Semi-charmed life

You know when you are starting to get sick, and you wake up in the morning feeling like your throat is completely closed or at the very least, blocked by a balled up pair of slouch socks? Then, you realize that today is exactly one month before the semester ends, which means its CRUNCH time, and you start begging whatever life force is out there to just seal off your throat and get it over with? lol, yeah, it was one of those mornings.

I went to Boston this weekend and visited my brother and many of my friends from California, as well a long lost high school bud Lauren. It was great. I didn't tour the city too much, but spent a lot of time just hanging out with people, pretending I was registered for the conference, and figuring out the nuances of Boston transit, and catching glimpses of some of the Elite eight games. (Go Heels!) (I have decided to root for the Tar Heels to take the championship purely out of the selfish desire of being able to say that both of my schools were national champions in '05... USC football, and UNC basketball. Therefore, GO HEELS!!!)

So, downtown Boston looked like LA after an earthquake. There was construction EVERYWHERE, whish apparently has been the case for, oh, the last 10 years or so. Honestly, the streets are in a state of disarray, and the urban planning was abysmal... (read: take a left onto Tremont, and continue until you run into the intersection of Tremont and Tremont...) WTF. Last I checked, that is NOT supposed to happen. Not only that, but the nice areas and not so nice areas were contiguous, which aesthetically, is very confusing. Basically, what I am saying is that Boston should be America's first city to be a contestant on Extreme Makeover. That city don't make no sense.

At the conference, beautiful intelligent Black folks milled around, and enjoyed speakers such as Michael Eric Dyson, and as well as a performance by Musiq Soulchild. It was refreshing to be hit on by undergrads once again, and carded more times than I could count just to get into restaurants to get some grub. I also enjoyed the baffled looks on the faces of conference people when I explained that I was a doctoral student in Sociology. Don't sleep.... non-engineers put the B in NSBE.

We wrapped up the weekend with a make-shift Easter dinner, of fried chicken, black beans and rice, sauteed broccoli, eggplant parmegian (sp?), garlic bread, blue berry champagne and reisling wine. This was followed up by chocolate chip cookies, brownies, strawberries and whipped cream. We sat around, 4 harvard med students, a film student, and engineer, a doctoral student, and a future law student, and laughed at ourselves, each other, and critiqued the newest doctor show, Grey's Anatomy. All in all, it was a good weekend. No spectacular stories, just a good time.

I can't believe how much life has changed since graduate. I am now "one of those people" who makes plans and trips to catch up with old college buddies! My college friends are now meeting and intersecting with my high school friends, my beau has met half my family, and I am getting OLD! I was at the NSBE conference lamenting the fact that I missed old NSBE, only to realize that I was now OLD NSBE! I'm old school... one of those people who just can't let go yet! This has all happened so fast, it is unbelievable. I am bored and isolated in NC, and I have no friends, and no money. Haha, life is so much of itself. So enjoy your youth, oh undergraduate ones, because it doesn't get any better than college. Everyone tells you that when you are there, and no one beleives it, but it's true. So thanks to all those who keep in touch with me and keep me sane.

God bless my friends and no one else!