MechE Ladies Reunion

There aren't very many people from my undergrad university at World's Best School. Or in Boston, for that matter. And there aren't very many women Mechanical Engineers in general.

So to get THREE of us ladies in MechE, all from the same undergrad university, together in Boston was quite a treat. It makes me very happy when friends visit! This was a while ago, but it still makes me smile to look at the photos.

Especially the ones of friends being silly at Boston tourist locations. :)

Night at the Bar

This week an alum from my lab happened to be in town for a short time, and in order to see the most friends he could with a minimum of scheduling fuss, he just decided to camp himself at a bar in Harvard Square, and anyone who wanted to say hi was welcome to stop by sometime during the evening. An excellent solution, I thought, and very efficient - just like you'd expect an engineer's planning to be!

So I made my way to Harvard after work, and spent some time catching up with him and the other mutual friends who were there.

And at some point, of course, I had to use the bathroom. While I was waiting in line (only one restroom), I heard the girl behind me warn her friend "Yeah it's a bummer, the flush doesn't work on the toilet..."

Really? That seems like more than a bummer, in fact that seems like a pretty major issue in the ONE BATHROOM.

When the girl in front of me came out of the restroom, she said to the line in general, "I'm just letting you know, the flush doesn't work." And you could see in her face, she was really trying to say, "It's not my fault the toilet hasn't been flushed... I tried, really I did... don't blame me!"

Oh great, well, I guess I'm next up...

Sure enough, the toilet was in a pretty sorry state. Fortunately everybody had been nice enough to only pee... too much information? Well, sorry...

But the top of the toilet tank happened to be off - and when I took a peek, the problem was obvious. The little chain that attaches the flushing bar to the valve at the bottom of the tank, had just came unhooked.

Now, I'm an engineer, and this is a problem where I know the solution. You can guess what I did, right?

Yep, I took a deep breath, reached in there, and re-attached the chain and fixed the toilet.

Then washed my hands REALLY WELL.

Not sure whether to be proud of myself or not. Don't think there's very many other women who fix the toilet while they are out at the bar, so at least the rest of the ladies waiting in line should be grateful. Can't be normal, can I...

Beach Day

This weekend I went to the beach - at the generous invitation of a friend with a house right off the beach, membership in a yacht club with private beach, and a boat. Those are the type of friends you like to keep around. :)

This was my first time in the water this summer, and I had to scrounge around to find a bathing suit in one of my packed boxes. Fortunately I managed to find my red and white striped one, so with blue shorts I even managed to be seasonably patriotic. Sometimes these things work out!

When we got tired of lazing around on the beach (as if), we took a boat ride around the area. Lovely! The fifteen year old son was the skipper, and man he was proud as a peacock to be ferrying around five young ladies.

The husband was also an excellent tour guide, giving us the history of the area and some background on the mansions and who owned them. The area we puttered around - from Beverly (across from Salem and Marblehead) up to Manchester (you could see Gloucester in the distance) - is very wealthy, very old, and very storied. Lots of marine history here - Salem and Beverly disagree on which one was the base for the very first U.S. Navy, shortly after 1776, but whatever the case, this area was smack in the middle of sailing and naval activities. And also shipping and commerce - in one stretch of rocky coast, there is a stairway cut into the stone tucked into a crevice. It led up to a government official's house, where he would have alcohol smuggled in by boat during the Prohibition.

And now, it is prime territory for the rich and famous to have a seaside summer house. Or you know, summer mansion. The lighthouse here is one of the best postings for a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper to aspire to. This area is not far from Singing Beach, which is one of the more well-known beaches in the area. And it's one of the few coastlines that alternates between stretches of rocky cliffs, and sandy white beaches. You can get the best of both worlds - whatever tickles your fancy!

I had a lovely time relaxing - and since I slathered on sun screen, managed not to get sunburnt which is quite the accomplishment for me. Ended the evening with a lobster dinner (good thing I learned how to eat a whole lobster just a few weeks ago!), and went home full and happy.

Email of the Day

I got an email from a friend of mine, informing me of a conversation she had with a mutual friend, concerning me. It tickled me pink, so I'm sharing it here. The email was as follows:

The conversation went like this

START CONVO
Danielle: You know who is awesome? Miss Outlier...she is awesome
Melissa: You know what is more awesome than Miss Outlier? Two Miss Outliers
Danielle: Three is even better!
Melissa: Well, in theory yes....but then our ceiling would be covered in Wisk Laundry detergent.
Danielle: Good point...two Miss Outliers it is
END CONVO

Thus Miss Outlier...promptly clone yourself...Good Day.

So clearly, I need to change my research promptly to the field of cloning! :) But why the Wisk reference?

