Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Thanksgiving Recap
Well folks, it looks like the holidays are here again. Of course by now, all of the obvious clues are in place. The drugstore's Halloween candy aisles are now stocked with absurd amounts of peppermint and gingerbread. Main streets across America are now ever so slightly brighter thanks to the magic of holiday lighting arrangements. Hell, they did a news story this morning (on NPR, no less!) about the history of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special! Yes, that magical time of year is here, and what better way to start the winter shopping season than with some good old fashioned gluttony?
Yes, Thanksgiving...that most hallowed of holidays! Where gluttony is sanctioned and self-control takes a breather. And what better way for the Invisible Ben to spend the long weekend his school provided him than with the family he rarely see far from Old Ivy University and the drudgery of graduate school life? The only thing that could possibly equal that level of excitement would be spending the break with his girlfriend. (Who, I fully acknowledge, merits a better nickname than The Invisible Girlfriend, as she is quite visible and not at all a figment of my imagination.) Now imagine combining those two things together. I'll set up the equation for you. Ready?
Math Quiz
1. Thanksgiving dinner with the family + First visit with girlfriend to the Invisible Homestead = _____________
Ok, put your pencils down. I'll be collecting your papers in a moment. But first, a quick reminder that there are many possible right and wrong answers...but ultimately only one correct one. But since understanding how you figure out the answer is what's important, I suppose I'll have to recap the important details.
So my girlfriend lives about an hour south of me and the original plan was that we would travel to the Invisible Homestead together either by car or train. The tricky part was determining when to leave. I have no class on Wednesdays (or any other day of the week, depending on who you ask) this semester so it would be reasonable for me to leave here on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, my girlfriend is stuck teaching at Underwood and despite the perenially low attendance numbers the day before Thanksgiving, she still felt this annoying desire to go teach underprivileged youth. After mutually cursing her high sense of moral integrity and her commitment to education, we agreed that we would have to leave on Wednesday night, despite its inauspicious reputation as a miserable travel day.
But then, in a phone conversation confirming our plans, the Invisible Mom came up with a cunning plan. What if instead of driving up together, I drove up independently on Tuesday? The major travel day is Wednesday...not Thursday. What if my girlfriend could arrange for alternate transportation?
Which, of course, was what ended up happening. I drove up on Tuesday night, braving only moderate traffic, and my girlfriend arranged for a one-way plane ticket for Thursday morning. This worked out remarkably well, allowing me to get a little of my endless grad school reading done on Wednesday so that I could spend time with family and friends the remainder of the weekend.
So the travel arrangements worked out well, but what about the rest of the trip? Well, once I had adjusted to the renovations in the kitchen (a non-magnetic refrigerator door? strange new floor tiles? a tap providing instant boiling water in the sink?) and got reacquainted with the family dog, things generally went pretty well. I think my girlfriend gets along better with my family than I do. The whole batch of them certainly enjoyed conspiring against me when we played Trivial Pursuit, although their efforts ultimately proved futile. What's more, Mom outdid herself with the dinner, which in addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie included her famous pineapple kugel. My girlfriend, who had never had kugel before, was fascinated by this new, yet strangely tasty, dish, and would later wonder why it had never caught on with the general public the same way blintzes and other such fare had. I didn't have an answer, although Mom said that she would provide the recipe should my girlfriend wish to make it herself or have her boyfriend make it for her. How very generous of her.
