« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »

March 30, 2005

Books etc.

Oh man, there was something funny I was going to write about but I've forgotten it now...

So now that my project is done I can tell you all about it :) I'm always trying to think of ways I can send Becca little pieces of home even when she's far away. Of course it's really tough since it costs about $0.80 an ounce to send mail there, and then it takes a few weeks... Well, a little while ago I put together a package for her and mailed it off. In it I included a CD with some music that I've been listening to so that she could listen to some of my music. I also got out my microphone and recorded a little bit of my voice on the CD so she could listen to me without all the sketchiness of our phone conversations. But getting out that microphone gave me an idea - and a after a week later, and many hours spent, that idea was finished.

I recorded my own audiobook and burned it onto a small CD which fits in an envelope. The book is "The Secret Adversary" by Agatha Christie and is a great story about a young man and woman who have lots of adventures figuring out a mystery. The story is 28 chapters and just over 8 hours long. I am certainly no voice actor but I did my best to read in an interesting style, without any accents, really, because I'm awful at doing accents. It's recorded as MP3s so it'll play on your iPod, my car CD player and (of course) Becca's portable CD player. Oh yeah - and it's completely unedited, mostly because I didn't have the time!

Now that it's done and she's received it and is enjoying it, I offer it to the rest of you if you're interested in listening to me read for eight hours. If you have an iPod I will send you the compressed files; otherwise, I can burn you a set of CDs that can play in any CD player -- it'll be about 7 CDs worth! Just send me an email.

Oh right, I remembered what was funny... I got a piece of junk mail today advertising (no joke) the "University of Maryland University College" -- I guess just in case you didn't get the hint, they're a University... or a College... who knows :) They want to invite me to "take my career to the next level" by choosing from a bunch of graduate programs like Master of Science in E-Commerce or of course, Master of Science in Biotechnology Studies. I can gain "education and clout" and "boost [my] marketability and staying power--not to mention [my] earning potential." I guess they didn't get the memo that I'm already enrolled in a graduate program, thankyouverymuch... one which will probably increase my earning potential a bit more than they can offer. Oh well.

Goodnight!

Posted by kgutwin at 09:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 28, 2005

Still Tired

Why am I still tired? I thought I got plenty of sleep over break... I had somewhat of a tough time last night because I was kept awake by my roommates and their friends, but I didn't think that it would be that big of a problem. Now 9:00 is rolling around again and I'm ready to head to bed.

I need to start working again. Break was lots of fun and very very relaxing but I have papers to read and a review to write by Wednesday. Fortunately I have no other immediate assignments but I see there's a bioinformatics problem set due next week... I would get started on it but it hasn't even been posted yet, never mind that we haven't learned any of the material for it :)

The days go by so quickly. It seems like my life is so full of anticipation I'm constantly distracted from the present. Some people might think you ought only to look to the future but I think every once in a while it's good to take a look at the present. At least that way you won't miss out on things quite so easily.

I've noticed that it's much easier to post to my blog when I'm the most relaxed. When I was busy the week before break, and even when I was home "relaxing", I was just far too distracted to be able to put anything reasonable up. Now I can sit at my computer and just type for a few minutes and be satisfied. Folks tell me they enjoy reading this stuff even though it all seems perfectly banal to me. Well, I try to enjoy posting it as much as you enjoy reading it...

Today was a very gray day, lots and lots of rain. I'm sure many folks were frustrated by the rain but I took the time to appreciate it. I only wish that I could open the window in lab... I would have loved to hear the rain softly falling. Spring is coming, which isn't all bad.

Posted by kgutwin at 08:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 27, 2005

Back in Boston

Safe and sound. No trip troubles at all... just a minor concern about gas mileage which leaves a lot open-ended. I suppose it's inevitable that something in that cantankerous box will break again but it's anyone's guess what and when that will be.

