of the good places to eat, the tea bar by my school, the spectacular architecture and remind myself it isn't all bad.  Maybe the more time I spend down there the easier it will be for me.  After all, how fun will it be to explore the neighborhood and have weekly dates after class with Colin?! I wonder if I will get to the point where the murder and the homeless blend with the asphalt and buildings and become unnoticed characteristics of my surroundings. I doubt it.  I think it will always bother me.  And I guess that is alright. 

On the train ride home Colin told me I looked like a 'city girl'.

I definitely don't feel like one.  

  

What a night

Last night was (almost) a total waste of my time.

It all started about a month ago, when Sarah and I met a nice guy at Ikea who was looking at the same closet systems we were. We chatted in the store for almost half an hour about various things, then exchanged numbers because he said that he and his wife enjoy trying new restaurants like we do. We met up with him and his wife at Starbucks this past Saturday, where he told us that he was starting a new internet business and wanted some people to help him get it going. He said we could work on it in our spare time, and that he wasn't looking for any money, just help. The general description sounded reasonable (helping to drum up business for some online retailers), but said that we should go to a meeting that he was holding Tuesday night to learn more. Sarah could not make the meeting because she had to work, but I decided to go.

That was the beginning of the end.

To get to the meeting, I first had to meet Sarah at work to get the car. Unfortunately, the clock on the computer I was using in the library was about 40 minutes behind, so when I realized this I had to sprint over to the train station but missed my train. When the next train finally dropped me off I speed-walked over to (Sarah's un-named place of employment), jumped into the car, and sped off down the road trying to program the GPS as I went (not smart, I know). When I got to the convention center, where the meeting was being held, I had to change into a suit and tie in the back of the car because our friend made it clear that this was a formal meeting. While trying to wiggle my way into my slacks in the backseat, a woman pulled up next to me and I thought for sure I was going to get arrested for indecent exposure.

I finally made it inside, about 20 minutes late, to find out that the room is hot and packed with about 300 people. For the first hour, the speaker gave us a motivational talk about "changing our lives", "working for our future", "making our dreams a reality", and other such nonsense. I just wanted to know how the business worked and what was required of me. The last 10 minutes he finally got into some of the details of the company (a modified pyramid scheme on a site called Quixtar, formerly Amway) before a stream of people came up to give testimonials about how much money they were making from "The Business." Turns out this wasn't our friend's company, he is just a minion trying to recruit us.

Meanwhile, Sarah texts me to tell me she can't study for the GRE after work because her book is in the backseat of the car. So now I'm feeling guilty about that and hating the fact that I, too, should be studying instead of listening to some guy who seemed like one of those "Nigerian prince" scammers try to convince me that I can retire to the beach if I give him $300.

I get out of there as fast as I can and speed back to get Sarah at a nearby coffee shop. When I pull up, I can see her sitting at a table with a young guy. Great, now I'm stressed out and my wife is getting hit on. Turns out, though, that this is going to be the highlight of my evening! When Sarah walks out, the guy comes with her over to the car. He happens to be studying for the DAT and getting ready to apply to dental school. We talked for a few minutes about what it takes to get in, some strategies for applying, and how my experience has been thus far. He was a really nice guy and I was happy to be able to help him. He asked for my phone number (not Sarah's, thankfully) because he wanted to chat some more.

Helping that guy out was the only redeeming part of my entire evening. But if he calls and tells me that he needs some help with an online business, I'm hanging up.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring, I might add.  

We celebrated Easter with some friends at our place.  We had a great Easter dinner and I successfully prepared leg of lamb for my first time ever! It was a great success and I am no longer afraid.  For some reason I had this mental block about preparing lamb and thought it was going to be this big challenge, but turns out roasting a leg of lamb was easier than roasting a chicken.

Our Easter menu went a little something like this:

goat cheese souffles with watercress and frisee salad

leg of lamb with mint pesto and roasted potatoes and carrots

asparagus with walnut chive vinagrette

lemon layer cake with lemon curd and mascarpone  

Everything was great and I had so much fun cooking with my lady friends while the guys dyed Easter eggs with the little boys and played in the backyard.  

Speaking of the backyard, time to start gearing up to plant our garden!  I've pretty much planned out what I want in it, now it is just figuring out where I am going to make the actual garden plot.  I also finished painting the living room so now the next project is the dining room.

My first day of class is this week.  Intro to biostatistics.  Should be interesting.  I'm not "official" quite yet, I still have to take the GRE this Saturday, but if I get accepted into the program this class will count towards my masters so I figured may as well start now.  

Pictures

Check out the set in flickr:

We're back

...from St. Maarten. We had a fabulous time. I'll post some pictures later today. In the meantime, here's a good public service announcement for you to watch.

Free MIT

Following behind Stanford and Brown's recent announcements, MIT is making a major change to their financial aid policies. All students whose families earn less than $75K will get to attend for free.

Read more about it here.

Interstates, simplified

I can't remember where, but I once read an interesting story about the use of simplified subway maps (like this one of Philly's SEPTA system).



These seem commonplace today, but the article described how at one point they were a major advancement from the realistic maps that were originally used. Imagine trying to figure out which stop is next if every bend in the track was displayed, along with every street name and landmark. Instead, if you straighten out all the lines and give even spacing to all the stop names, it becomes easier for the newbies to find their way around. The article made me realize that this change in map making was like the jump from realism to impressionism in modern art.

Maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time on the T in Boston and now the Broad St. line in Philly, but I like these simplified maps. That's why I find this simplified map of the US Interstate System to be really handy: