ting bong goo

I'm back in Cambridge for the first time in eight years. A bunch of my friends and I are converging on the old alma mater for a big retirement celebration weekend for our college conductor. The celebration is being called "Ting Bong Goo," which is the kind of thing my conductor routinely said when he was explaining finer musical points to us. This man brightened my entire college career with his skill for non sequiturs (and his ability to squeeze beautiful music out of us). I can't imagine having gone through college without someone yelling at my friends and me to try to imagine a palm frond falling on Cool Whip, or describing a padiddle coming through the night in the Gobi desert, with an armadillo scurrying across its path, or making borderline obscene gestures to prevent us from going flat. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how I've gone for ten years without that, except that the memories have sustained me in a world that, for my tastes, is often lacking in random weirdness.

gps

I usually have no sense of direction, and use GPS for everything, and it doesn't bother me.

In New York, however, I can see how it feels to have a sense of direction, and it feels good. It's one of the things I miss about this city. The numbered streets and grid system make navigation easy, and it all just makes sense. I love that even if I don't actually know where I am or where I'm going, I can still figure it out really easily and feel like I'm in control of the situation.

fresh

I'm a lip balm addict. I usually go with Smith's Rosebud, but when I want something a little fancier, I use this one:

http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P174213

It stays minty for a long time, which makes me happy.

friends

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends whom we choose."

-Tehyi Hsieh

oldies but goodies

I'm in New York, and I always love coming here. Out of all the places I've lived, New York is still the one where I felt the most at home, and even six years after leaving, visiting still feels like a homecoming of sorts. Many of my good friends are still here. My favorite restaurants, the squealing, rocking subway, the ebb and flow of people, the interactive movie of walking through the city streets with headphones on, it's all still here, and it still gives me that same feeling of belonging that no other place did before I lived in New York, and no place has since I left New York.

schadenfreude

I haven't stopped giggling about this since I first heard about it on Wednesday, and so I must write it down. My friend from work (who is female) came into work with two thin, parallel cuts on her face on day. She had just come back from a vacation in Hawaii, so I assumed that it was some snorkeling accident or whatnot, but I asked, anyways, and it turns out that it was far funnier than a snorkeling accident. She was in a rush getting ready in the morning, and in her haste, she managed to cut her face while trying to shave her armpits. Think about that for a few minutes. Pantomime the motions a bit to get a sense of what happened. It only gets more absurd the more you think about it. I was nearly in tears by the time we finished talking about it.

She cut her face.

With a razor.

While trying shave her armpits.

spring training

I love being in a no-car-necessary city again. Public transportation is perfect for a person who likes to daydream and listen in on other people's miniature dramas.

crisis averted

The airline website wouldn't let me check in early. The printout sent me to the wrong terminal. They lost my seat assignment and gave me a slightly less desirable seat. The snacks were overpriced. Then I boarded, and a family of about six people rolled on in drooling and screaming chaos. I narrowly averted the crisis of sitting with four young children by offering to swap backwards. Whew. There's sleep in my future.

sensational

The first time I smelled a perfume that was just orange blossom, I thought it was amazingly lovely.

I had no idea what I'd been missing out on regarding the real thing until I discovered that there is an orange tree blooming right by my garage. The scent is strong and even more amazingly lovely than the perfume version, and it always catches me by surprise when I get home and get out of my car. Wow.

chocolate

I've been so busy trying to wrap things up before flying out tonight, turning out drafts, wrapping up deals, printing out schedules, packing bags, dropping off my dog, and doing the unbelievable number odd things that pop up for a simple trip, that I didn't have time to think about anything else.