It's nice to be back. Break was fun and I was sad to see it go but at the same time there's lots of stuff to be done here. Plus coming back here means that I can resume my daily routine which is clearly easier here than it is at home :) I never really realized how important it is just to have the light turn on in the morning when it's dark out!

I finally got my W-2 from Brandeis - judging by all the marks and stamps on it, it definitely went through quite an ordeal in order to arrive here. It has at least three postmarks on it - Boston, Burlington and Williston... my address printed in, written on and crossed out with stamps that say MOVED, LEFT NO ADDRESS. It must have gotten to Williston, my mom wrote "Please Fwd" on it as well as a new address, but someone somewhere got confused and returned it to sender, where it finally arrived over a month later back at Brandeis (judging by the "Received Mar 09 2005 Controller's Office" stamp). I knew I hadn't received this form so I faxed Brandeis a Duplicate W-2 Request form last Thursday but they must have noticed my returned-to-sender W-2 and just put it in a brown envelope and mailed it straight away to my apartment here. Finally. Uh, woo hoo, now I can do my taxes? :-/

Clean up, dishes and long awaited bedtime. By the way, Rebecca Collins is the sweetest girl ever. Just so you know. :)

Posted by kgutwin at 07:54 PM | TrackBack

March 26, 2005

Skiing in Canada

Thursday and Friday I went with my mom and Bruce to Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada for a day of skiing. It was a lot of fun but the snow wasn't all that good. The resort is huge - about eight chair lifts and a gondola, plus many many trails... we barely used the same lift twice, let alone skied the same run twice :) Still, it was nice to get away and stay somewhere else for a change. It was interesting being in a bilingual area; I appreciated being able to read much of the French even though I don't speak it really anymore. Maybe someday I will regain my French ability, but not any time soon.

It's funny - despite having a two day adventure up there, I can't think of much to say about it. Overall, something about this break just feels off, such that nothing exciting seems to be happening. My only guess is that it is because I feel like I am missing so many people - maybe it's even just because I miss Becca so much. But whatever it is -- I wouldn't say it's preventing me from having a good time, because I think I'm having as much fun as one could be expected. It's just not sitting in quite the same way. It's kind of like eating when you have a stomachache... the food tastes fine, but it just doesn't feel like it's satisfying the same way.

Posted by kgutwin at 05:34 PM | TrackBack

March 24, 2005

A flavor of the Caribbean

Recipe: Pinapple Lime Chicken

Ingredients:
frozen chicken
1 can pineapple chunks in juice
lime juice
pepper, salt to taste

Directions:
- Combine pineapple juice and lime juice until the flavors are balanced.
- Marinate chicken in pineapple lime mixture for at least 3 hours. Alternatively, combine frozen chicken breasts, juice and pineapple chunks and bake for 45 minutes at 350F.
- Glaze a very hot frying pan with some of the juice. Add chicken breasts and fry until brown outside and cooked through, periodically adding more juice and cooking down.
- Serve over rice.

The key to this is to use up all the juice by cooking it down. It makes a nice glaze to the chicken, if you use enough juice.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 21, 2005

Fun, abbreviated

Why do I get the feeling that everybody else is out having fun while I'm coasting here? Anna's on a backpacking trip with her friends, Becca and Becca are having innumerable adventures abroad, Matthew's in Chicago, Grandma and Grandpa are in Florida... and I'm here, either at the gym cooling my heels or at home where everything is in such disarray that it's a chore just to watch TV.

Or maybe it's just the anticlimax to what would otherwise be an infinitely happy day. It's our one-year anniversary, Becca and I... and of course the bittersweet is all too strong. We were able to get a webcam chat set up this morning, but we spent so long trying to get everything set up - and on top of that I was constantly interrupted and distracted here... and then she had to go! Technology, technology... such a waste sometimes. All I really wanted was a smile and some reminiscing, but I didn't realize that until it was too late.

All that's left to do is coast through the rest of the day, and catch her tomorrow. It'll get easier, I know it, and smiles always come in the end. Right now, though, I have to decide whether I should work here at the gym or head home and relax. I think I'll go home...