These two friends of mine are roommates, and they threw a Halloween party last year that I attended. As part of the festivities, all guests were provided with small cups of Wisk laundry soap. Turns out, Wisk soap glows in blacklight. So everyone was encouraged to draw on the walls, the room was lit with blacklight, and this is what engineers do for fun.

I was having trouble finding somewhere to draw on the wall, so I decided to get a chair and draw my name on the ceiling. I was quite proud of my handiwork.

Turns out nobody else followed my lead (story of my life, ahem). Everybody else confined themsleves to the walls, so my name was the only one up there, prominently displayed in the middle of the ceiling.

My two friends of course cleaned up later and washed the walls (there's soap there already, so why not, and things probably ended up cleaner than before the party!). But they forgot about my outlier piece of artwork while they were cleaning, then even later when they realized it they never got around to wiping it off, and so my name has stayed proudly up there all year. It's still there. Of course soap is clear, but if you look carefully you can see it.

I suspect if I ever want anybody to follow my lead, I'd HAVE to clone myself. :) But perhaps my friends are right - one Outlier, and one cup of Wisk, is enough!

Professional Sports: Lacrosse

Boston is a fantastic place to be a sports fan. We've got professional teams winning things right and left, it seems. I got here in 2007, and that year the Red Sox won the World Series, and then in 2008 the Patriots went to the Super Bowl and the Celtics won the World Championship, and most recently in 2011 the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

There are many things I want to do in Boston during my time here - because why not take advantage of everything life and the city you are in has to offer? One of my goals is to go to at least one of every professional team's sports games. I've been to basketball, baseball, football, and lacrosse. And just today, I bought a ticket to see the Bruins, so now I've added hockey. I think that completes my mission - unless there are any I'm missing?

Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons: March 5th 2008

Patriots vs. Denver Broncos: Oct 20th 2008

Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons (second annual!): March 1st 2009

Red Sox vs. Texas Rangers: Jun 5th 2009

Blazers (lacrosse): April 3rd 2010

I realized I hadn't shared the photos from any of these. Too avoid completely boring you with old stories and pictures, I'd just like to say a few words about the lacrosse game.

Figure: First of all, aren't these great seats?

The Blazers play indoor lacrosse for the National Lacrosse League, which I had barely even heard of. But they were selling discounted tickets at World's Best School, so I bought a pair and went with a friend. I expected the attendance to be pretty low, given that's it's not as popular of a sport as baseball, football, etc. But when I got there, I was surprised to find that there was a pretty rowdy crowd in attendance.

Why were all these people so excited? I had no idea. Usually people only get this hyped for homecoming college football, or after the fifth inning in baseball when they are pretty tipsy from the beer...

But then halfway through the game, I found out why everybody was so excited.

Lacrosse players FIGHT. Not like football, where some guys will shove at each other, and then the refs come running over and break it up. There are RULES to the fighting. You can only fight each other if the helmets are off, or something, and I think there's an actual throwing down of a glove that starts a fight. I didn't quite understand all the etiquette, but I do know that guys were hanging onto each other's jerseys (so they can't get away) and just whaling on each other, while the refs stood watching with folded arms. And the crowd went wild.

Figure: Crowd also went wild for the cheerleaders, I should mention.

I will also say, that lacrosse players STINK. You can smell them coming from thirty feet away. SHEESH. I guess I understand it - they are sweating hard in those hot uniforms, and all that gear is expensive and tedious to wash, so I'm sure it only gets cleaned at intervals. Their noses must get used to it. I pity them if not....

All in all, it was a great experience. The game was fascinating, fast-paced, and competitive. Our seats were fantastic - only a few rows back from the front row, and right next to the entrance where the players run in and out (refer back to: they stink.) I'm particularly glad that I went when I did in 2010, because now they are moving to a new city.

Take the experiences as they come, I say. I'm looking forward to the Bruins game, coming up later this year - both for the game itself, and to complete the set!

Hosting Pub Trivia

It takes me a long time to make friends, and settle into social circles. I have talked about this before, how it's about a year to get fully situated in a new place. But then by the time I've settled in, I really enjoy developing the friendships I've worked so hard to create. And life is good. I've never actually been in one setting past the three year mark, so now that I'm heading into my fifth year of grad school, I feel like I'm moving into uncharted waters. On the one hand, I'm restless, and all around me people are moving on, but on the other hand, I really love the comfortable grooves I've worn doing the things I enjoy.

And, my goodness, at times I even feel popular. After five years of being really involved with a lot of activities, a lot of people know me (for better or worse, I suppose...). Who knew? I was in a situation recently where I actually felt like I had - believe it or not - some level of street cred.

A few weeks ago I hosted the weekly pub trivia.

