Back to class (and the blog)

To bookend things with my last post, which was on the night before the last day of the first semester, I thought I’d write today, the night of the first day of the second semester. What have I been up to for the last month? Less than I can really believe. I went home to Maine for about a week and a half between Christmas and New Years, where I spent a lot of time with my family and relatively little else. On New Years Eve, my friends and I went to L.L. Bean! Since they never close (they say the doors don’t have locks) they hosted the only free New Years event I could find in Maine. It was very…Maine-y. Down East comedian Tim Sample was the MC for the thing, which was held outdoors in the freezing cold next to a big statue of a boot. They apparently couldn’t get fireworks for some reason, so at midnight, so they showed pictures of fireworks on big screens and played fireworks sound effects. Woo! Maine!

I came back to New York on Jan. 2, ostensibly to get down to brass tacks working on my thesis. I did some interviews and wrote up my notes, but a lot of time was spent staring at my computer screen thinking about how I’m ever going to write 10,000 words, as unproductive hours sped by at a rapid pace. I’ve still got two weeks before the rough draft is due, so I’m counting on my ability to respond well to deadline pressure and get things done in the clutch (although right now, I’m writing this blog before going to an J-school welcome back party, so coming through in the clutch will have to wait for now…) That skill did serve me well in the first semester. (One of the stories I wrote, about an exhibition of art made out of Tupperware, was conceived at about 6 p.m. the night before it was due. I went to the exhibit at 7 p.m., stayed until 9 p.m. or so, then went back and wrote it until 1 a.m. I’d lost all ability to tell if it was any good at that point, but my professor really liked it. Which led to me doing the same thing, in a less rushed fashion, on other assignments.)

With memories of my insanely busy first semester schedule still in my mind, I decided to take last weekend to do something completely ridiculous and frivolous while I still could. I went all the way to my relatives’ house in Springfield, Mass. and back in one day, just to watch the Patriots came. My cousin suggested it, and while ordinarily that would seem like a totally crazy thing to do, I took her up on it. Travel time considerably exceeded the length of the game, but it was worth it to see the awesome and to get out of town for probably the last time until graduation in May. I left my apt. at 10 a.m., took the 11 a.m. train from Grand Central, and got to New Haven at 1 p.m., where my cousin (seen below in the massage chair) picked me up and drove the hour to Springfield. The game started at 4:30 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m., whereupon the entire maneuver started again, getting me home at 1 a.m. Like I said, silly, but surprisingly fun.