Despite the miserable weather on Thursday, I did have time to give my girlfriend a tour of the Invisible Hometown over the following two days and she got to meet a bunch of the Old Guard including the Caseator, Throat, Sevensor, Ramblin' Dave, the Mathman, and the Baron. There was frisbee involved, which was lots of fun, until I discovered that my increasingly sedentary lifestyle has rendered me incapable of prolonged amounts of running. (Throwing---good. Catching---good. Running---Not so much.) Thankfully, a quick trip to a newly opened local brew pub was all it took to revive my spirits. Then it was off to the bowling alley where, it was Weekend Glo-Bowling [TM]. That's right...turn on the black lights and the really loud, poorly chosen assortment of late 90s songs, it's time to rock...and bowl...in that order. Bowling is not something I consider myself particularly good at, but my girlfriend owns her own bowling ball, which although she did not bring it on the plane, speaks well of her bowling ability. And two of the three games we played, she kicked everyone else in our lane to the gutter. In the third game however, I pulled off one of the best bowling games of my life complete with...you guessed it...an honest-to-goodness turkey for Thanksgiving. (That's 3 strikes in a row for those of you not hip with the bowling lingo.) I wish I could tell exactly how I did it, but in the frames that followed, I found that the more I tried to figure out how to bowl well, the less well I actually bowled. So the key is to follow the sage advice of Chevy Chase in Caddyshack and just...be the ball. (Na-na-na-na-na...)
On Saturday morning, we packed up the Benmobile and drove home, stopping on the way to visit my alma mater. My girlfriend seemed less than impressed by the rare book library, the gothic architecture, or law school, but agreed with me that the general environment of the campus was more like a college town than where I am currently living. We even got to meet up briefly with the Maestro and more at length with the Scotsman, who is right now in the midst of some sort of super secret Internet related enterprise. It might involve gambling or something else equally exciting...you'll just have to wait and see! The Scotsman, my girlfriend, and I went and grabbed a snack sized serving of Belgian fries (Belgian fries? Belgian fries!) and then we were back on the road. We listened to a comedy CD I borrowed from the local library and decided that Bill Cosby's "Noah" bit, while clever, seemed somewhat overrated, accidentally missed our exit on the parkway, and finally wound up at the single more dilapidated train station I have ever seen. I won't name names here, but if you're the property managers for this particular establishment, pay very close attention: you should not let rent on this place go any lower. The entire main lobby is torn up. The tracks for various train lines are separated by a couple of very sketchy streets. It looked like the train station of the damned...but at least the train we were waiting for arrived on time and we were both able to get home...her by train, me by car.
All in all, an exciting trip, well worth the stress of driving during the Thanksgiving weekend, if for no other reason, then my mother's care package of delicious leftovers which are waiting right now in the Invisible Freezer for another day. Not to mention the chance to spend time with my family and girlfriend. Or the opportunity to see a bunch of friends from the good old days of high school. Not everyone was around, but it was still good to catch up. After all, face to face conversations are sporadic these days and although I can post on the blog, that can be somewhat impersonal. Especially when one updates as infrequently as I do.
Hopefully, I'll be able to remedy at least that last point in the coming weeks. After all, December's nearly here, and longtime readers know what that means. And if you aren't a long time reader, well...you'll just have to wait and see.
Well folks, it looks like the holidays are here again. Of course by now, all of the obvious clues are in place. The drugstore's Halloween candy aisles are now stocked with absurd amounts of peppermint and gingerbread. Main streets across America are now ever so slightly brighter thanks to the magic of holiday lighting arrangements. Hell, they did a news story this morning (on NPR, no less!) about the history of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special! Yes, that magical time of year is here, and what better way to start the winter shopping season than with some good old fashioned gluttony?
Yes, Thanksgiving...that most hallowed of holidays! Where gluttony is sanctioned and self-control takes a breather. And what better way for the Invisible Ben to spend the long weekend his school provided him than with the family he rarely see far from Old Ivy University and the drudgery of graduate school life? The only thing that could possibly equal that level of excitement would be spending the break with his girlfriend. (Who, I fully acknowledge, merits a better nickname than The Invisible Girlfriend, as she is quite visible and not at all a figment of my imagination.) Now imagine combining those two things together. I'll set up the equation for you. Ready?
Math Quiz
1. Thanksgiving dinner with the family + First visit with girlfriend to the Invisible Homestead = _____________
Ok, put your pencils down. I'll be collecting your papers in a moment. But first, a quick reminder that there are many possible right and wrong answers...but ultimately only one correct one. But since understanding how you figure out the answer is what's important, I suppose I'll have to recap the important details.
