the game

So when are you all going to be in New Haven? I'm taking the train from DC on Friday but I haven't decided yet when to go back. I think it would be fun to bum around New York for a day or something, if anyone wants to! I mean, I'm already missing class, so. :o

Also I was planning on sneaking into the Bowl with the band. Thoughts?

Too many app essays...

So I know this is two posts in a row for me, but this was just too weird.

Last night I dreamt that a bunch of us ypmb 07ers were hanging out in Harvard Yard, drinking wine with President Levin, the dearly departed Larry Summers and a smallish group of other Ivy alumns (extras). Eventually Summers starts badmouthing Yale and we get appropriately righteous, climbing up on some nearby scaffolding to sing "Bulldog." When we start to sing, I realize that we somehow didn't sing Bulldog at all, but BCY. Then, no, it wasn't BCY... it was my high school alma mater, and everyone started to realize that we weren't singing a Yale song and dropped out, leaving me the only one to finish the song.

Later in this dream the statues of Elihu Yale, John Harvard and (I shit you not) Abraham Lincoln were stalking me as I tried to make my way to the Harvard version of DUH urgent care to treat a concussion I got in some lecture hall. Long story.

If anyone has any sort of interpretation they'd like to share, go for it. As for me, I think it means too many application essays in too short a time.

Side note: the transition from Yale fight song to my original alma mater isn't actually that strange. The lyrics:

Although Yale has always favored
The violet's dark hue
And the gentle sons of Harvard
To the crimson rose are true
We will own the lily's splendor
Nor honor shall we lack
While Clarion stands defender
Of the orange and the black.

Historical Roots

Hi all!

Guess what I did yesterday. Went to the hardware store, bought a few mums (potted flowers, for you un-botanically inclined) for the apartment, carried the mums back to the apartment (ick), wrote two rough drafts of applications essays and watched a little TV. Notice, therefore, what I did not do: assist research.

Nope, I wasn't fired: Harvard had yesterday off. Columbus Day. I think graduate programs outside the school of arts and sciences had classes, but that's beside the point. What's with these pansies? Those of you with friends or classmates or whatever that went to It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named might have known their schedule, but I was shocked. What days did we get off? Oh, right. Not days -- day. Martin Luther King Jr. Day only. Pretty hardcore, if I do say so myself.

Ben, I'm assuming that you guys had yesterday off as well, but is Yale in the minority or the majority here? Gilene, what did UCLA do? Iowa? Just curious. :o)

In other news, Michael got 2 tickets to game six of the Cleveland/Red Sox series via an online lottery -- we're both hoping A) the Red Sox win and B) they win slowly enough to make it to game 6. Wish us luck!

So it's decided: I'm going to the Game, even if it puts me out several hundred dollars and I have to miss four days of class. :( I can already tell one of my professors is not going to be happy with me. But I miss you guys, so I guess she'll just have to deal.

Anyway I guess I'll be at home for a few days, so Jenny and Diana, let's hang out!

The Game?

Howdy, everyone!

Are any of you going to The Game this year? It's about (past?) time to start looking at plane tickets and so I'm taking a poll...

I guess a poll isn't very blog-like, so I'll add a personal story to make up for it. My life is kinda boring, even in the celebrity gossip capital of America. In that spirit, though, I do have one story:

I went to a company party/dinner several weeks ago at my boss's house in the ritzier area of Santa Monica (not to be confused with the not-so-ritzy area of Santa Monica where I live). We only have 15 employees, so it was a pretty small party. As we were all arriving at his house, we passed an ambulance on its way out of the neighborhood. A while later, various reporters from People and Us magazine and so forth started ringing the doorbell, asking if we know anything, and paparazzi began to appear en masse, camping out in their cars with cameras and a spotlight. Turns out that my boss lives across the street from Owen Wilson, who apparently tried to off himself right before out party. So yeah, that was my recent brush with Hollywood greatness. I bet you're all impressed, right? :)

There is a door. . .

On Monday, I took my trumpet case out of the closet, dusted it off, and slung it over my shoulder as I started to walk to the open rehearsal for the Princeton Wind Ensemble. Making my way across campus, I took note of all the features that I've become familiar with over the past month and a half. There are the statues of tigers, the unusual memorial in front of the art museum, the fountain, and of course, the student center. Strange, I thought to myself, even though these are my landmarks now, it seems like I have a memory of them from a time before I became a grad student at Princeton. . .

I tried to shrug the thought off as I entered the music building, but as I descended the steps, the feeling of familiarity became even stronger. And as I moved to open the band room door, I paused for a second, my hand resting on the handle, to reflect.

Then it hit me.

By indirect contact, I have now touched the balls of the men of '07. Wow.

oh man...

... Thanks for everyone who told me to sign up for this thing. I finally figured out how to find it and now I have so much reading to catch up on! Shout out to Warren for getting me set up! Sounds like all of you guys are off doing great things already!

I just got to England and am almost settled in. My college, Pembroke, is exactly what I was hoping it might be: nice manicured lawns and gardens set amidst old (I mean old) buildings. It gives the word "picturesque" a new meaning. Quite exiting. Classes start on the 1st of October, but we're off to the Lake District for an orientation on Monday. Maybe I'll make my first friend there...

Anyway, I suppose when I get a chance I'll try to write something more comical or verbose as that seems to be the trend on this blog. In the meantime, here are some pictures from Greg and my Alaska trip (which was awesome) that we took in honor of Oh Sev. Two words for our next party: Glacier Luge. Enjoy!