Posted by kgutwin at 09:27 AM | TrackBack

March 20, 2005

Finally Home

I made it home! It was a fine trip. No car problems, thank goodness. Every time I get in my car I think a bit about what could go wrong... sometimes I get slightly suspicious on the road but it's been fine for quite a while. The car at this point is being used for not much more than sporadic, fairly long-distance trips... which I hope is not too hard on it.

It's so nice to be home. Last night I spent a long time talking with my mom, and seeing what she's done with the house - she has a lot of plans for it which she's finally getting to do now that everyone's away :) It'll look really nice, though, once she can get it finished.

I still don't know yet what I'll be doing when I'm here. I know that there's a few little things that mom wants me to look at here at the gym, and I have a project or two that I ought to be working on, but besides that it'll be a whole lot of nothing. Which is excellent now. Being able to relax is really important to me at this point.

On a totally different note, my phone gets data signal here! Yay! This certainly wasn't the case last time I was home, and it was pretty weird to not get instant notification of my emails etc. Now I just have to make sure that I'm not going to be paying through the nose for the privilege of getting a few measly bytes of data while I'm home. If it's cheap or free, though, then I can tell you one thing -- I won't be driving all the way to the gym to chat with Becca in the morning!

Posted by kgutwin at 06:31 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 17, 2005

Easter Meat

Some days are straightforward... other days are fun... sometimes it's just weird :) Today was a long day. Up at 6am to study for my exam, studying on the train, lab, exam, then class and more lab, oops, forgot to have dinner, chorus, long ride home and then hang out and have a Guinness with the roommates.

But what really surprised me was the package I got! I love it when packages arrive that I don't expect. This one was from my mom (with the "Vermont makes it special" sticker on it) and contained one pound of beef jerky along with a very sweet Easter card and some bank information. The card said that she thought that rather than having Easter candy, I'd rather have meat :) So now I have a pound of Easter meat. Which is beef, not bunny, just in case you were wondering...

On a side note, the car which has been parked in the Blockbuster parking TOW ZONE NO PARKING for several weeks is finally gone. Who knows whether they just didn't tow the car or whether there was something involved with the store owners... my car's pretty safe where it is, though. It's just surprising how long that car was there. I've definitely seen tow trucks driving through there, and once in a while they get a car... good thing I can safely park on the street. I checked up on my car today and all appears well. Just so long as nobody put a car bomb on it... just kidding :)

Posted by kgutwin at 10:25 PM | TrackBack

March 16, 2005

C Line

This morning I'm taking the C line into school. Pretty strange for me, since I usually take the D line - but this morning, and next, are special.

I have a midterm coming up on Thursday, and I haven't really studied for it yet. In order to maximize my available time, I decided it would be worth a few extra minutes of transit time to be able to get a comfortable seat and study. I never get a seat when I take the D line in...

So I should be studying - but I still need to print out copies of the lecture slides. I have some already but not enough... So I'm posting to my blog instead.

Ok, something very strange is going on... the train's been stopped at this station for a while - I saw the driver walking alongside... And now an MBTA truck drove quickly down the street BACKWARDS and then forwards again, a guy got out and got into the train. Now we're moving again. I think what happened was at the beginning, the train left before the driver of the second car arrived! Oops...

Ok, now study time.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 09:35 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 14, 2005

Enjoy your Life

Today, as I walked from MIT towards the T station, I walked over the Harvard Bridge as I always do. I don't often walk this way at night, and many times (especially in the winter) the weather doesn't permit me to observe anything more than a few feet of pavement in front of me. But tonight it was nice enough for me to look around, and I admired the Boston skyline. From the middle of the Harvard Bridge you can see just about everything, from downtown all the way towards BU, as well as everything on the Cambridge side.