Until I thought of something else.

http://www.burdickchocolate.com/

It's a place near Harvard that has the best hot chocolate in the world. This is the stuff that Roald Dahl was describing when he wrote about the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

And I get to have some in a week!

in case of emergency

When I don't have time to go downstairs to eat a real meal, these are my go-to emergency foods: Lucky Charms for breakfast (and there's even lactose-free 2% milk, my preferred version of milk), and Smartfood white cheddar popcorn and strawberry Fruit Roll-ups for lunch. If I'm going to eat emergency food, it should at least be food that was an exciting treat when I was younger, and that still makes me smile today.

hoarder

As I was contemplating my new putty, I realized that I didn't have a container for the putty, and that it would soon acquire a sad coat of fuzz and dirt. But then I remembered that I am a pack rat, and I hate throwing things away, even if those things are useless. A year and a half ago, one of my coworkers had given me some candy that came in a little green plastic egg. I ate the candy and saved the egg. Even when we moved office buildings, I saved the egg. But where was it? I am not an organized pack rat, I'm just a normal pack rat. I was afraid that by the time I eventually (if ever) found the egg, my putty would no longer be worth preserving.

But there it was, sitting in my file cabinet, just waiting for me to find it and use it for something. The green plastic egg has found its purpose, and my pack rat behavior has been validated.

color therapy

Did you know that Silly Putty comes in fluorescent colors now? I just went to the physical therapist (so convenient to have it at work, and right next to one of the best cafes), and he gave me some putty to strengthen my hands and forearms. Surprisingly colorful, and it will give me something to play with on the plane tomorrow, as long as they don't think it's some kind of explosive.

Weekend in New York with friends, week in New York with coworkers, then a weekend in Boston with some of my favorite people from college. All with bright pink Silly Putty. What could be better?

asphalt

Even the parking lot at work can be pretty in the right light.

books on wheels

A day or two ago, a coworker randomly recommended that I check out a light book for fun reading, which was a great idea out of the blue, since I've been reading some pretty heavy stuff lately.

I sent a sample to my Kindle from Amazon, thinking I'd read a bit and see if it was worth spending $10 for a one-time read. I also considered getting it from the library, but wasn't sold on the idea, partly because it would involve going all the way to the library, and partly because I'm not longer used to the weight of a real, printed book. I checked the library website, anyways, and saw that the printed book was on hold for the next several months, but then I noticed that the book-on-CD version was available in the library's traveling bookmobile.

Then I looked out the window, and saw the bookmobile right outside my office building. They come every Wednesday! I ran down, found the book-on-CD, and checked it out five minutes before the bookmobile was scheduled to drive off to its next stop.

No wait, no need to pay to read the book just once, no need to hold a heavy book, and now I have something to listen to when I'm driving. How frabjous is that?

yardwork

When this field at work gets overgrown, they rent goats to mow the lawn. I've seen them on the way to and from work both days this week, and it bookends my day with a touch of surreal humor. I find goats really amusing, for reasons mostly unknown, even to me.

omniscient santa

I love getting packages, even when I'm the one who paid for them.

I have a one-month trial of Amazon Prime, which means that I get free two-day shipping on a lot of stuff, including, to my surprise, a lot of things that ship from someone other than Amazon. I've been ordering lots of really random stuff that normally wouldn't make sense (because why would you pay $5 shipping for a $10 item?), and all that stuff has been showing up at my office. It's as if there's an off-duty, online, all-knowing Santa who just knows that I want a new phone sleeve or a water dispenser for my dog, and he ships it to me one box at a time, so that I have a few minutes of self-funded Christmas every afternoon.

jackpot

Just went to the microkitchen in my office, and it had just been restocked, and they have started stocking items that got good reviews in a recent snack fair we had on campus, including these almonds, which I had been rooting for :)

consolation prize

Rain is usually not my friend, but it's welcome when it's falling steadily on the roof and windows (I'm once again living in a place where I can actually hear it hitting the roof and windows), and I'm half-asleep and wrapped up in a cocoon made of down comforter and feather pillows. And hey, the Scrooge in me won't turn down a free car wash.

zzz...

Even after eight years, I still totally crack up every time my dog starts snoring.

Last week was a new one, though.

I was watching TiVo with my dog in my lap. He was watching me, and apparently I wasn't all that riveting, because his eyes would slowly close, his head would drift off to the side, and then he'd suddenly snap upright again after bumping his sleepy head on my arm or the chair.

He did this for an hour, and it's still cracking me up.