A Lovely Weekend

Last night (Friday), I went to the Art Museum for Art After 5. There was some live jazz playing; I had a glass of red wine; and I wandered through the galleries. (And Impressionism looks even better when you're slightly buzzed!) It was a wonderful date - with myself. I need to take me out more often. ;-)

This morning, when I woke up, I found out that New York has now legalized same-sex marriage! 6 states down, 44 to go. And when I looked outside my window, there was a baby bunny in my front yard. I tried to take a few pictures without scaring it away.

Then this evening I tried a new local beer (well, new to me, anyway) and watched the Philly Union game. The first half had me worried, but we pulled it off in the end! My poor cat; she was very confused by my chants of "DOOP DOOP DOOP!!"

All in all, it was quite a nice weekend.

Oh, mechanical engineering

I'm hoping to study nonlinear vibrations for my PhD work. My dad was telling me about the response this gets when he's talking to his friends about me.

Dad: You've chosen an awkward area of study. I tell people you're studying mechanical engineering, and for most of them, their eyes glaze over. But then there are the people who ask, "What area?" and I have to tell them "Vibrations." And that leads to a lot of jokes.

me: You could always say "Nonlinear systems."

Dad: Hmm. That's an idea. Then everyone's eyes will glaze over.

me: It could be worse. I could be studying lubrication.

(pause)

Dad: If that were the case, and people asked me what area of mechanical engineering you were studying, I think I'd tell them I didn't know.

Rugby

I like to have a ballgame on in the background while I study. I prefer baseball, but pretty much anything is fine. (I've watched a soccer game on the Spanish channel. That was fun.) So last night I'm flipping though channels and come across a rugby game: England vs. US. Fantastic! I hadn't seen a rugby game since I was in New Zealand.

I had forgotten how physical that game is. It seems like 90% of it is large men ramming into each other head-first. And they don't wear safety equipment. Like, no pads or helmets. They have basically the equivalent of a swim cap they can wear, but that's only to prevent them from getting cuts and bleeding all over the field (according to the announcer) because if you bleed you have to leave the field.

THIS IS A PROBLEM. Bleeding profusely from one's head is such a problem that they made special caps to prevent it. And they're "optional" equipment.

It was morbidly fascinating.

And we got creamed. When I first saw the game, I was like, "Does that say England 23 - USA 3? That seems like a large disparity." Yeah, it was England 59 - USA 3 when I finally turned it off.

So You Think You Can Dance

A: hello

me: hello yourself

A: what are you up to tonight? homework?

me: supposedly
also watched So You Think You Can Dance auditions

A: yeah, i don't know what that's all about - you should probably stop watching that

me: well I just like the auditions
once they get into the "people stories" I stop watching
I'm like, "I don't care about these people. Just dance."

A: you sound like some sort of deranged dr. frankenfurter

me: I'm laughing so hard my upstairs neighbor is probably wondering what the hell is wrong with me