As I was posting to Becca's blog, I thought about that experience. Somedays, even doing the same thing that you've done many a time, sometimes it just feels a little special. It's not like I've never seen the Boston skyline before... but tonight I felt like I got the chance to appreciate it.

Make sure you take the time every day to find something to appreciate. It's like the effort I put into posting to my blog. I don't do it because I'm just bursting with fun and exciting stuff... some days I'm less than enthusiastic - and some days I forget entirely! But when I remember, I make the effort, because there always has to be something that happened today worth writing about. I couldn't imagine a day that was so utterly like the one before that it didn't even deserve a passing, trivial mention. I know that if I ever got to that point - it's not about my situation, it's about my attitude! Something interesting always happens, you just have to be willing to go and dig it up.

Posted by kgutwin at 10:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 13, 2005

Dinner in the North End

This weekend was the last of three MIT Open House weekends for prospective graduate students. A lot of what goes on is actually planned and run by the current grad students... It's fun for us and probably helps them with their workload. I got the chance to host a student two weeks ago - I told the story - but this week I helped by leading a dinner trip. Much less time intensive, although it did basically kill my evening.

We went to Pagliuca's, a nice hole-in-the-wall place in the middle of the North End. For those folks who don't know Boston, the North End is the traditional Italian quarter, and is packed to the gills with Italian restaurants. We had a great time - twelve people in all, a tasty meal and wonderful dessert.

The bill came to over $350, which was pretty decent for all twelve of us. We 'invented' a few extra students so that we would get reimbursed fully... That even when the allowance per person is $25.

Now I'm on the train headed home. It's very late but I still have some homework that needs finishing up. Sleep is going to be tough to find this next week... Good thing spring break is coming up!

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 12, 2005

The Day

Not much happened today.

Had to decide whether to get dressed this morning or stay in my pajamas. I knew I wasn't going anywhere today - which wasn't really a bad thing. Decided to get dressed but wore a shirt normally reserved for pajama use anyway. Did not put on socks all day.

Lots of work on my programming homework. Trying to puzzle this algorithm out is slow going. There's probably a more efficient way to do it but I don't know it... so I stare at a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it and pretend I'm a computer. Pretty easy to do. Computers are pretty dumb.

Meals were uninspired. The crowning glory of the day was a frying pan of potatoes and a hamburger patty chopped into chunks, cooked together and doused in mesquite marinade. Too lazy to even chop up part of an onion, which would have made ten times the difference.

The bright part of the day was working on a project for Becca. I'll keep it secret now but you all will know soon enough. Lots of fun, very creative... I know she'll love it.

Goodnight everybody... church tomorrow and dinner in the North End with MIT recruits!

Posted by kgutwin at 09:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 11, 2005

A Breakdown in the System

Tonight I decided I was going to cook something nice and tasty. I don't get the chance too often, especially during the week, just because of my schedule. But tonight I had nothing to worry about so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Usually my meal planning process begins with identifying the key ingredient that I'm going to use. Tonight it was some hamburger that I had bought a few days ago and had frozen. While I was defrosting that, I started brainstorming... and quickly came to realize that what I really wanted to make was some chili or chili-like stuff. There was one problem, however. I had no tomatoes. Now, I had a can of black beans, and a can of kidney beans, plenty of potatoes, rice and pasta if I needed it, an onion, spices... but no tomatoes. No celery, peppers or carrots either but that could be forgiven. Tomatoes, though, are a key ingredient in chili.

Of course, you might ask, why didn't I just go out and buy what I needed? I just didn't feel like it. Mostly because I had other stuff I wanted to do this evening and didn't want to spend a half hour shopping, an hour or more cooking, a half hour eating and then bedtime. So instead I fried the hamburger as a patty and had a valient attempt at a tasty meal with some Indian and Middle eastern flavors. It just wasn't the same, though.

