peaches and scream

I haven't come so close to crying in years. It was about 90/90 (degrees/humidity), 12:30am, and I was in the new room of my apt, staring blankly at the wall and thinking about the insurmountable list of tasks yet to be accomplished before I could go back to my other apartment and go to sleep to wake up early for a softball game that I had the next morning, and then continue the move. I had an army's of clothes, just sitting on the floor doing nothing, and I had to manufacture a closet in which to hang them (you see, the new bedroom is tiny and has a minuscule closet, so I lose both end of the dresser/closet equation - therefore I had to put up an external pole to hold the clothes).

Well, I gave myself a peptalk and finished the operation, returned home and slept like a lamb, then got up and played in an ultimately losing effort for the softball championships. And, although I made the griping observation that the clearest demarcation between the 'haves' and 'have nots' is visible on moving day (ie the haves pay to get moved, the have nots pay in sweat), there were several gems to punctuate my otherwise hellish weekend. I think that I can safely say this was my worst move ever. It would have been unimaginably worse without the untiring effort of my good friend/coworker Tolga and his lovely wife, Shebnam. Tolga helped me move all day Saturday in the super hot weather, and when we returned to his house, his wife cooked the most delicious food for dinner. It was a truly rewarding meal. And you really know who your good friends are on moving day, because they're there to help. Out of the all the people whom I told that I was going to move, Tolga was the one stalwart. A few of my girlfriends offered to help, but I refused... I guess I am old-fashioned when it comes to my notions of carrying heavy items. But, to a person, none of my guy friends offered to help, other than a few pithy words of sympathy ('oh, that sucks man'). I'm not the type of person to ask or guilt others into helping, so there you go.

The other thing that sticks out in my mind, and was totally unexpected so it made it better, was when Tolga and I were taking a break from loading the rental box truck full of my crap. We were just sitting inside my oven-like apartment, letting the sweat stream down our faces, and Tolga was not-so-secretly cursing the day we met, when there was a knock at the door. The neighbor from next door, who had moved in the week previous (I literally met him as he carried his last box inside, so help was out of the equation), was holding a bag in his hand. He told me that he was leaving to Russia in a few hours, and he had these fresh, juicy, delicious hand-picked peaches, and did I want them? Without looking too eager, I politely said 'yes, thankyou' and 'das vedana', and opened the bag, to a streaming ray of light from above and the sound of angels playing trumpets and harps, and there were a dozen big juicy peaches looking back at me. I immediately ate one, (and offering and being refused by Tolga, multiple times - Turks are weird man!) and it was an out of body experience. I was immediately transported to a grassy field in my childhood, and I was playing and covering my face in peach juice, and it was amazing! These peaches were so good! Sure, you could say that I was tired and hungry and I live on the east coast so I don't get good fruit.... all these things are true, but as I have since verified on multiple occasions, these are some major league fruit we're talking about here. Good stuff. Anyway, that was a little reminder to me from the beyond that somebody loves me. Message received, and thank you.

Last Day @ Work

Today is the day that I officially leave the workforce... I am moving from a window office to a cubicle behind the printer (literally) - I am chopping 75% off my salary, and doing probably 75% more work - that's right folks! I'm going back to grad school! Yeah me! And, just to rub it in, I was fortunate enough to take part in this delightful little tradition that they have at my work, where the guy leaving gets to take everybody ELSE out to lunch!! $120 later, I got a few 'good lucks' and pats on the back, and not much else. Oh well, I enjoyed the work at this job (www.chpcenterma.org) and I learned a lot. At least, that's what I told everybody. Lunch, by the way, was at 'Food Factory' an Afghan/Indian lunch buffet place with really good food. I mean, look at the name. It's gotta be good, right?! They have this 60yo guy, dressed in long white pants with a white shirt and black vest, semi tribal-style, who hand makes the bread in this clay oven, but he's totally stingy when it comes to passing it out. 'One bread per person!'

I move house tomorrow, have Sunday to 'relax', and to play in the finals of my softball league, then I start the new job full time on Monday, and school starts on Wednesday. Good times, good times. On a more upbeat note, the sun is out and I am wearing clean underwear (those two aren't necessarily related, but they came to mind first).

Grad School justification

I've put a lot of thought into this subject, and made a lot of sacrifices to get here - so, let's examine why I am taking myself out of the workforce for 5 years, to live penniless and along, when I should be busily accumulated material wealth and courting single women with reckless abandon (at least, demographers suggest)

The reasons are various and sundry. Well, not really, but that's a great way to start. As I am a longtime fan of lists, I'll take this opportunity to make one:

1) I figured out what I want to be when I grow up.
2) I like to learn
3) The subject matter is fascinating
4) Economics is second only to engineering as a venue for meeting chicks (note the subtle sarcasm here)

Read on if you are really that interested...
1) What I want to be when I grow up, is to do stimulating, challenging, relevant, and fun work that leaves me with a clean conscious. While previous jobs have had some of this, they haven't had it all. Most difficult seems to be the link between relevant and fun. But, the hope is, by specializing in something that interests me (stimulating, challenging check) and making that thing applicable to the world around me (relevant check) I will have fun (check). And that way, I won't be forced to rely on something like 'putting food on the table' to get out of bed and go to work.
2)I like to learn. It's true. I relish the opportunity to pursue topics of interest to me, far and wide. One of the cool things about econ is that it is a broad topic, with a lot of applications. But I also hope to take other courses while I am back at school, including, but not limited to, courses in religion, botany, and language.
3)The subject matter - the environment and human interaction with it - really is very fascinating to me. So much so, in fact, that I often wonder why everybody is working on this already! I mean, who doesn't want to live in a clean, beautiful world? (Aside from Lee Raymond) But who wants to sacrifice their standard of living to get there? Well, there's the rub. Understanding the effects of our collective interactions with the environment, and seeking to mitigate the adverse effects while promoting economic growth and increased standards of living - sounds like fun to me.
4)C'mon, need I say more?

