NYC

A Sat-Mon long weekend acting as my spring break in New York City! Headed out with Tania (flew - JetBlue rocks my world) on Sat. night and her parents picked us up and drove us to their place in Flushing, Queens. Did the parent thing where they fed us sandwiches and crepes before I took the train into downtown to meet the college friends. Sooooo wonderful to see everyone in symphonic band!! I tend to forget that I have changed a bit and don't relax in quite the same way I did in college. But with them, I get to let my hair down and pretend I'm still a carefree college kid ;) Their hotel was very close to Times square, so after I got there we just started wandering around looking for places to drink. First found 'Havana Central' which actually had a really cool live salsa band going till about midnight. I tried to catch everyone up on east coast culture (well namely having beer choices on tap). Then we wandered a bit more, marveled for a while at the shiny lights, and drank/caught up at another bar. Everyone was ready to crash by 2 or 3, so we headed back to the hotel. D, Hannah and Vanessa let me crash in their room although I felt sorry for the poor sophomore girl who woke up to find a stranger sleeping on the floor of her hotel room!

Sunday they had to get up early to unload the percussion equipment from the truck - apparently some guy managed to drop one set of marimba resonators and left a huge mark.....glad i wont be around for pam to see that! After they came back we did some serious tourism in the region of the hotel. Then I caught back up with Tania as all the band folk went to an afternoon musical. It was Tania's moms birthday so her mom, dad, and little sis were going to her favorite restaurant. Near Washington Sq. Park, it is a really cute Spanish place called Sevilla. Absolutely fabulous spanish food and (a first for a while) great sangria!!!! Enjoyed the time with la familia and got to remember what its like to be around a 13 yr old. But I must have behaved alright even after a glass or two of sangria since they (not tania mind you!) invited me to easter when they come to visit her up in boston. Good folk for sure, and crazy new york italian to match.

But a long weekend in new york is not complete until you have eaten a ridiculous ridiculous amount of food. So immediately following lunch with Tania and fam, I met up with cousins Lisa, Lon, and Loren at an Italian restaurant near the theatre district called Maria Pia. Once again, incredible food! Plus it was really great to catch up, we estimated it's been at least 5 yrs since I had last seen them. Lon is still really busy with Hairspray but is exploring future options including being musical director for the movie which is supposed to be re-made soon. Lisa is working at Cornell now and told me all about Lisbeth's choosing Skidmore adventure. Loren is 16 amazingly enough and seems to be doing pretty well. Interested in science too - physics or bio perhaps, and shockingly enough he's taller then me! Always plenty of surprises when the last time you saw someone they were 8 or so..... At any rate, a very nice, leisurely meal before Lon had to run back to the evening show. I definitely invited them to visit if they ever make it up to Boston, and hopefully I'll see them more often since Tania and I plan to make another trip to NYC in may or june to hang out and shop.

So from that convenient location I walked over to Times sq where the band was catching some dinner. Hannah and D both had parents along so I bothered them for a bit and helped take band pictures in the square. Then they all had an evening rehearsal so I wandered for awhile and then headed back to the hotel to relax. Of course we went out again, this time just off the square at a place with good martini drink specials. That kept us entertained for quite awhile, but we eventually headed over to an irish pub that some people said they were going to visit. By the time we got there it was almost empty, but it was near the hotels that both the band and the parents group were staying at and one of the few people left in the bar was a clarinets mom who insisted on buying us all a round! Thanks allie's mom!!

On Monday they all had to get up early and take things over to Carnagie hall. D. and Hannah did the tourism thing with their parents, so after everybody else came back and took a short nap I went off with Vanessa, Jon, David (jr. piano guy who I just met this trip), Jack and Kelly. First headed up to julliard school of music to be nosy tourists. Gorgeous day for walking though! Then, we went down to ground zero, a bit different then my last trip to NYC back in high school. Walked from there up to chinatown via battery park and had the best chinese food i'd had in awhile at shanghai cuisine.... yumyumyum. They had to head back to get ready for sound check and the concert so I went back to the hotel with them. Walked over for their soundcheck and finally bought a ticket like a good alumni. I am the best groupie in the world by the way. The concert was wonderful! I caught to live vicariously through them and it was great. Bill got to play a solo on one of the songs and I don't think you could pick a better way to end your career at purdue. two standing ovations no less! The high schoolers behind me commented: "man that guy was really good, but old" hahaha... It was good to see both Bill and Jay and I caught up with them a little after the performance. After the band played them came out to sit in the hall and I moved over to congratulate and then sit with them like the quality groupy i am! Old Dominion played well, but I think their music was a little on the boring side. Passed out high schoolers lined the aisles. Then at the end a random trombone only band played a few jazz tunes...... odd indeed. But I helped the percussionists tear things down and load afterwards (again fallback career=groupie) so I've been on the stage in carnagie hall! mwhahaha....

