"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" ~ Ben Franklin

A friend of mine is concerned with her level of alcohol consumption, represented scientifically by the graph above.

She is funny, outgoing, friendly, and an incredibly social person, sober or otherwise. I have never seen her be a source of embarrassment to her friends, nor could I conceive of any situation in which she would be.

Even so, she worries that she has been drinking too much, and that her level of fun has become a function dependent on her level of drunkenness. As a result, she has presented to us a radical new idea: she wants to stop drinking – for an extended period of time at least – completely cold turkey.

Bullhonky, I say. To quote Homer Simpson: alcohol is the “cause of – and solution to – all of life’s problems.”

My friend doesn’t sit alone in a bathtub with a bucket of ice cream and a bottle of Jack Daniels (well, as far as I know). She drinks in social situations with her friends, and she has a great time. And if the night occasionally devolves into blurry episodes of questionable recollection, well, that’s fine. Times are changing: it has become not only expected, but socially acceptable for our generation to imbibe to such a degree of sloppiness. Enjoy it while you can, I say. When you’re 40 years old and married with six kids, these good times will become less frequent.

The bottom line is if she were really dependent on alcohol to have fun, she wouldn’t be such a fun person to hang around when she’s not drinking, (which she most definitely is).

So the next time we’re out at a bar, I expect her to raise her frosty mug of ice-cold deliciousness in celebration, and join me in chanting:

We’re here. We have beer….we want more beer.

Home Sweet Home

Boston is great.

And grad school is great (seriously).

But there is nothing like coming home and realizing just how much you’ve missed it.

My parents have flitted off to Cancun for the weekend (well maybe “flitted” is not quite the right word – they are getting a last chance to visit family before moving to Uruguay for the next three years), and I was put in charge of caring for our dog, Skye. We adopted Skye about a year and a half ago. My parents worked full time, as did I, however I did not go into the office until very late in the afternoon. It therefore became my duty to take care of Skye while my parents were out of the house. She was a rambunctious little puppy: mischievous and full of energy, but sweet as candy. I started reading the puppy books, looking online for puppy-raising tips, and even watching Cesar Milan’s “The Dog Whisperer” to figure out how to properly raise this little ball of energy. After investing countless hours working with her and studying the material available to me, I am proud to say that today she is the sweetest, most well-behaved dog I have ever met, (absolutely no bias present on my part). And I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until I got home last night and she jumped all over me in excitement as soon as I walked in the door.

Oh yea, and seeing my parents again was great too.

Love you, mom and dad!

Simple Things

The simple things really are the best. Or maybe I'm just easily amused.

After spending the entire day doing schoolwork, I thought I would be primed to go out into the city and get crazy. However after realizing how tired I actually was, I vetoed that idea and decided to stay in. 20 minutes into the Wizards-Hawks game and with a cold beer in my hand, I knew I had made the right decision. There is definitely something appealing about getting gussied up and venturing out into the city with friends on a Friday night, but I had forgotten how relaxing it is to just sit back in a comfortable chair and enjoy some time alone. The finer things in life are great every now and then, but I am perfectly happy spending time with Gilbert Arenas and a Rolling Rock on any occasion.

A Night On the Town

I finally got the chance to get out of my neighborhood in Allston and enjoy the city a little bit. I decided to combine my two favorite activities – hanging out with friends and drinking beer – with my desire to see Boston. The result was a pretty successful bar crawl.

Planning our route took some time and organization, but it was well worth it. Our group started out in Faneuil Hall, trekked through the Boylston area, made our way to Kenmore, and eventually headed back to Allston for the rest of the night. The night was really fun, and a great way to see the city. Overall it turned out to be a very successful evening, and I can’t wait to organize the next one.

The Balance of Jokes, Spaghetti, and Sports

This week I made it through the longest-short week that I can remember. With four projects due within a three-day span, I had to choose between eating and sleeping, (eating won out). After a much-needed two-day hiatus from schoolwork –mostly spent sleeping-- it is now Saturday and I am putting my nose back to the proverbial grad school grindstone. I have about two weeks before my next round of major projects are due one after the other, so this is a good time to reflect on how the rest of the semester is going to take shape. I’m still struggling to find the optimal balance between working and enjoying the city of Boston. It seems like every time I focus on one, I am playing catch-up to the other.