The moral of the story? Always have a can of tomatoes handy.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 10, 2005

Topic for Discussion

Here, in brief (cause it's late):

I was thinking about a news story I read in the Jordan Times a while ago (sorry, reference is gone) about how Iraqis were not in favor of Saturday being a holiday because it is a "Jewish" holiday. That got me wondering about why, in Middle Eastern nations, or Arabic nations, or just "over there somewhere", people feel like it's okay to hate a group of people and teach that hate to those around them.

Now of course nobody is immune to this and I can come up with five examples immediately about how we Americans have been prone to blind hate in the past and present. But it seems to me that at least here, there's a drive to end hate, to be tolerant and loving - not only in Christian but in secular terms also.

So why is this kind of public hate so prevalent? Is it acceptable? Is it merely a 'phase' which will someday be overcome with love, or is this hate rooted deeper?

Feel free to comment. I'll summarize and add my own thoughts in a few days.

Posted by kgutwin at 10:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 09, 2005

Beef Nibbles

I always check the mail here at my apartment with great anticipation... I never know when I'm going to get a letter from my sweetheart. We've been sending letters back and forth ever since she left... so far I've recieved one letter and two postcards! And I think she's received three of my four letters, plus there's a package I just put in the mail yesterday which will take a few weeks to arrive.

Of course, it's even more of a surprise when I get mail from someone who I didn't expect! I told you a while ago about how I got a postcard from my dear sister who is in South Africa... well, today I saw a little envelope in the mailbox and my heart fluttered for a moment before I realized it was just from my sister ;) I was still excited, though, because it obviously contained something interesting - padded envelopes always carry little goodies.

The envelope contained a little plastic pouch and a letter. The plastic pouch says "Stormberg Natural Veld-Fed Chilli Beef Biltong Nibbles" and it contains what appears to be little sticks of dried beef. The package goes into exuberant detail about the "grassy plains of the Stormberg" and how it contains a "unique and unforgettable taste experience".

Beef Nibbles? Hmmm.... Now, I'm always adventurous when it comes to food. After all, if it isn't good, I can just spit it out :) But here is a dilemma: I can open this package, partake of the unforgettable taste experience, but it is a mere 40 grams which, if I am not careful, will last all of 40 seconds. On the other hand, I can leave the package sealed, and take it as a fine memento of my sister's travels... but then I don't get to have a taste experience.

The letter is the saving grace, though - Becca tells me she'll just buy some more if I like it! But I'm not sure how she'll get it to me... she tells me she's not allowed to bring it through US customs, but how else will she bring to me the required quantity?

Posted by kgutwin at 08:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

SideKicked in the rear end

Most of you probably know I have this fancy phone - the T-Mobile Sidekick II. It's great -- when it works. The problem has been lately, service has been awful... Which is culminated now by the fact that I haven't been able to use any of my phone's data features for over 30 hours now.

The problem really is in how the phone is designed. In order to provide the impression of speed on an admittedly slow network (GPRS is limited to no faster than a dial-up modem, and usually much slower) Danger, the company that makes the Sidekick, uses a bunch of servers that the phone is constantly connected to. The good thing is that when it works, it works well - web browsing speeds aren't broadband fast but they're not pokey either. The bad thing is that I said 'when it works' - when it doesn't work, nothing works. Web browser, instant messenger, email... The only things that don't rely on their servers are the phone and text messaging - which is very good because I send texts to Becca all the time and it would be awfully sad to miss those...

By the time this post appears I will be back online. However, as of now, March 8, 10:15 am, there is no functionality in sight...

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 08:05 AM | TrackBack

March 08, 2005

Random update

* My Sidekick's data function is, and has been officially down since yesterday early morning. It's pretty obnoxious because I use the email and web functions a whole lot. I wrote a scathing email post to my blog this morning which has yet to be sent...

* Rotation #2 has officially begun with my outstanding investment of nearly 2 hours this morning. Needless to say, I don't have much yet to report. I will keep you posted as developments arise.

* Tonight is early bedtime because I haven't been exactly sticking to my schedule the past few days. It's so hard to get up at 5 to do work...