So my girlfriend lives about an hour south of me and the original plan was that we would travel to the Invisible Homestead together either by car or train. The tricky part was determining when to leave. I have no class on Wednesdays (or any other day of the week, depending on who you ask) this semester so it would be reasonable for me to leave here on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, my girlfriend is stuck teaching at Underwood and despite the perenially low attendance numbers the day before Thanksgiving, she still felt this annoying desire to go teach underprivileged youth. After mutually cursing her high sense of moral integrity and her commitment to education, we agreed that we would have to leave on Wednesday night, despite its inauspicious reputation as a miserable travel day.
But then, in a phone conversation confirming our plans, the Invisible Mom came up with a cunning plan. What if instead of driving up together, I drove up independently on Tuesday? The major travel day is Wednesday...not Thursday. What if my girlfriend could arrange for alternate transportation?
Which, of course, was what ended up happening. I drove up on Tuesday night, braving only moderate traffic, and my girlfriend arranged for a one-way plane ticket for Thursday morning. This worked out remarkably well, allowing me to get a little of my endless grad school reading done on Wednesday so that I could spend time with family and friends the remainder of the weekend.
So the travel arrangements worked out well, but what about the rest of the trip? Well, once I had adjusted to the renovations in the kitchen (a non-magnetic refrigerator door? strange new floor tiles? a tap providing instant boiling water in the sink?) and got reacquainted with the family dog, things generally went pretty well. I think my girlfriend gets along better with my family than I do. The whole batch of them certainly enjoyed conspiring against me when we played Trivial Pursuit, although their efforts ultimately proved futile. What's more, Mom outdid herself with the dinner, which in addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie included her famous pineapple kugel. My girlfriend, who had never had kugel before, was fascinated by this new, yet strangely tasty, dish, and would later wonder why it had never caught on with the general public the same way blintzes and other such fare had. I didn't have an answer, although Mom said that she would provide the recipe should my girlfriend wish to make it herself or have her boyfriend make it for her. How very generous of her.
Despite the miserable weather on Thursday, I did have time to give my girlfriend a tour of the Invisible Hometown over the following two days and she got to meet a bunch of the Old Guard including the Caseator, Throat, Sevensor, Ramblin' Dave, the Mathman, and the Baron. There was frisbee involved, which was lots of fun, until I discovered that my increasingly sedentary lifestyle has rendered me incapable of prolonged amounts of running. (Throwing---good. Catching---good. Running---Not so much.) Thankfully, a quick trip to a newly opened local brew pub was all it took to revive my spirits. Then it was off to the bowling alley where, it was Weekend Glo-Bowling [TM]. That's right...turn on the black lights and the really loud, poorly chosen assortment of late 90s songs, it's time to rock...and bowl...in that order. Bowling is not something I consider myself particularly good at, but my girlfriend owns her own bowling ball, which although she did not bring it on the plane, speaks well of her bowling ability. And two of the three games we played, she kicked everyone else in our lane to the gutter. In the third game however, I pulled off one of the best bowling games of my life complete with...you guessed it...an honest-to-goodness turkey for Thanksgiving. (That's 3 strikes in a row for those of you not hip with the bowling lingo.) I wish I could tell exactly how I did it, but in the frames that followed, I found that the more I tried to figure out how to bowl well, the less well I actually bowled. So the key is to follow the sage advice of Chevy Chase in Caddyshack and just...be the ball. (Na-na-na-na-na...)