So where do sports fit in?

The football season is well underway, (I would be more excited if the Redskins were actually going somewhere this season). However, basketball and hockey are upon us. My beloved Washington Wizards made a flurry of off-season moves which should help them contend in the brutal eastern conference this year, and the Capitals are going to be as strong as usual, maybe even stronger. Once their seasons get going, grad school is going to be even more of a juggling act. Do I dare root for the Caps in public in a city in love with the rival Bruins? Should I purchase the NBA League Pass for $134.95, allowing me to watch Agent Zero and his late-game heroics? More importantly, am I going to have time for either this season? These are the essential questions we must ask ourselves as grad students/sports fanatics.

Da! And other Russian words

Languages have always come fairly easily to me. I can see a foreign word and its English definition written down, then listen to it a couple of times, and by then I will have usually internalized it. This process helped me become fluent in Spanish and German pretty quickly.

I was recently inspired to learn Russian (ok, it was to impress a girl – but now I just really want to know exactly what the homeless Russian man on the corner is screaming to himself about). Russian is tough because not only are there more letters in their alphabet – 33 to be exact – but it’s based on the Cyrillic alphabet, so it looks like this:

Спагетти

That spells “Spaghetti”.

I bet that I can do it. Besides, I need a hobby to keep me busy because – let’s face it – being a grad student at BU, I have oodles of time to spare (kidding). We’ll see how this goes.

The D.C. reference streak is over, but the homeless man streak begins! Dosvidanya until next week.

Too Much Spaghetti

Two weeks into school, I remember thinking to myself, “Grad school isn’t so bad. I don’t know what all my friends were whining about when they were in grad school. Sure, there’s reading but I’ve been reading since first grade. What a bunch of Negative Nancies.”

And then week three came and punched me in the face like the odor of a homeless man sitting next to you on the bus, who’s been sweltering in the August heat of a particularly humid day in D.C., (I can tell you from personal experience that it’s quite pungent).

Projects and papers, which I had neglected the previous two weeks, began to pile on top of more projects and papers, which piled up on presentations, which piled up on the readings that were due. Four a.m. bedtimes became the norm. I would take showers at three a.m. so I wouldn’t fall asleep just yet.

So week three came and went, and I survived. It was tough, but I took care of business. Entering week four, I am happy to report that not only am I caught up on all of my current work, I am getting ahead on papers that are due two weeks from now, (nerd alert!).

To all of you Debbie Downers who still contend that grad school is hard, well, I agree. But I’m not going to whine about it. As long as you stay on top of due dates and assignments, it’s no biggie. Organization is key.

Two references to D.C. in two weeks, let’s see if I can keep it going next week.

Jokes, Spaghetti, and Life as a BU Grad Student

The great American philosopher – and fellow D.C. native – Dave Chappelle once wrote, “I got jokes, and jokes, and jokes, and jokes, and spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti!” Well played, Dave. Truer words were never spoken.

When you think about it, life as a graduate student can be boiled down to jokes and spaghetti. You have the social aspect: meeting new people, venturing out into the city, having fun. These are the jokes. But you also have to eat the spaghetti to survive. This includes reading for classes, doing the projects, and writing blog entries. So in the spirit of Chappelle, I’m going to blog about the jokes and spaghetti I encounter every week as a graduate student at Boston University.

And if it sounds like I’m retrofitting an old “Chappelle’s Show” skit into a philosophy for the purposes of creating a somewhat interesting blog, well that might be valid. But honestly, who doesn’t like reminiscing about classic Chappelle?

Tyrone Biggums: "You know what dog food tastes like? Do you? It tastes just like it smells... delicious."

On that note, I'd like to end this post with my initial impressions of Boston: beautiful, elegant, and very expensive. There is nothing cooler than running over to Cambridge, seeing the gorgeous Boston skyline from across the river, and reminding myself that I actually live in this city. Having said that, I must have spent a few hundred dollars between this weekend and last barhopping around downtown Boston. This needs to stop. I think I'll be hanging around the slightly cheaper -- but just as fun -- Allston area for the foreseeable future.

That's all for now, see you next week.