pop quiz

Ok, all of you readers lurking out there: it's time to scare you out of the woodwork for a vote!

Which one of these handsome young men is the cutest?









(Ok, ok, it's not really a fair contest...)

all done

I'm all done with my grad school applications!!!

I mailed the last of the supplementary forms off today, and submitted my online application to Wisconsin this morning (I submitted Hopkins yesterday). Now I just have to sit and wait...

lost in translation

You just have to try this. Funniest thing I've seen all week.

Go to this link and type in lucretius.blogspot.com.

Do it. Now!

news clippings

Oh, the perils of having a little brother...(scroll down to the end of the article!)

On a lighter note: one of my favorite blogs is turning into reality tv. Watch out for Bridezillas...

ouch

Today Sandra picked me up for lunch. Just like on Thanksgiving, I slipped in the snow en route to the car and went WHOOMPH to the ground. I brought a whole pile of snow into the car with me by accident, too. It had hidden in the folds of my backpack. There really must be something Bermuda-Trianglesque about the combination of me, Sandra, and that car. I've never fallen any other time!

I gave Sandra Veronica's little present, which she opened on the spot. It was a cute little colorful Japanese porcelain bell in the shape of a ram. It's a good thing I didn't break it when I traveled back to Boston! From all the clinking it made I thought for sure that I had crushed it.

We went for Japanese food. Sandra had a bento box; I had a chirashi bowl; we split a soft-shell crab appetizer. It was so much better than the dorm food I had last night! The weird thing was that I had to ask for wasabi. I've never been to a Japanese restaurant in which you have to make a special request to get your wasabi. Maybe it's an East Coast thing.

Then Sandra took me to Shaw's Market and we shopped for the supplies for the little study break I am planning for my dorm tomorrow night (cookies, cinnamon rolls, cider, cocoa, Oreos, ginger snaps, etc.) and snacks for me to stock up my room with (dried figs, potato chips, bread, juice). We were going to go to Super 88 (the Chinese market) to get real food for me, but unfortunately we ran out of time. Sandra had to head back home to take Karen to the airport at 2:30.

Since then I have been working on my applications and doing stupid paperworky stuff like ordering checks. I was going to pay my quarterly taxes when I realized I only had one check left for my Berkeley account. Oops. So I have to use that last check to transfer all the money into my Harvard account, and then write checks out of there instead.

It's kind of like telling the genie that you wish for more wishes, right? Except that the genie is pretty broke after having paid my Harvard term bill.

my room is a mess

I got in on Saturday night, and spent the evening cleaning up. My room looked like a tornado had hit it, which is what always happens when I pack at the last minute. Yesterday I spent most of my time doing laundry and working on my Hopkins and Madison applications; in the evening I talked to Tom and Mom (who told me all about the 50th anniversary party at the hotel).

Today I finished off most of the paperwork (transcript requests, letters of recommendation, etc.) and returned a whole bunch of really heavy library books to MIT. It's too bad I didn't get more errands done yesterday, when the sky was blue. Today it snowed most of the day, and the snow and cold weather (in the 20s) is supposed to keep up for the rest of the week. Fortunately it's not a very wet snow, so it's easy to get around, and much nicer to walk around in than rain is.

I will be meeting Sandra for lunch and grocery shopping (I have no food left in my room and I really want to go to the Chinese market!) on Wednesday. I chatted with her online earlier today while she was stressing about trying to find somewhere to stay in Tahoe for Karen's wedding this summer. It sounds like one of those gotta-do-it-because-we're-such-good-friends-but-BOY-is-this-going-to-be-expensive-and-difficult things. Like when I went to England lugging my custom-made super-wrinkly can't-be-ironed gold satin bridesmaid's dress with me. Call it a token of true friendship...

road reviews

Here's a partial excuse for all of those awful Boston drivers.

Why do you think Palo Alto didn't report in? The roads seemed pretty decent to me...