On Saturday morning, we packed up the Benmobile and drove home, stopping on the way to visit my alma mater. My girlfriend seemed less than impressed by the rare book library, the gothic architecture, or law school, but agreed with me that the general environment of the campus was more like a college town than where I am currently living. We even got to meet up briefly with the Maestro and more at length with the Scotsman, who is right now in the midst of some sort of super secret Internet related enterprise. It might involve gambling or something else equally exciting...you'll just have to wait and see! The Scotsman, my girlfriend, and I went and grabbed a snack sized serving of Belgian fries (Belgian fries? Belgian fries!) and then we were back on the road. We listened to a comedy CD I borrowed from the local library and decided that Bill Cosby's "Noah" bit, while clever, seemed somewhat overrated, accidentally missed our exit on the parkway, and finally wound up at the single more dilapidated train station I have ever seen. I won't name names here, but if you're the property managers for this particular establishment, pay very close attention: you should not let rent on this place go any lower. The entire main lobby is torn up. The tracks for various train lines are separated by a couple of very sketchy streets. It looked like the train station of the damned...but at least the train we were waiting for arrived on time and we were both able to get home...her by train, me by car.
All in all, an exciting trip, well worth the stress of driving during the Thanksgiving weekend, if for no other reason, then my mother's care package of delicious leftovers which are waiting right now in the Invisible Freezer for another day. Not to mention the chance to spend time with my family and girlfriend. Or the opportunity to see a bunch of friends from the good old days of high school. Not everyone was around, but it was still good to catch up. After all, face to face conversations are sporadic these days and although I can post on the blog, that can be somewhat impersonal. Especially when one updates as infrequently as I do.
Hopefully, I'll be able to remedy at least that last point in the coming weeks. After all, December's nearly here, and longtime readers know what that means. And if you aren't a long time reader, well...you'll just have to wait and see.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
13:40 (approx.)
My blogging has been down somewhat since I started graduate school. This is rather opposite to what I would have expected, given that I have two full days every week without class to attend. And yet, what did I do with my free day today?
I went to the library at 9:30 AM. After descending the three floors to the Invisible Bunker (It looks like a cubicle...but I'd feel safe there in the event of a nuclear war.) I picked up my reading from the reserve shelf. Today's volume? The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 5. Yes...this surprisingly expensive volume was included, in its entirety, on my Science in the Modern World reading course. And so, with that combination of bravery and stupidity that so often characterizes my academic adventures, I started reading, vowing that I would not leave the library until I had read all 650 pages of physical science goodness.
33 articles, 2 sandwiches, 1 dining hall cookie obtained the previous evening, and 1 extremely dead battery in my MP3 player later, I returned the book to the shelf having taken notes and read the whole thing. I will wholeheartedly admit, as I will to my professor should he ask, that a few of the articles were beyond me. Due to my lack of mathematical training, for example, I lost some of the nuance in the article on the history of the function. But I tried to read and follow it as best I could. And I took notes so that I can get confused all over again when we discuss it on Friday.
The downside of all this productive activity, aside from malnourishment, an even paler skin tone, and sharing the same exercise regimen as a common gastropod, was the time expenditure. I arrived, as mentioned earlier, at 9:30 AM. I departed the library at approximately 11:10 PM. For those keeping score at home that is approximately 13 hours and 40 minutes, more than half of a full day spent at the library, the longest I've ever spent since arriving at graduate school. (I'm not sure about my undergraduate career...there were a few days during my senior essay when I might have nearly gotten there.) If I had really wanted to push myself, I could have probably gone another 20 minutes and made it an even 14 hours, but I wasn't aiming to be a hero. I just wanted to get my work done.
Which gets back to my point about my lack of blog activity. Because unlike the old days at Underwood, when I almost always would have an exciting story to relate regarding administrative incompetence or student weirdness, now my days are rather mundane. What did I do today? I read 650 pages on the history of chemistry, physics, mathematics, environmental science, computer science, astronomy, and thermodynamics.
And that's pretty much it.
My blogging has been down somewhat since I started graduate school. This is rather opposite to what I would have expected, given that I have two full days every week without class to attend. And yet, what did I do with my free day today?
