I am sick. Yes, it is just a cold, but it is the kind of
cold that caused me to spend the entire day yesterday trying to achieve the
ability to breathe out of both nostrils (a skill I apparently take for granted
on most days) and to refer to it to my brother as the “coldpocalypse”.
It’s been awhile since I had a cold, but I realized that my
thirst for knowledge and basically trying to live life to its fullest is always
at its highest when I’m sick. Home with a migraine? Spend the entire day
reading even though it makes your head feel worse. Unable to breathe
comfortably? Attempt a logic puzzle written by Einstein he said 98% of people
wouldn’t be able to solve. [It was the German who lives in the green house,
drinks coffee, and smokes Prince that owned the fish.] Highly contagious? Find
the pull of a nice day irresistible. Am I alone in this? It seems like a weird
quirk…
Other than the cold, things are going pretty well. My
landlord fixed our oven this week, so on Thursday I roasted potatoes for the
first time in months and was reminded of how much I freaking love roasted
potatoes. I also finally got moved into the bioengineering department a couple
of weeks ago, though it’s not quite what I was expecting. Part of that is
because “no one has time” to devote to training me and supervising me. (Can you
tell I find that to be a bullshit excuse?) I think most of it is that they thought they had a reasonable project
for me to do on my own, and then once I actually started doing it I found out
they were missing about half the necessary parts to complete said project and
had lost all of the manuals I needed. Fortunately, after a completely awful and
needlessly long meeting with the condescending director of bioengineering, he
assigned me to a very competent, nice, busy, and somewhat frenzied Asian lady
who has been a blessing. Unfortunately once I start the experiment she wants me
to do I’ll have to come in on weekends. Fortunately that probably means I get
to leave a little early during the week.
Last week a couple of guys from the Cornell alumni
association of “the distinguished class of ‘74” took all of the co-ops in the
Boston area out to dinner. I had calamari as an appetizer and salmon with
potatoes and vegetables as a main dish and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. (All
of which were delicious and a nice departure of my usual “I’ll just throw
whatever vegetables I have in the microwave and/or eat toast.”) I think it
ended up being like 40 bucks per person and I didn’t have to pay a thing. The
guys were also really nice, as were the other co-ops, and it was nice to have
something to go to after work. I like Boston, as a whole, but the past few
months have gotten pretty lonely at times, so this dinner was a nice departure
from what has become mundane. It also was sort of eye-opening to see that guys
who went to school together 42 years ago, who met freshman year, had stayed
friends all this time. They basically told us that Cornellians are a special
breed, and you don’t stop being one after you leave. It felt like we were all a
part of this huge family. In the words of my mom, “and that’s why we pay the
big bucks.”
Girl, I wish you would let yourself spend a few hours doing
nothing and not feel so guilty about it. People are not designed to be
productive every waking moment! If you ask me (which you didn’t but I’m going
to tell you anyway), you’ve been working too hard for too long and finally your
brain is deciding to just do what it needs to do. You know how if you
consistently don’t get enough sleep, eventually your body just goes whomp and
you fall asleep with your shoes on and don’t wake up for four hours? Your brain
is doing that. Who cares if you don’t touch a musical instrument or find an
amazing park? Apparently you need pop-nerd-culture ramblings. It’s like dudes
and steak, or women and chocolate, or hipsters and vinyl: a necessity. Don’t
fight it.
I’ve been thinking about that time you decided to “explicitly
introduce” Tristan on the blog, and now that Brandon and I have been dating for
a bit it seems appropriate for me to do the same. I mentioned him last time,
but pretty briefly. He’s a fellow ChemE co-op, hails from Disneyland (well,
Anaheim, but that’s where Disneyland is), and is now known as “the pie king”
among the other co-ops at his site. If a friend or even a mild acquaintance
asked him for a favor he’s the type of person who would do it without thinking
twice, no questions asked. He hates being late, cuts his own hair, uses
Sriracha liberally, and his favorite piece of clothing is the sweatpants I made
him buy because he kept complaining about being cold. He loves puns as much as
I love alliteration. He has trouble articulating himself sometimes, and he
recommends good books (i.e. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, possibly the
reason I can’t stop reading despite the dull ache in my head). He’s a pretty
cool kid, even though a little (very competitive) part of me hates that he pretty
much always beats me at Scramble with Friends. (I keep telling myself I would hate it even more if he let me win, but I'm still not convinced.)
Anyway I hope your quarter (totally just typed semester and
deleted it) is going well! Classes and TAing and hanging out with people and
all that jazz. It’s almost thanksgiving, which means you’re in the homestretch.
Happy birthday! (In case I forget to mention it on the actual day.) Only one
more month until I’m home! I was talking to my mom on the phone today and she
said if your house of full of mysterious Asian men you are more than welcome to
stay at ours. J
Much love,
Lola
Also I found this quote today: "A hug is like a boomerang, you get it back right away." Bil Keane