* it's snowing like crazy here! I love how the temperature was a nice, balmy 50 degrees... right up until noon yesterday. Then it started going down and down and at this point, it's at 15 degrees and still descending. So much for our chance to beat Jordan ;)

Posted by kgutwin at 09:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 07, 2005

Weekend

ummm... the weekend... You know, this past weekend was pretty unimpressive, as weekends go. I went out to dinner with my friends on Saturday, but that's as exciting as it got - just a bunch of homework, or at least trying to do homework. Same thing on Sunday... I got to go to church, which I missed last week. Went out to dinner last night with some more MIT biology recruits, that was fun. I got back really late, though, which I wasn't expecting; well, I suppose I would have expected it had I given the matter any thought.

This upcoming week I start my second rotation - starting Tuesday. It's been nice to have last Friday and this Monday off :) I still have to go in to chorus, though.

Posted by kgutwin at 06:24 AM | TrackBack

March 04, 2005

Excise Taxes

One day, while cruising around Boston's website, I came across a link, which led to another link, which started to get me worried because they were talking about taxes... automobile excise taxes.

It turns out that the City of Boston collects a yearly tax on all autos registered in the state and held in Boston. Well, this was news to me! Of course, I was not looking forward to paying yet another fee, tax, whatever to this blasted state just for keeping my car here. But, I read more about how much this tax was going to cost me, and here's the formula:

The upshot of all this is that the City of Boston values my car at $1,050, and so would normally pay just over $25 per year, but since I got my car registered in October of last year, I only pay for three months. So I now have a tax bill from the City of Boston with the grand total of $6.56.

Crazy Massachusettsians with their crazy taxes. It'll probably cost them more to process my payment than they will get out of the whole deal. Oh yeah, this $25 tax is on top of an annual $41 registration renewal fee and a $40 license renewal every five years. Plus my $984 per year insurance bill, plus gas, plus repairs... owning a car is expensive.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:52 PM | TrackBack

Tex-Mex something or other

Recipe: Tex-Mex Tasty

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1/4 lb hamburger
2 tbsp Trader Joe's Santa Fe sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce (Cholula preferred)
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 tomato, diced
3 tbsp black bean dip
blue corn tortilla chips

Directions:
- Brown hamburger in medium fry pan, add Santa Fe sauce and hot sauce. Cook down.
- Add onion and fry until onions are cooked.
- Add tomato and black bean dip. Cook on medium heat until tomatoes are cooked slightly.
- Serve over rice, top with coarsely crushed tortilla chips.

Yeah... so this doesn't really have a name. I was going to call it "Tex-Mex Surprise" but that probably wouldn't have gone over so well... Still, really good. I like it spicy, so there's a bit of hot sauce in there, but I suppose you can reduce the spice if you wish. Not that I would ever call you a wussy if you did so. No, not ever...

By the way, the exact same thing would be good with substituting canned black beans for black bean dip. I just didn't happen to have black beans tonight. Or you can replace the meat with more beans. Or you can put in a different sauce - use chili powder and whatever else you want. It's all good.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:42 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 03, 2005

Daily crunch

Highlights of today, in reverse order:

I'm crazy hungry. I don't have any leftovers and my kitchen is a disaster and I had no time this morning to cook, so I couldn't bring a dinner. I thought about buying something on campus but for some reason I convinced myself that it was more a waste of money than I wanted... Never mind that a burrito would have cost me a whole $3.10.

Class was fun. It's funny to switch from computational biology to parallel computing... You'd think they're at least related but they're totally different worlds. Nothing monumental has been happening except that I get a problem set a week in comp bio...

I stayed at home this morning.. Rather than heading to campus at my usual 9am, I didn't leave until 12:15. I used to do this when I had lots of work and skipped working in lab - but since I'm now between rotations I have no lab to go to. That also means I only have to be on campus for a half hour tomorrow, for an audition for a chorus solo.