I went to the library at 9:30 AM. After descending the three floors to the Invisible Bunker (It looks like a cubicle...but I'd feel safe there in the event of a nuclear war.) I picked up my reading from the reserve shelf. Today's volume? The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 5. Yes...this surprisingly expensive volume was included, in its entirety, on my Science in the Modern World reading course. And so, with that combination of bravery and stupidity that so often characterizes my academic adventures, I started reading, vowing that I would not leave the library until I had read all 650 pages of physical science goodness.
33 articles, 2 sandwiches, 1 dining hall cookie obtained the previous evening, and 1 extremely dead battery in my MP3 player later, I returned the book to the shelf having taken notes and read the whole thing. I will wholeheartedly admit, as I will to my professor should he ask, that a few of the articles were beyond me. Due to my lack of mathematical training, for example, I lost some of the nuance in the article on the history of the function. But I tried to read and follow it as best I could. And I took notes so that I can get confused all over again when we discuss it on Friday.
The downside of all this productive activity, aside from malnourishment, an even paler skin tone, and sharing the same exercise regimen as a common gastropod, was the time expenditure. I arrived, as mentioned earlier, at 9:30 AM. I departed the library at approximately 11:10 PM. For those keeping score at home that is approximately 13 hours and 40 minutes, more than half of a full day spent at the library, the longest I've ever spent since arriving at graduate school. (I'm not sure about my undergraduate career...there were a few days during my senior essay when I might have nearly gotten there.) If I had really wanted to push myself, I could have probably gone another 20 minutes and made it an even 14 hours, but I wasn't aiming to be a hero. I just wanted to get my work done.
Which gets back to my point about my lack of blog activity. Because unlike the old days at Underwood, when I almost always would have an exciting story to relate regarding administrative incompetence or student weirdness, now my days are rather mundane. What did I do today? I read 650 pages on the history of chemistry, physics, mathematics, environmental science, computer science, astronomy, and thermodynamics.
And that's pretty much it.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The Underwood Alumni Pep Squad
So last weekend was the annual football contest between Old Ivy University and its archnemesis, Northern State University. My grandfather is a proud NSU alumnus and since the two schools are within driving distance of each other, it seemed only right to invite him up here to watch the spectacle and excitement that is Division I-AA football. It was a beautifully cold sunny day and after lunch with my grandfather and his date (who conveniently enough happened to be my grandmother) at the NSU tailgate, we moseyed to the recently renovated stadium to watch the game.
Unfortunately for me, due to the nature of the ticket package my grandfather arranged, I was the only Old Ivy student on the entire NSU side. Consequently, I had to keep my taunts at the other side's incompetence to a minimum or else risk getting beaten up by an Ivy League goon squad. (Yes...they exist.) On the other hand, as long as I avoided discussion of the superiority of my side's passing game then I was able to have some interesting conversations with the people sitting nearby.
The most interesting of these discussions began after I heard two of the white-haired gentlemen in front of me comment on how the school colors for Old Ivy were the same as their high school, but now they had to support another team. Now for those of you keeping track, NSU is located in the same city as Underwood High and, wonder of wonders, has the same school colors. So I took a hunch and asked them if they went to school in the city and when they replied yes, I asked where.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the answer to that question. It seems my hunch was right and both men were Underwood graduates from the 1950s, around the time my grandmother taught there. If she were in the stadium instead of sitting in the car reading she might have been able to answer more of their questions about the old faculty. But I was able to discuss the current state of the school. They were impressed that the school had calculus and statistics classes, but saddened that Latin was no longer being taught. One man commented that he took the College Boards in Latin and that he and his classmates studied several times a week at his teacher's house. Both men participated in the school's music program and were shocked when I informed them that the school's fifth floor, which had been home to the band's practice rooms and the biology labs had been shut down and walled up due to problems with hall walking and student gambling.
"If they had been gambling on the fourth floor, would they have shut that down instead?" one asked. They were glad to hear however that the school's music program, which had been in remission for several years, is steadily coming back. Granted the school band can only play Pomp and Circumstance, but the drumline is respectable and someday they may evolve into a real marching band once they get a few more instruments through alumni donations, etc.
