19 November 2009

In Which I Complain a Lot

Somehow I did a dandy job of picking the coldest spot to work in Rotch Library. I mean, I have a nice view of building 11, and I'm surrounded by books about the National Parks and forestry and agriculture, but I also happen to be surrounded by vents that are spewing coldness.

Working in Simmons was not working, unfortunately. There were too many distractions: my ukulele, my friends, and my largely unread copy of Infinite Jest. So instead I packed up my stuff and trekked over to Rotch Library (a location I am wishing I had discovered sooner, except for this one section that is apparently an icebox) to buckle down and work on this chemistry p-set. It's not much better than Simmons, though. There are tons of books that I could spend hours perusing, and I'm sleepy. Also, with Thanksgiving a mere week away, and my flight home only four weeks away, I find myself missing home more than usual.

I'm not heading back to Oregon for Thanksgiving, though I do wish I was. You have no idea how badly I want to see friends and family and all the people that are honestly just too far away from me for my liking. You have no idea how badly I want a Kahlua Kicker from Dutch Bros (maybe MIT could develop the magic to transport hot coffee over long distances... Course 8 people, you guys should get on that), or pizza from American Dream (why is all of the pizza in Boston so terrible and greasy?!), or any of the myriad of other things Boston just fails at having. A quick peek at Expedia's prices for flights home next week makes it a bit easier to stay here for those four days, however; a roundtrip ticket is around $1000. So instead I'll be relaxing here in Boston, working on a paper, p-sets, a presentation, and starting the studying-for-finals marathon. Oh, and I'll be sleeping a lot. I'll also be working on getting over this lingering swine flu-y cough that just won't go away. Hopefully the sleep will help with that.

My last complaint of the evening: the latest Spoon EP (Got Nuffin) is not the greatest ever. Let me just say that Spoon is one of the bands that I will unconditionally love, no matter what they produce. But Got Nuffin pushes it. The title track is legitimately good, but of the four tracks (one of which is a remix), only two are actually enjoyable to listen to. Maybe I need to give it another listen, but I was definitely less than impressed upon first listen. I'm crossing my fingers that their upcoming album (due out January 26th) is better.

... YES. The vents of iciness that are all around me are no longer trying to freeze everything in the vicinity. I think I can finally get some work done, meaning I will stop complaining.

Coming soon: MIT's Obama-madness, why I'm switching majors (SURPRISE!), and probably a lot more complaining.

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