So, this is where I will be schooling: http://www.arec.umd.edu/
and working: http://www.globalchange.umd.edu/?index

Cool bumper sticker

I saw a 'Campers are more in tents' bumper sticker on my way home yesterday. It really made my afternoon. :)

What'd you do this weekend?

The weekend with Nick was hilarious, tiring, and a lot of fun. What else would you expect? Unfortunately, the camera never made it out of the bag. It was a whirlwind trip, consisting a few late nights, interspersed by eating, sleeping, and exercise (the weather was super nice this weekend). In a not-too-unrelated side note, apparently some people are starting to get the impression that I have 'frat boy' tendencies. I'd like to address this by relating a some fatherly advice given to me when I started college. My dad pulled me aside, but his hand on my shoulder, and said: 'Will, avoid frats like the plague'. Despite my rebellious teenage instincts, I followed my father's wise words, and I haven't looked back since. Now that that's over with, a few other miscellany:
-Nick and I were starting to discourse about what to be for Halloween, surely everybody's favorite holiday. One suggestion: a Nascar team complete with pit crew - we like the idea of group costumes, and this one is easily scalable. I'm thinking that we can somehow incorporate rollerskates into the costume
-Softball playoffs round 2 this Sunday at 9am (ouch!). We won handily last Sunday afternoon, followed by a pizza party celebration. My teammates are bugging me to come out for the fall season, but I don't think that I will. I expect to be spending my waking hours with schoolwork, and I really don't need the distractions! :)
-The apt is mine to move into as of today. I just need to miniaturize my belongings and move them up three flights of stairs. No problem.
- I have to be a wedding date for my friend this Sat. I've met the bride and groom before, but it will still be pretty random. Oh well, I'm always up for a celebration.
- Ticket is purchased for both Santa Barbara labor day weekend (another wedding) and Berkeley October 7 (Homecoming game). I'm super excited about both of them. If only I could play all the time - I'm really good at it!

Last minute visit

We had a unofficial dept. orientation/pool party last night, and I was able to meet a lot of the 1st year students. - A really interesting group of folks, international, well-traveled, and super-motivated. I think it is going to be great to work with these people. The pool party was super fun, too.
So.. I was talking to a college friend Nick last night on the phone - we'd been playing phone tag for awhile, but I finally caught him around 11pm, and he mentioned that airfare was dropping because of the terrorism plot in Heathrow, so he was buying up all his tickets. That evolved into a discussion about when he would come down to visit, because I went up to Boston last time, and he decided that he would come down tonight! A 22hr turnaround, how d'ya like that? Man, it's awesome to have a friend that is so spontaneous. Anyway, I am looking forward to getting into some trouble, starting tonight@9. Hopefully I'll put some pics up Monday. As for the studying.... oh well, next weekend :)

apt and job changes

So.... I think that I finally found a place to live! Columbia Heights, near the city, but also near the metro so I can get to/from school. The room is TINY!!! But, if nothing else, it will motivate me to get rid of unnecessary crap before I adjust to the simple life of a grad student. The roommates are one gal and three dudes. I've met the girl, Courtney, and one of the dudes, Rick, and they seem to be cool folks. It may sound a bit casual, but I really only plan to be sleeping there, and spending my waking hours at school or out playing. I am pretty sure that I will be the oldest one in the house, as the others are ~ mid-twenties, but whatever. It seems a fair percentage of the kids in the Econ program are youngins too. I'd better start checking for gray hairs!

I turned in my resignation letter at work today. I briefly talked to Professor R, the big cheese, but he already knew I was leaving and didn't really seem to care one way or the other when I left (a bit strange, that). Joe, my direct supervisor, is out of town, but knows that I am leaving at the end of the month too. My soon to be new boss, Leon, is anxious for me to start, and I am going to a seminar tomorrow to check things out 'Impact of Urban Sprawl on Residential Energy Use' - sounds interesting to me. All that to say things are starting to transition. The logistics are essentially settled.... Now, if only I could convince myself to study hard! (My broken promises of 'I'll do it this weekend' are starting to add up at an alarming rate)

Forbidden party!

Since last time... had a party, which was a roaring success. I even got a few of my new classmates to show up, along with all my peeps from DC. A notable exception was anybody from my softball team! Not one of the 15ish folks made the trip (Brian was going to, but decided against it after learning that he had previously dated my next door neighbor and didn't want to introduce his new girlfriend to her) Anyway, we had about 50 kids, including a large European contingent (mostly dudes) invited by my neighbors. Accordingly, there were a lot of cigarette butts on the porch in the morning.

The idea was to have an end of summer bash (for me anyway, as I already started classes) featuring games, prizes, and two houses! I joined forces with my nextdoor neighbors, Leah and Mina, and we went all out: jello shots, finger foods, live music, bobbing for apples, a baby seal pinata, a lambada limbo contest, and just general merriment. Good times were had by most, although the neighbor up the street was bitter (I'm moving, so I didn't really care!)

Here are some pics so you can vicariously enjoy the action (more here: http://www.evite.com/ed?eventID=XLRMJIGBLWXQLWSEBIPV)
Eric and Kristin
Rob, Brigitte and I:
The baby seal pinata about to meet its fate:
Some lambada limbo:
The party organizers: