Monday, November 06, 2006

Go Vote!

A brief plug for democracy... Tuesday is Election Day and the fate of our nation hangs in the balance. Sorry about the melodrama, but this is important. Please go vote tomorrow, especially if you live in Virginia (so long as your name isn't Katye... Katye please stay home tomorrow). There are many, many reasons to bring in Jim Webb, not the least of which is the opportunity to oust George Allen (remember his racial epithet this summer?). Now go vote.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Harvard... and Some Other Stuff

I'm busy, really. That's why I haven't been writing. And, to be honest, I'm only writing now because I should be writing a response paper and I've exhausted other methods of procrastination. (But don't think that I don't care about you... I do.)

So where to begin? October has come to an end, the leaves have fallen from the trees. It seems that Ol' Man Winter hasn't quite arrived yet--though it's currently about 35 degrees, we had a couple days this week near 60. For my part, I'm ignoring this whole change-in-seasons thing and continuing to bike around town.

While the semester is half over, I'm still working on feeling settled/at home. It's as though I'm waiting for something to happen, or for pieces to coalesce. Don't misunderstand me--I'm happy here, it's just that it doesn't seem totally real yet. Such is the nature of transition, I guess...

Classes, on the whole, are great. I switched my schedule around and ended up taking a course in the Anthro department on ethnography, which has been really good. This seems more and more like the approach I will want to take in my own studies.

Though most of my waking hours should be spent reading, I've managed to find time for a few other things. A brief recap:
  • following the SF trip and Rosh Hashanah, I went hiking for a weekend in NH (Mt. Moosilauke, White Mountains);
  • I had a great visit with Christian and got to meet his wife;
  • my mom came over Columbus Day to provide some TLC;
  • coincidentally, this coincided with my dad and Susan's trip up to Mass. to see Scott and Mary, so I was treated to a wonderful family dinner for my birthday;
  • I went to Pittsburgh for Eric and Maggie's wedding (a joyous and absolutely amazing event, see pic below);
  • Cat came up from New Haven to hang out, which was great because we hadn't seen each other since our respective Cairo/Papa New Guinea trips; and
  • two, count 'em two, visits from Mimi (pic below).