Now, trivia at the bar is a common activity nationwide. There are a lot of bars around Boston that hold weekly trivia, all run by Stump Trivia. (In fact, the bars hold them on different nights, so if you are sneaky you can go to a Tuesday trivia, learn all the answers, and then clean up at a bar holding trivia on Thursdays... But that takes a certain combination of dedication and deviousness that is generally just not worth it. Especially just for a $20 prize.)

World's Best School has two bars on campus (this is a majority grad school, after all), and one of the bars runs trivia on Wednesdays. I used to go quite often with a set of friends who were really good at trivia (I wasn't, but I'm good for moral support). Those friends graduated, so now I don't go as often - maybe once every month or six weeks, when I have friends that invite me. But I have always really enjoyed the laid-back, trash-talking type of atmosphere. Trivia is sort of a whole experience unto itself.

For instance, a big part of the trivia experience is the choice of team name. The team names are read over the microphone several times during the night by the trivia host as they report the scores of the teams. So it's a bit of team pride to come up with a name that is either a) funny, b) relevant to current political news, or c) a historically significant name for your team. So for instance, a funny name might be "My Couch Pulls Out But I Don't" (yes, it's a classic, but I've heard it used, and yes, the funny names are usually dirty...), or "Drinks Are On the House Tonight" (imagine that one read out loud). A political name might be "Client #9" (when the Spitzer story was big), or "8 Lost Miners" (when the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners was happening). There were lots of riffs on Charlie Sheen when that happened, Lindsey Lohan, the hurricane... you get the idea. Historical names are used by teams that come back every week, and like to have a reputation built on the name. At our pub, one of the historic teams is the "MechE Warriors." Lots of my friends on that team. A friend of mine told me his team is always known as the "Cracked Windshields." Whatever works...

The trivia at World's Best School is not standard trivia, though - nope, in reason #1361 that I love World's Best School, the trivia here has a flavor all its own.

Instead of a professional running the show, the pub trivia is hosted every week by two grad students. The students are paid $30 between the two of them as a thanks, and are usually either bartenders on their night off, or trivia regulars, or just anybody close enough with friends in that social circle to be asked (say, me). So you get an incredibly entertaining range of hosts - the hosts will respond to hecklers from the audience, make rulings on questionable calls, and generally set the tone for the night.

Instead of the standard categories, and standard number of questions per category, the style runs the gamut. Usually there is a Sports category, a Music category, and almost always a TV/Movies category (all of those are taken from standard national trivia), but you might also get a Math category, or a Technology category. Sometimes you get a Boston History category, and once there was a category dedicated to World's Best School Insider Knowledge. Everybody's favorite is always the Picture category, though. And the number of questions per category also varies - most of the time you get the normal six, but sometimes you get multi-part questions, or twelve tiny questions. Up to the discretion of the host!

Instead of getting the questions from a standardized national database, the students are in charge of making up the questions. That, I think, is my favorite part of the World's Best School trivia - the pure randomness of what you might get hit with. One time the picture round was a map of Africa - label as many countries as you can. Or once it was maps of the subway systems in major cities around the world - name the cities. One time we had a British host, and there was a question on snooker - how much is the pink ball worth? I think the whole bar just laughed and scratched their heads on that one.

Instead of typical bar music, the music is run from the iPod of the host. So some weeks you get classic rock, some weeks you get hiphop/R&B, and some weeks you get Korean pop.

Anyway, my friend and I were the two hosts a few weeks ago, and I really felt like I was part of that elusive "cool crowd" that every highschool kid dreams of being included in. I had a whole lot of fun making up the questions, and a whole lot of fun reading answers, scoring, and just all 'round running the show. It felt very Cheers-like. I know all of the bartenders (they are all students, and more than half are MechE students), I know all of the trivia regulars, and people would banter with me as they brought up their answer sheets. It was a good night.

The World's Best School pub trivia is so popular that even though it starts at 9pm, you have to show up 8:15-8:30 to get a table in the bar. It's a part of the popular culture here at World's Best School, and I am so pleased to be a part of it during my time here. So the best way for me to conclude this post, I think, is to share with you the basic truth that all trivia players knowingly whisper amongst themselves at the end of each week... My friends, it all comes down to the wager round.

Figure: Grading trivia answer sheets. Red pen, oh yes indeed.

Dinner Club, One Year Anniversary

There are some things that you are not supposed to do just by yourself. Things like watching a movie at the theater, going to Disneyland, going to Las Vegas, or eating out at restaurants.

Some things I do by myself anyway (um, do you realize how EASY it is to find just ONE seat at the movies? I get prime viewing every time!). For some things, like traveling, I will wait until plans with friends fall into place. And for some things, well, I try to make them happen.

Such was the case with Dinner Club. I wanted to eat, at cool places in Boston, with friends.

Well, why not? With a nod to my family's infamous motto, "How hard can it be?", the monthly dinner outing was born. The first outing was last January, to an Ethiopian restaurant.