One other thing that all the older football fans commented upon was the relative simplicity of the cheers. And to a degree, I can definitely sympathize. A man can only put up with hearing a squad of cheerleaders lead a rousing "DE-FENSE" cheer so many times before it gets old. In contrast, the high school cheers of the past seem almost unnecessarily complicated. By way of an example consider the following gem provided by the Underwood alumni from their time at the school:
When you're up, you're up.
When you're down, you're down.
When you're up against Underwood
We've got you upside-down.
Stand 'em on their head.
Stand 'em on their feet.
Underwood High School
Can't be beat!
It's a pretty catchy cheer, but I can't imagine a unified mass of several hundred people shouting it coherently at a football game. Perhaps that explains why Underwood's football team at that time perennially lost its annual football game with their archrivals at West City High.
Hopefully, their defeats weren't as convoluted as the game on Saturday which went into double overtime and only ended when Old Ivy blocked NSU's attempt at an extra point following a touchdown. Still, it was an exciting game and a good time was had by all. Except the NSU kickers. They probably will never live it down.
So last weekend was the annual football contest between Old Ivy University and its archnemesis, Northern State University. My grandfather is a proud NSU alumnus and since the two schools are within driving distance of each other, it seemed only right to invite him up here to watch the spectacle and excitement that is Division I-AA football. It was a beautifully cold sunny day and after lunch with my grandfather and his date (who conveniently enough happened to be my grandmother) at the NSU tailgate, we moseyed to the recently renovated stadium to watch the game.
Unfortunately for me, due to the nature of the ticket package my grandfather arranged, I was the only Old Ivy student on the entire NSU side. Consequently, I had to keep my taunts at the other side's incompetence to a minimum or else risk getting beaten up by an Ivy League goon squad. (Yes...they exist.) On the other hand, as long as I avoided discussion of the superiority of my side's passing game then I was able to have some interesting conversations with the people sitting nearby.
The most interesting of these discussions began after I heard two of the white-haired gentlemen in front of me comment on how the school colors for Old Ivy were the same as their high school, but now they had to support another team. Now for those of you keeping track, NSU is located in the same city as Underwood High and, wonder of wonders, has the same school colors. So I took a hunch and asked them if they went to school in the city and when they replied yes, I asked where.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the answer to that question. It seems my hunch was right and both men were Underwood graduates from the 1950s, around the time my grandmother taught there. If she were in the stadium instead of sitting in the car reading she might have been able to answer more of their questions about the old faculty. But I was able to discuss the current state of the school. They were impressed that the school had calculus and statistics classes, but saddened that Latin was no longer being taught. One man commented that he took the College Boards in Latin and that he and his classmates studied several times a week at his teacher's house. Both men participated in the school's music program and were shocked when I informed them that the school's fifth floor, which had been home to the band's practice rooms and the biology labs had been shut down and walled up due to problems with hall walking and student gambling.
"If they had been gambling on the fourth floor, would they have shut that down instead?" one asked. They were glad to hear however that the school's music program, which had been in remission for several years, is steadily coming back. Granted the school band can only play Pomp and Circumstance, but the drumline is respectable and someday they may evolve into a real marching band once they get a few more instruments through alumni donations, etc.
One other thing that all the older football fans commented upon was the relative simplicity of the cheers. And to a degree, I can definitely sympathize. A man can only put up with hearing a squad of cheerleaders lead a rousing "DE-FENSE" cheer so many times before it gets old. In contrast, the high school cheers of the past seem almost unnecessarily complicated. By way of an example consider the following gem provided by the Underwood alumni from their time at the school:
When you're up, you're up.
When you're down, you're down.
When you're up against Underwood
We've got you upside-down.
Stand 'em on their head.
Stand 'em on their feet.
Underwood High School
Can't be beat!
It's a pretty catchy cheer, but I can't imagine a unified mass of several hundred people shouting it coherently at a football game. Perhaps that explains why Underwood's football team at that time perennially lost its annual football game with their archrivals at West City High.
