left sidewalk?

was it the house burglar alarm, announcing a breach from the "left sidewalk" over an intercom we don't know about, or a local college kid (those eastern nazarenes!) with a bull horn on the street, or some emergency vehicle? Well, it woke me up from my nap. I guess we'll never know...

But while I'm up, allow me to proceed with this update. Ironically, I began these posts as a way to keep in touch, but now they're actually a way for my family and friends to TOTALLY AVOID CONTACTING ME and still find out what I'm doing. Gee, thanks guys. You can CALL. :P

(No, no, it's ok! sniff!)

Hm, I think I'm a little cranky from being disturbed from my nap. :) Aaaanyway... In answer to everyone's bated breath YES, I finally did get a Harvard ID (one more to add to the collection!) and now I have supreme access to their materials. (mwahahaha... except that I just had to ILL a book from Berkeley. How ironic.) It took 3 hours of concerted door-knocking (student ID office, then registrar, then student billing, then student ID office, then registrar again, then student ID office one last time). Wow did they HATE me by the time I was done! But props to harvard for having really high quality ID camera setup - backlighting, screens, etc.

I sat in on a couple Harvard classes - wow was that a lesson ... called "Reasons I *heart* Berkeley!" I'm pretty sure some of the students here have cultivated affected vaguely british accents. They must practice at home. Really, though, there's nothing to make you appreciate Berk-town like leaving it for a while. I miss: cheap lunch near campus, being given the benefit of the doubt (no, it's not a stupid question, it's a really damn good question which you guys just haven't thought of yet!), and spacious library stacks with tables in them which are well-lit and, perhaps most importantly, all catalogued according to a single system in alpha-numeric order. Ironic that the organizing principle of the Widener library syatem, arguably the best library in the world, is, to use a favorite phrase of Matt's, totally retarded. You really have to be here to appreciate it.

Actually, I'm having a great time though. Because I get to smile and say, "actually, I'm from UC Berkeley" and hear responses like "Oh, I went to berkeley undergrad. Sometimes I wish I were still there." And "Oh. Berkeley rejected me." And you DO feel uber-collegiate walking through Harvard yard in the fall with a huge stack of books. And Matt and I are just now meeting some very, very cool people. So it's working out.

And we're going to see SPAMALOT next week!!!!!!! Spam spam spam spam...

Hello from Harvard!

At least, that's what I *would* say if Harvard had managed to assign me an ID number so that I could get an ID and have access to their libraries and computer system. But as of right now, that is sadly lacking... Considering that the registration period is already over and classes begin Monday, I'd say that, well, it's kind of disappointing.

So instead, Matt and I have amused ourselves by going to a Red Sox game, scouring Filene's Basement, and taking a road trip to Plymouth and then to Sandwich, just barely on Cape Cod. (Yes, we saw the magnificently disappointing Plymouth Rock.) And I bought tickets to Spamalot, which we'll go see on Oct. 4. So it hasn't been a complete waste of time. Just in terms of dissertation work. :)

Just to get us up to speed...

We're off the road - after chicago we drove through Michigan - stopped in Grand Rapids to see Ambre, yay! and then spent the night with Christine R. in Ann Arbor, where she's about to start law school! Then we went up to Toronto for a nostalgic visit... everything has changed! The 20$ bill is different, my favorite bagel place has become a "fresh" juice bar and restaurant, my favorite pub no longer sells Scrumpy cider, and my restaurant choice (Bar Mercurio) was closed for the week. Booo! Thank god Futures was still in tact.

From Toronto we crossed back into the US at Niagara Falls (and had a horrible lunch stateside at a place called Red Carriage Inn - ick!) but the falls were pretty, of course! And then we made it to Albany to stay with Matt's uncle and aunt, and we had dinner with BETH who I have not seen in forever! and then we went to Boston - Quincy, actually - where we are now safely ensconsed in our lovely loft, which can be checked out here.