I am pleased to note that tonight, we are heading out for the Jan 2011 outing, a full year later. We've gone eleven times so far (only one month did we have to cancel). We've been to places that serve French Cambodian, Italian, Indian French, Tapas, Shabu-Shabu, and Brazilian food. I think next month will be Turkish.

The original email list has grown from just my friends, to friends of friends, and significant others of friends, and new labmates, and new classmates, and whoever else was interested. Instead of me having to come up with new places each month, now I just pick from all the suggestions. Instead of being limited by getting enough people to come, now we are limited by how many the restaurant can take for reservations.

You know, I've been quite involved with student life at my time here at World's Best School. I've been the RA for a graduate dorm, the RA for an undergrad dorm, spent two years as an officer in the MechE student club, been in an entrepreneurship club for two years, and been to countless student life events. But this is the most diverse thing I do. Usually an event is marketed to a specific group of people - just MechE students, or just first year students, or just students who live in this dorm.

But because this dinner thing just grew by word of mouth, we have people who live all over, from all points along the PhD journey, from all sorts of different majors. Old, cynical grad students usually won't come to social stuff anymore (young bushy tailed grad students just discourage them, perhaps?), but they will come to eat. Brand new grad students sometimes feel awkward going to something where they don't know anybody, but what's more low-key than simple dinner? I invite new labmates when they arrive, and it's an easy way for them to meet people.

The other type of event that brings people together like this is events that involve drinking - a pub crawl, or karaoke, or trivia night at the bar. But not everybody drinks - especially my friends, who are not really the hardcore partying type. So, again, dinner works! And the fact that it's at a different place every month keeps it interesting.

The only thing better would be if it were cheaper.

But then someone gave me a suggestion - the guy who organizes the Scotch tastings, actually, when I was talking to him. If this event really is this well-liked, and well-attended, and diverse, and supports student life, why not apply for a grant? The concept has surely been proven, now that we're one year in.

So I did.

I put in an application to get some funding from World's Best School, to subsidize the cost of meals. I won't know for another month or two if the application is accepted, but fingers crossed. Worth a shot, anyway! In the meantime, I'm still enjoying the food and friends.

And maybe this can be an inspiration to you - why not invite a couple friends, take yourself out or eat in, and catch up on life? Surely there's a place in your area that you've been meaning to try, or a new food you've been wanting to cook. If it'll shift your mind from work to fun, what's not to like about that?

Cheers!

SantaCon 2008, 2009, 2010

It began, as most great ideas do, at the lunch table. It was fall semester 2007.

"Hey you know what my friend told me about?" began the ringleader. "New York city has an event every year called SantaCon. He goes every year. And Boston has one too - it's coming up in December."

The table ringed with raised eyebrows asked the obvious question - "Uh... SantaCon?" we quizzed.

"Yeah, a bunch of people dress up as Santa and go on a pub crawl around Boston. It starts at noon and goes until they shut the town down. You want to go?"

Well, obviously.

And so it began. Five of the guys teamed up to get Santa costumes wholesale on the internet, patting themselves on the back for scoring full, red-velvet-black-boots-white-fur, quantity-discount ensembles for $25 a piece. I didn't go that year (2007), but epic stories from that SantaCon lasted all the way to the next summer.

When 2008 rolled around, you bet I was in. And of COURSE the guys were in again. They had already bought the costumes, it would be a shame not to get a second wear out of them! I didn't have a costume, but I figured a red shirt and black dress with boots and a belt ought to at least get me Santa's helper status. I was designated photographer, so I present to you the SantaCon 2008 group of guys:

 The pub crawl starts at noon, where I insisted that we have lunch. Woman needs a burger at noon, not a beer... or so I feel, at least.

The best part about any social event is the people you share it with. The guys in these photos are all characters in their own right, and life will be an adventure whenever they get together. You may recognize Eehern, my travel buddy to Chicago. After the seventh double-take from random passers-by, Eehern just shrugged and said, "Well that's what I get for being an Asian Santa!"

The other fun part of this event is seeing all the OTHER Santas. There were several hundred, and when we "crawled" between bars, the procession was quite a sight.

We met the organizer of the Boston SantaCon:

 And stopped to take a picture in front of Boston City Hall:

 We ended the night by taking a non-scheduled stop at Border Cafe. It was well past dinner time, and I felt that food was needed instead of more beer. Can you tell I don't operate well when I'm hungry? :) When the restaurant owners saw us walk in, they insisted that we meet a large party in the downstairs. The guys played Santa for the laughing and delighted patrons, and we all got free appetizers!

SantaCon 2009

In 2009, after enduring two years of stories from SantaCon, more labmates were convinced to join. This year I borrowed a legitimate costume from a friend.