Hopefully, their defeats weren't as convoluted as the game on Saturday which went into double overtime and only ended when Old Ivy blocked NSU's attempt at an extra point following a touchdown. Still, it was an exciting game and a good time was had by all. Except the NSU kickers. They probably will never live it down.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Fall Break Recap By the Numbers
Number of days off for Fall Break: 7
Number of days spent doing work: Approximately 4.5
Number of new books read: 3 (2 volume biography of Charles Darwin, 1 book on mechanization at the Harper's Ferry Armory)
Number of new pages read: Approximately 1,800
Number of new movies viewed: 3 (The French Connection, The Prestige, Borat)
Number of days spent visiting girlfriend: 2
Number of new pants puchased during shopping trip with girlfriend: 4
Number of girlfriend's computers I attempted to fix at Underwood High School: 3
Number of girlfirend's computers I actually fixed at Underwood High School: 0
Number of papers due after break: 1
Number of course selections reread in preparation for paper: 2
Number of pages of typed notes taken during rereading: 24
Number of pages in handwritten outline: 8
Number of typed pages of final paper: 10
Number of revised drafts of paper before finally putting it to bed: 4
Number of hours spent today revising: 6
Number of articles I meant to read today for my class on Tuesday: 4
Number I will actually read tonight: 0
Number of football games watched: 1
Number of overtimes in said game: 2 (almost 3!)
Number of field goal kicks deflected by crosspiece: 1
Number of grandparents seen during break: 2
Number of biscotti given to me by grandmother: 30 (Down to 28 as of this morning!)
Number of Underwood alumni met at football game: 2 (They graduated in the 1950s...more in subsequent post)
Number of bowls of lobster bisque purchased during break: 1
Number of dollars inadvertently paid for said bisque: 11
Number of days until girlfriend's birthday: 6
Number of days until pop culture trivia tournament: 13
Number of days until Thanksgiving: 17
Number of weekends that do not involve travel during the remainder of November: 0
Number of hours until class tomorrow: As of right now approximately 10
Number of hours of sleep I aim to get: 8.
Number of remaining numbers in this post beyond this one: 0
Number of days off for Fall Break: 7
Number of days spent doing work: Approximately 4.5
Number of new books read: 3 (2 volume biography of Charles Darwin, 1 book on mechanization at the Harper's Ferry Armory)
Number of new pages read: Approximately 1,800
Number of new movies viewed: 3 (The French Connection, The Prestige, Borat)
Number of days spent visiting girlfriend: 2
Number of new pants puchased during shopping trip with girlfriend: 4
Number of girlfriend's computers I attempted to fix at Underwood High School: 3
Number of girlfirend's computers I actually fixed at Underwood High School: 0
Number of papers due after break: 1
Number of course selections reread in preparation for paper: 2
Number of pages of typed notes taken during rereading: 24
Number of pages in handwritten outline: 8
Number of typed pages of final paper: 10
Number of revised drafts of paper before finally putting it to bed: 4
Number of hours spent today revising: 6
Number of articles I meant to read today for my class on Tuesday: 4
Number I will actually read tonight: 0
Number of football games watched: 1
Number of overtimes in said game: 2 (almost 3!)
Number of field goal kicks deflected by crosspiece: 1
Number of grandparents seen during break: 2
Number of biscotti given to me by grandmother: 30 (Down to 28 as of this morning!)
Number of Underwood alumni met at football game: 2 (They graduated in the 1950s...more in subsequent post)
Number of bowls of lobster bisque purchased during break: 1
Number of dollars inadvertently paid for said bisque: 11
Number of days until girlfriend's birthday: 6
Number of days until pop culture trivia tournament: 13
Number of days until Thanksgiving: 17
Number of weekends that do not involve travel during the remainder of November: 0
Number of hours until class tomorrow: As of right now approximately 10
Number of hours of sleep I aim to get: 8.
Number of remaining numbers in this post beyond this one: 0
