Yesterday I went to New York with some friends for no good reason. We got back this morning around 5:30am. You can more about it here.
Yesterday I showed up to work at 9am in a white collared shirt and a baby duck yellow with light blue diagonal striped tie. And it’s a good thing, too. I had two meetings to attend on my first day. After a quick three hour briefing of all the crucial operations tools, schedules, and problems, I was put to work to resolve them. The movers came in an hour before our large, all-vendor and all-contractor summer policy meeting. We were having a little trouble with scheduling and I got to negotiate in a small conference room. Luckily, things worked out, perhaps better than we first hoped.
At the larger meeting I was a bit more silent and not nearly as important. There were cookies and bite-size pastries, however! I got to meet the day building manager (I’m the assistant manager: read: the night guy). She just came back from sailing in the central Pacific. Tomorrow we’re going to work on some Excel spreadsheets. One of my bosses is especially keen on visual representation of data, which is a healthy and productive attitude, I think.
Since the programs don’t start in full swing until mid-June, I work on a very part-time basis for now. It’s nice to be able to work up to full-time. Today I mailed in my statement of intent to the Critical and Creative Thinking masters’ program within the Department of Curriculum Design at UMass/Boston for the fall. Tomorrow after work I run over to the registrar to have a copy of my transcripts sent in. Two of my recommendation letters should be ready by Saturday. I’ll have to see about the third. Hopefully the kind folks on the admissions committee won’t mind that my application is nearly a month and a half late. I’ve been told there is a strict June 1 deadline for admittance enforced by the university. I’m sure things will work out all right.
Last night, I headed back to my undergraduate House for this year’s spring formal. For the past three years we’ve traditionally held it at the Faculty Club, the snooty building where many of the professors take their lunch. When I taught for an advanced, theoretical freshman class—and now usually the largest with enrollment at about one at about one hundred to one hundred twenty students each semester—the entire teaching staff would meet there on Fridays to discuss the course and eat creme brulee. We ate downstairs in the cafeteria-type part. Upstairs is a la carte and much more expensive; the department couldn’t afford it. Sometimes we’d see big shots like Vaffa, Gross, Yau, and McMullen dining together. They’re all very, very influential people in math and physics. To see them at one table, hopefully talking about cars, was really spectacular for me.
But last night, the undergraduates had rented it out. We had one famous physicist, Howard Georgi, there. He works on grand unified theories and takes pictures of all his students, with whom he lives, at Leverett House. Here is one such picture:
The one in the tux is Emily; I’m in the middle; at the right is Laura. They’re both little kid doctors. Emily is a child psychiatrist. Laura is a pediatric surgeon. In the fall, they’ll both be working at Brown University’s medical school. [I guess technically Laura is an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School now.] People commented very favourably on my cap. It’s not new. In fact, I wear it for weeks at a time. But when I put on pinstripe pants and wear it to the faculty club, it stands out a bit more. I tell people that it was Uncle Bobby’s. Based on its age, it very well could be. I thought dad had told me it was but he doesn’t remember ever saying so. It appeared sometime after his death. Even if it wasn’t, I’m going to continue telling people that it was.
The House Committee splurged on an open bar. I meant to pace myself so that I could make it back home last night but lost track of the time. My friend Sarah, Morgan, and Leah took care of me, providing bedding and futon to sleep on. The meter maids got to my car before I did and left a twenty dollar parking ticket. I haven’t told dad yet. Better a small fine and no injuries than huge medical bills and potentially great physical and material loss.
I can’t wait not to need a car again. Oh, Janice just set off the fire alarm while cooking burgers. I should check on the situation.
I’m supposed to be washing dishes as I just gave myself a lecture about doing first things first and I imagine I am here doing this as my computer must have become this giant magnet. Last night I was commenting on your eloquent saying about being lost in the woods and I finished dishes about 3:00AM That wasn’t the worst part- Something came and ERASED ther whole thing! I had poured my whole being into those woods and I wanted to reread what it was like there in those enchanting woods. I do remember that I would never run to that deer. I would only observe and let it become aware that I was also a benign part of its tranquil world.Then I would find my way back to the world that was one of horrors for many people and animals and fish and even vegetation and forests. I would try to remind them their Creator promised to ” MAKE ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL IN ITS OWN TIME” As for this present “evil eon” “….concerning all that is done under the heavens: IT IS AN EXPERIENCE OF EVIL ELOHIM HAS GIVEN TO THE SONS OF HUMANITY TO HUMBLE THEM BY IT ” Ecclesiates 1:13 Galatians 1:4 Ecclesiates 3:11 culminating at the time when “…he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away…..behold, I make all things new….write this for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21: 3-5 “….THEY SHALL NOT HURT OR DESTROY IN ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN: FOR THE EARTH SHALL BE FULL OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, AS THR WTAERS COVER THE SEA.” iSAIAH 11:6-9 There will be the time when I can run to the deer and it will welcome my embrace because perfect ” love casts out fear.”