Cute, right? Well it looked cute when I was among the hundreds of other Santas, but you do get some funny looks as you travel around town. It's particularly disconcerting for people to see Santa on the T... (in Boston, the subway is known as the "T.")

We again started with lunch. Lunch is always a good idea.

There were still characters to keep the day interesting. :)

And "Asian Santa" reprised his appearance for the third year in a row!

The bars were again packed with Santas, throwing off the poor regular patrons just looking for a quiet Saturday out and about.

Random people would come up and stop us on the street, asking to take a picture. We thought it was funny for the first two, or three, or five... but by the tenth person that asked us to take a picture, we got a little tired of it! But when kids came up to talk, we always played the part. Nothing like making a kid's face light up!

This year it wasn't snowing (thank goodness), so the picture in front of City Hall was much more pleasant.

And, to keep to tradition, we again ended the night with late dinner at Border Cafe. Chips and queso for the win.

SantaCon 2010

This year was the third year I've done SantaCon, and the fourth year my lab has done it. 

The group of my friends that goes keeps getting bigger every year! Some students have graduated, so we don't have the same people, and unfortunately not as many Santa suits this year. But at least we were all wearing hats, that counts right?

The bars were always packed. This year the event was so big, that the Santas had to spread out among four or five bars at once just to hold everybody. The more the merrier!

Lunch stop!

There will always be chartacters. Life is no fun without characters. :)

Wrapping up SantaCon 2010 in Harvard Square.

I think now that my lab has done this four years in a row, it's safe to say it's an established tradition. I've enjoyed going, and it really is a bonding and morale-building experience for us as labmates. Of course, we talk about research...... right? Yeah, not so much. :)

And this year, we even made the news!

http://www.cctvcambridge.org/_SantaCon_in_Cambridge

I'm the girl in the bright red dress.

Cheers to SantaCon, and to social events with friends!

Hiking in NH

Now is a beautiful time for fall foliage, and I have been loving the New England trees! About a month ago, I went hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I did the same thing last year, but with a different group.

The trees weren't quite in full bloom at the time like they are now, but it was still beautiful.

This year, I didn't fall for the "moderate" group trick... I put myself down squarely for the "easy" route! So my group hiked up a trail with waterfalls along the way, and stopped at a pretty lake at the top of the mountain.

Rest stop. Some of the group actually went swimming in the lake, but it was COLD. I abstained.

Another group that had taken the "hard" trail met up with us at the lake, and one of them snapped this picture. The "hard" group was all sweaty and had walking sticks, and hydrating packs, and all sorts of accouterments. I was pleased all I needed was a backpack for granola bars. My philosophy was that the goal here was to enjoy the day.... :)

Life is good.

Girl's Night Out!

Last summer the girls in my group had a couple girl's outings - once to a club where they served three-course $9 dinners for girls on Wednesdays, and once just out for a bite to eat.

But now we are losing one of the girls to California (and a new job - congrats!), so we decided to take ourselves out for a last hurrah.

(Also, we were jealous of all the stories of the boys' nights out. Although we would never replicate what happens on the boy's nights - they get pretty wild, and we just don't drink that much...)

There are several options for ladies' deals around Boston, and we ended up going out to restaurant that offered free dinner (with $10 drink purchase, of course there is a catch...).

Figure: The ladies of my group

Of course, we picked a miserable day to go - rain and puddles everywhere. I discovered that the right foot of my rainboots is not actually waterproof anymore, but oh well - we all dried out eventually!

I have always felt so lucky to be surrounded by such fun and smart people in my group - and it's just a bonus that so many of them are girls! A good looking group we make, I think. :)

Miss Outlier, Hostess

I have never hosted a party while I've been at World's Best School. I've been to quite a few friend's parties, but they live in apartments or houses, and I - well, I live in a dorm. During my first two years I lived in a graduate dorm, and now I live in an undergraduate dorm. I'm going downhill, people, downhill! Never have I had space to entertain.

But I was at a dinner party a couple weeks ago, and the topic of July 4th came up. I started raving to my friends about how excited I was - because my undergraduate dorm is perfectly positioned for fireworks watching. Last year I had to stand squashed between thousands of other people, trying to see the fireworks. And trying to get home? Not fun. Public transportation is not equipped for hundreds of thousands at once.

That's when I realized - now I live in an undergrad dorm with a VIEW. And it's EMPTY in the summer. Only four RAs are here, plus the housemasters - and the housemasters are out of town.

So I thought - I should have a party in the penthouse! There's a rooftop deck on my dorm, with both an inside lounge area, and an outdoor patio. My view looks like this:

And the inside lounge area (this was set up with tables for a dinner, but I had couches and chairs and coffee tables for the party):

The best part is, for the 4th of July Boston has a huge fireworks show. And they shoot off the fireworks from a barge in the river - right beside that bridge in the first photo! Perfect vantage point! Just this summer we planted a bunch of plants outside, so there's a rooftop garden from which to enjoy the fireworks show. And there's a big screen HD TV inside to watch the broadcast of the Boston Pops.

So I hosted a party.

I sent the email to the Dinner Club friends list (the people I go out to eat with once a month). I figured hey, we'll have food, it counts, right? :)

I got so many responses! I think most of them were just excited about the view, maybe not just my charming self, but hey - I'll take it. I was out with my friends on Wednesday, and ran into a MechE friend of mine. He said to me - "Hey Miss Outlier, can I come to your party on Sunday? I hear it's the place to be!" I told him of course!

And it sounds silly, but that made me really happy. I'm glad that my friends were excited, and I felt like if this were highschool, I just became popular.

There's strict security at the dorm on the holiday, so I had to set up a guest list. So I know that there were exactly 36 people who came to my party. At first, I was a little nervous. I've never hosted that many people before! But then I thought - wait, yes I HAVE! I'm an RA! I was an RA for a year at the grad dorm, and I've been an RA for a year at the undergrad dorm. I've provided food for more than 36 people more times than I can count. I even have all the serving platters, dishes, cooking supplies, and tested recipes to use. So really, who better to host a party?

You guys, I had so much fun planning. I always buy my serving dishes and platters in white, black, and blue (so it all kind of coordinates even with different brands) so it was already kind of festive. I added vases of flowers of my own plants for decoration. I arranged furniture and brought in extra chairs so people could sit outside if they wanted.

We couldn't have a BBQ because I'm not allowed to have a grill, so I planned a menu around a picnic theme. We had chilled corn soup with fresh cilantro for appetizer, then roasted chicken and zucchini sandwiches, mac n' cheese with butternut squash, cucumber dill salad, and spinach salad with quinoa and chickpeas. Then I added snack items - fresh strawberries that were on sale, baby carrots and celery, crackers, chips, and nectarine salsa. I actually meant to make deviled eggs, but I ended up skipping that recipe. It was okay - one of the guests brought deviled eggs as a potluck offering!

Then for dessert, I made my family's classic Striped Delight recipe (which is layers of chocolate, a cream cheese filling, and whipped cream on a graham cracker crust). And - the piece de resistance - my dad's Double Cruncher cookies. Those were my favorite. They are thin, crunchy cookies made with cornflakes, coconut, and oatmeal. You sandwich two cookies around a filling of chocolate, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Sinful, and delicious.

I remembered to put out paper plates, napkins, utensils. I had buckets of ice for drinks, trash cans for garbage, and recycling for bottles. I remembered to put out a Sharpie for marking cups. I greeted all the guests, tried to make sure people were all talking and enjoying themselves. In short, I did the best job I could as a hostess.

The best part was - in the end, the party was (I think) a success. I had fun, I hope my guests had fun. People brought food to share, drinks to share, and we all shared the fireworks.

And at the end, we clapped and cheered, and then laughed as we watched everybody far below (half a million of them by official estimate) trying to leave en masse. We just helped ourselves to another brownie. Because, you know, the Double Crunchers were all gone. That fact right there is how I really know it was a good night.

Happy 4th!

Formal Night

Once a year the grad students have a formal night, with a three course meal and dancing at a lovely hotel downtown. I went last year, and had a great time with a bunch of friends. Last year we met up beforehand at one girl's apartment, and took cabs over together, and then hung out at a lounge after the event was over.

This year I was excited to go again. I don't get a chance to dress up very often, and I even already had a formal dress (that I bought for Iceland, so my school friends haven't seen it) that I planned to wear. The same girl invited me over to her apartment again, so I assumed things were going to be a lovely repeat of last year.

Except that it didn't go that way. I can try to make the best of it and say I had fun, but really, the whole night was just awkward....

It started with the dress. I put it on, and it didn't fit right. I don't know if it looked bad in Iceland, too, if it did nobody told me! Or maybe it was just the day. Or the light. Or the vagaries of women's psychology and fashion perception. But it made my armpits all crease up funny, and the satin creased right over my butt, and the whole thing was shiny satin so it reflected light from all the curvy bits where curves are not supposed to be... Ack.

So then I was running late, so I just threw on an old black dress I've had since my community college days. I tried to fix my hair, but I don't do anything to my hair normally, so I'm out of practice. I sprayed something on it (which was probably expired, I never use hair products...) and ended up with crunchy, flat hair. Bummer. And my hose had a hole in it, so I went bare-legged even though it was cold.

Then I got to my friend's house, and it turns out that instead of being a group of singles this year, we had this:

Yep, I'm the only single.

Then we had trouble getting a cab, so we walked half a mile to somebody's car. Then they didn't know how to get to the hotel, and I was squashed in the back seat. We arrived for dinner half an hour late, so there wasn't a place setting for me.