Last night, just before I went to bed, I remembered, "oh shoot! I was supposed to do laundry tonight!" So instead... I did my laundry at 5:45 am this morning :) but the laundry machine bit me while I was putting my money in so now I have a blood blister on my thumb. Right on the spot that I usually use to type on this keyboard. Ouch.

Tomorrow I get to sleep in! Ahh, sweet sleep...

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 07:15 PM | TrackBack

March 02, 2005

More Sleep Schedule Updates

Just a couple of quick points, because it's soooo late...

This method, of going to bed early and waking up early to do most of my homework, actually appears to be very much healthier than my old sleep schedule. I know that if I want to trade school work time for sleep time, it's easy to simply stay up later. I've never had a problem staying awake long enough to do my work, even if that leaves me only a few hours to sleep. However, I can't easily wake up early to do work if I've been losing sleep, because it's just impossible for me to drag myself out of bed, and even when that's done I sit and stare, trying to wake myself up. This actually encourages me to keep a healthy sleep schedule in the long run, because losing sleep at any time during the week can have a pretty substantial impact on my ability to do my homework.

However, tonight is the first night that I had to go against this idea. After hosting this recruit over the weekend, I burned a lot of time that would normally be time-managed to get my week's work done. Tonight, I had to basically pound through a problem set which is due tomorrow. I would have woken up with a few hours to work on it tomorrow, but I had no idea how long it would take me, and at this point I can hardly afford to trust that the time will be there, when I'm literally counting the hours before the due date. So now it's past eleven, and it'll be really tough to drag myself out of bed tomorrow morning... but Becca's worth it :)

Off to bed! I'm neglecting so many things... maybe I can get some of them done tomorrow morning.

Posted by kgutwin at 10:55 PM | TrackBack

March 01, 2005

Room to Breathe

Finally... My recruit's gone. It was a fun weekend, no doubt about that, but it was pretty crazy.

His name is Chris, and he arrived Saturday evening around 6pm. I drove to the airport (the first time driving my car since Becca was here!), and drove back to my apartment to drop off his stuff and pick up Matthew and Corey. We went out to dinner at Legal Seafoods, a really good seafood restaurant which also happens to be close to the MIT campus. After dinner we went to a party at some third-years' house and hung out for a little while, meeting a few folks. It was tough on me because nowadays I start getting tired around 9pm, and we didn't arrive at the party until probably quarter to nine. We didn't stay all that long, though, which was nice for me.

Sunday morning I slept in until 6am, then we left around 9 to meet a group of folks heading to Dim Sum. Breakfast took us until noon, then I went to lab to work on a project while Chris did activities around Boston. We met up again at 5 for a reception and to go to dinner in the North End. Again, I got pretty tired by the end of the night but fortunately Chris didn't tend to stay out too late and never minded waking up too early.

Oh boy, Monday, the crazy day... We had to leave earlier than I usually do because he had a breakfast that started at 8:30! Chris had interviews, talks and general schmoozing time while I worked on a presentation for the end of my rotation. At 5:30, though, I got the message that they were going to declare a snow emergency... So I had to skip some of my chorus class to run home to move my car. Meanwhile Chris is going to dinner... I make it back to school for the last hour of chorus, breathless of course, and sing for an hour, then head to a dessert party with Chris and everybody else. After dessert we went out to a pool hall and hung out for another hour. I didn't make it home last night until 11pm...

This morning we had to leave at 7am to drive to the airport. I've been losing tons of sleep this weekend so I didn't get out of bed by 5:30, and did I mention that I've done virtually nothing of the three assignments I have due this week? I tried reading one of my papers but I could barely keep my eyes open. Tired, confused, worried about my car...

So I dropped him off at the airport and took a deep breath. I decided to relax at home and work rather than heading to lab this morning. I'll pick up a shawarma for lunch, call my sweetheart and then head to class! Ahh, what a weekend... But still lots of fun.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 11:50 AM | TrackBack