Finally finished at 12:30 or so, and caught up with the rest of the band well into their drinks at a nearby irish pub (different from the night before). I'm sure we were a bit more then they expected on a monday night, but we hung about and partied till nearly 4, got pizza, and didnt crash at the hotel until after 5..... and they had to get up at 6:30 to load the buses!!!! I got up long enough to stand in the lobby and attempt to get in goodbyes to all the disoriented half-drunk bandos and then headed back up to their room to crash until the maids came around at 10am. ahhhh sheraton sleepers..... if you read this i will totally do an add to get a free bed!! So to wrap up my last day I walked all over central park and headed to the airport. Made it back to boston without event (please add indy as a destination jetblue!!!). Stopped by the lab long enough to realize that I was going to pass out if I sat down and headed home to shower and sleep. Quite a good spring break for a grad student. I wish I could steal my friends from purdue and bring them here, but such is life. I'll have to hope I get lucky and some of them actually decide to visit (HINT HINT HINT!)

Just to add a bit more entertainment, today I went with some of the women in chemistry to the pfizer plant in groton, CT. A 2.5 hr drive, but a pretty good day actually getting shown around the labs and given free food. People seem to be pretty happy there and there are a lot of options open in your career path once you get a job in industry. It was really interesting that they found all the women in the building to speak with us and show us around - didn't talk to a single male!!! hehehe. Definitely an interesting look into a real world situation. Only 15% of the phd chemists are women. Very nice folks it seems like, and they were having a launch party for a new cancer drug which was cool to see. But really - Groton, CT???? blah.

Alright, time to finally get back to work in the lab starting tomorrow - hope nobody noticed I havent done anything since Sat morning. Also - new pics up

HAPPY ALMOST B-DAY DAD!

skip to cambridge, MA

So obviously I have not been in Cambodia for the past 5 months. I actually survived that nasty case of water? poisoning. I went with Vern in a tuktuk out to see the killing fields and S-21 prison. Depressing stuff, made harder to deal with by the involvement of the US more or less using Cambodia as a pawn to get into Vietnam.

But on a lighter note, I spent a week at home in september and got to hang out with all my wonderfull peeps at purdue! love ya guys! then I shipped most of my stuff out here and arrived just a day before orientation began at Harvard.

And now skip to almost February where I've finally completed my first semester (damn east coast schedules). Survived Chem 206, advanced organic chemistry mechanisms, and chem 285, a great course about human disease. Also managed 3.5 rotations still without choosing my life partner (ie lab and advisor), a serious decision which hopefully I won't stall on too much longer. On the bright side cambridge/boston is a great place to be, I've been able to go to tons of live shows which i would never have seen in indiana, and my roomie emily is fantastic. I mean really, she even cooks! (lots of credit to ryan a. for the introduction)

The long winter break was great despite the specter of the chem 206 final hanging over my head. spent some quality time at home, at purdue, and with little sis and bro out in colorado. time really is flying by, which is good since this isn't supposed to be too painful until my 3rd year.

I'm planning on wrapping up my 4th and hopefully last rotation pretty soon. Then taking chemical biology and drug design/discovery as my last 2 classes ever! Also this semester will be my first time teaching - org. chem for majors! ah, the poor harvard undergrads who have me as a TF. I've also resolved to make myself make time for shows/fun times, these are my twenties afterall!

At any rate, I love you all and hope many will take the time to stop by in the next 4.5-6 yrs (really it's not a prison sentence i promise....)