Then they had ballroom dancing for a LONG time (last year it was only an hour) and the DJ didn't start the dancing music until 11:30. I don't know how to ballroom dance. But when the DJ finally did come on, all the couples danced with each other. Ack! So awkward...

So I went and sat back down at our table and people-watched, which I actually like doing. Some mildly creepy guy then came up and started a conversation, and just wouldn't leave.

Finally when friends were ready to go, it turns out we couldn't get a cab. The city at bar-closing time is NOT an easy place to flag down a taxi. So we ended up walking around outside trying to get a cab for AN HOUR, at which point I was freezing (no coat, I assumed we'd be taking a cab there and back) and could have walked home in that space of time.

Bugger. The whole thing would have been much easier with a date, or a group of singles. Usually I am just fine with the fact I don't have a boyfriend, but this in particular made me feel like this:

Sigh. Win some, lose some.

Chocolate Tasting

Having completely enjoyed both wine tasting and scotch tasting, when I saw a local chocolate shop offering a chocolate tasting - well, my attendance was assured.

And then I remembered last summer, when I invited a bunch of girls out a couple times to enjoy an evening of fun and relaxation. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for something similar. So I sent out an email to the girls I know, and wouldn't you know it turns out girls are nearly universal fans of chocolate - group of eight of us RSVPd for the tasting.

Man, with this along with dinner club, I'm feeling very social these days! I am blessed with a plethora of activities, an enjoyable set of of friends, and a few extra hours in my week to pursue both of those things.

It turns out that I was slightly mistaken about the event - it was actually a chocolate and TEA tasting. The chocolate shop teams up with a fine tea shop, and they present carefully edited pairings - much like you would expect wine and cheese pairings.

It was fantastic! The chocolate:

Figure: Hello, my lovelies.

Each sample was intensely flavored, beautifully balanced. In fact at one point, my friend sitting across from me leaned back in her chair and sighed, "Well I'll just need a moment here, I'm having an out-of-body-experience...." Laugh!

And the tea was also fantastic, although I didn't get pictures. I never realized the depth and variety of teas out there - I've now been inspired to move beyond my little Lipton Green Tea bags...

I was intending to buy a few of my favorite type of chocolate at the end of the event, but then I couldn't decide, so I bought samples of three different types. The other girls also had a hard time deciding. But it turned out in our favor - our group of eight were the last ones to leave, so they sent us all home with tea! The tea guy had brought a package of each type of tea, and he can't sell opened packages, so we got to split the six (nearly full!) packages amongst us. I nabbed the Chai tea, my favorite, and I am sipping it as we speak!

Cheers!

Dinner Club

I realized several things earlier this year.

1 a) I have a good group of friends whom I would like to enjoy and spend time with

2 a) I am living in a city with fantastic food, lots of it even within walking distance

However,

1 b) I would like to get to know my friends better, and expand my circle of friends

2 b) I never venture beyond the same few places to eat

Therefore,

3) Dinner Club!

In January, I sent out an email to my friends proposing a "Exploring Food" dinner series, where we would try a new restaurant close by once a month, or every few weeks. People were just free to come if they could make it.

I was a little nervous, because if nobody wanted to go eat with me it was going to be pretty lonely sitting by myself with a menu. It's a little like asking someone out on a date, I imagine. Will anybody like me?

And wouldn't you know, our inaugural dinner we had nine people! We had to push two tables together. In my head I was going, Yay - they like me!

Our first place was an Ethiopian restaurant, which is a kind of food I'd never tried. It turns out that they serve the food on a big huge platter (well, two platters for nine of us...). They put down a layer of teff tortillas, and then put piles of food clumped on top.

Then they hand out towels to wipe your hands. "Huh?" I wondered, "I guess that's a nice gesture."  But soon it all became clear. The staff brought out piles of more tortillas, and the way you eat is to tear of pieces of bread and pick up the food with the bread and your fingers.

We all loved it. Of course it didn't hurt that the restaurant also makes it own wine out of honey, and a bottle of that gave us each half a glass to try. All in all, quite a success!

Tonight was the second outing. This time there were seven of us, and we went to a seafood/grill place. Again, the conversation was good, the food was good, and I got several suggestions for the next place people wanted to visit.

I'm very excited about this dinner club, and I'm especially pleased that so many of my friends have expressed interest. I imagine the group will always be a little different each time, depending on people's schedules, so it'll be a new adventure each time.

And what's not to like about that?

Embracing the Subculture

Author's Note: This happens to be my 200th post. Who'd have thought I'd ever get this far, or have enough to talk about? If I had thought about this ahead of time, I would have chosen some serious subject for this milestone. But as it is I'm just going to go ahead with what's on my mind... which I suppose is appropriate, as that's how I do things on a regular basis anyway...

Last night I attended my second Science Fiction Movie Marathon, a highly popular and well-attended annual event at World's Best School. My first year in grad school, I was thrilled to hear about this event. I love science fiction, and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in good company here at World's Best School. That year's line-up promised to be good - it was Galaxy Quest, Sunshine, The Host, Gattaca, and Starship Troopers.

For those who don't recognize those movies: The first film Galaxy Quest was a crowd-pleaser, a goofy oldie from 1999. Sunshine was a blockbuster-type from 2008, then there was a break for pizza. At midnight the marathon resumed with a more critical pick - The Host - a Korean movie that was critically acclaimed at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival. We watched it with subtitles (so I felt very international, connoisseur, sophisticated warm fuzzy feelings) and the movie was excellent. At that point I was about to fall asleep and my rear hurt from sitting on the chair, so I stumbled home at about 2am.

So the movies were good, but it was the whole experience that made it fantastic. I had not anticipated the type of crowd that was at this event. First of all, there actually WAS a crowd - this is the highlight of the year for some pockets of enthusiasts. The people milling around were stereotypically nerdy and geeky - about the same panorama you see at comic conventions, or gaming tournaments. I happen to love that. I love that those people don't care what anyone thinks of them. So what if they are wearing a top hat and cape? Or their hair is green? Or their polo shirt is jammed into acid washed jeans belted under the armpits? None of these people care, and nobody judges. It's very freeing.

Second, the crowd was INVOLVED, man. The event is put on by a student club in a huge classroom auditorium, and the films are projected on a movie-theater-size screen using actual projectors and reels. There are long-running traditions involving crowd participation - for instance, the audience yells out "COMING SOON!" during the previews whenever that phrase comes up. There's good natured ribbing - for instance, whenever there is a mistake (projector out of focus, a hiccup during a reel change), the crowd yells out "FILM CLUB SUCKS!".

And finally, people are dedicated. They bring pillows, they stock up on popcorn and candy, they stick it out for the whole night and emerge dragging their blankets at 7am the next day. That first year, I saw the ultimate example of dedication - between Sunshine and The Host, a special PowerPoint slide was projected up on the screen. It was a landscape with a sky full of stars - and as we watched, the words "I would realign the stars for you" appeared on the bottom, and the sky rearranged itself to say "Will You Marry Me?" As the audience clapped, we saw the tearful girl wrapped up in a passionate embrace, having just accepted an engagement ring from her boyfriend.

That was my experience the first year, so this year there was no way I was going to miss it. Saturday night I arrived at the theater at 6pm. I brought a pillow and blanket so the classroom chairs would not become uncomfortable, and my own candy and drinks (although they have a well-stocked snack stand at the event). This year's film choices were just as well-edited - we had an anime movie first (Evangelion 1.0), then a French film with subtitles (District 13: Ultimatum), followed by Moon, a pizza break, then The Last Starfighter, Back to the Future Part II, and Flash Gordon.

There were no proposals this time around, but I had a great time. District 13 is my new favorite movie - although I'm not sure it will be the same without the crowd whooping and hollering and cracking up throughout the show. I lasted four out of six movies before I was falling asleep and headed home, happy and content.

I'm not sure if there is a point to this post, but if there was it would be this: I'm going to miss this kind of thing when I leave school. I will miss being surrounded by the nerdy, sci-fi subculture. I will miss how the obligatory "please don't smoke" notice before the movie was replaced by a section of programming code that asked people not to smoke. I will miss being with people who could all understand the programming code. And most of all, when I move out of school into the real world, I will miss people who LAUGH at programming code.

Live long and prosper. 

Habitat for Humanity

Today I joined a group volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. We rented three cars (I was a driver) and took the 14 of us to the Habitat site, where they split us up into groups to work.

Many hands were put to labor all over the house - and since I mentioned I had a little experience and a few relevant skillsets, I was assigned to work on drywall taping and sanding. 

Figure: Tools of the trade

Nobody else in our group wanted this job (it's a little tricky if you haven't done it before, and it's messy), so I was working with a bunch of "regulars" (men who have construction experience who show up most weekends). 

Figure: This guy is a professional. Stilts!

I was pleased that after a refresher demonstration, I picked up the technique pretty quickly.

Figure: Mud first, tape, scrape off excess, *plop* drat it, made a mess again

I don't have the energy to be any sort of witty this evening, but I do have to say that I really enjoyed this. I get antsy after a while if I don't do any physical labor (which is why I volunteer for stuff like this), and this fit the bill perfectly.

Figure: Tired muscles, dirty face, happy girl.

In the interest of full disclosure, that picture of me is not from today - it's from the last time I did drywall work. But, I looked pretty much the same today (well actually a bit worse - I managed to get drywall compound in my hair this time... dratted ceiling work.) :)