WiFi @Airport

It has been a while-there has been anything interesting enough to report. Right now I am sitting at Logan Airport among 40 elementary or middle school kids with an English? Scottish? accent. It is snowing very hard outside, but my flight to CDG is still posted as "on schedule". I hope it stays that way- another 30 minutes before boarding. They are deicing the plane. I can see the Air France Boeing 747 parked at the terminal, loading up luggage. A good sign.

I cannot believe I have to pay to access the WiFi at Logan. This cannot be right. It turns out the kids were on a ski trip in US from England- must be the weak dollar. Their tour guide started chatting with me. A funny man with some slighting words about French men :). It was quite amusing.

Finally I am boarding the flight to Paris, with only one hour delay in a snow storm like this. It is not too bad.

First two weeks

One busy week. The last two weeks have been both exciting and exhausting. I already forgot one meeting appointment-never had so many meetings packed in two weeks in my whole life! I brought many papers home to read but have no motivation to do so.

We had a very pleasant 75 F day after two days of 96F. I also managed to hack the thermostat in our office that supposed to be "not working". Now it is much warmer in there. Although I have a suspicion that it will be too hot later.

I realized that I called the IT support about 7 times in a week and half for various odd reasons: login problems, too short of a phone line, forgotten voice mail pin, new access to servers, strange beeping of the telephone etc. etc.

I saw a stork flying by during a meeting. That was pretty cool. I also saw a deer jumping over Rt. 9 in front of me. I heard many different bird near work.

So one more day 2007 is half way through.

I think I should make use of my cable TV more often, but am too lazy to watch it. Tomorrow I am getting my executive desk delivered. Yippee!

Connected

I am slowly settling in my new apartment. Alex- I may post some pictures once I get the desk, bookcase and filing cabinet this weekend. Right now the living room looks like a refuge camp still. At least I got high speed internet, so I don't feel so cut off in the first week. I am still not used to having cable TV, even just basic cable- I still don't have the habit of turning the TV on to watch it.

Work has kept me VERY busy. They are getting their money's worth. =). I've been slacking off on the violin. Tomorrow I have to face my teacher for the first time since my move+move. It won't be pretty.

I feel that I need a vacation already. Hopefully I can relax a bit on July 4. Unfortunately I have more shopping to do. Grrr...

During my first two days of orientation, I toured around Cambridge a bit. I MISS THE CITY. I miss being able to walk to places and the nice houses with different styles to gawk at. Although shopping is very easy around here.

Talk Med, this is place is hardly middle of nowhere- many busy roads and too many monstrous shops to spend money. How is Calgary like- I thought that is a beautiful place in the middle of nowhere?

Tomorrow is 96F. The A/C in our office is freezing me to death.

Exhausted

I am exhausted! I found an apartment near work, and will move in a week. It is a much bigger space than what I have now. I am happy with it. It has an outdoor swimming pool and a fitness center. What is more, it is close to a big reservoir and some lake. It is closer to stores and Rt. 9, but have enough trees to keep it quiet and nice.

Next is packing. I HATE PACKING!!!

Finale

A friend and I went to Finale at Harvard Square last night for dinner and dessert last night. My first dine- outside of the summer. I have not been there for a long while. We had some serious dessert orgy. After the "Prelude", we shared the "Fantasia for two" and the "Molten Chocolate". It was quite a sugar high-felt really good. They are serious about Chocolate! Weather was perfect. I was ecstatic about finally getting my car.

Today I had my very last group meeting in my current lab. I also tried to draft a job description for an associate. It is really happening!

Buying a car

I bought a car over the weekend for my upcoming commute to work. This sounds really serious, doesn't it-"commute to work". No more walking to the lab whenever I want. It really hasn't totally sunk in yet, but slowly it is, because of things like buying a car, taking care of insurance, parking, EZ-PASS etc. etc.

It was funny- before I went to look for a car, I acclaimed to friends that I want nothing to do with sunroof or moonroof, no need for anything powered except the steering, which is default for any car nowadays any how. Now I have to eat my words- I bought a car basically with EVERYTHING I didn't plan to pay for: moonroof, power windows, locks, mirrors, ABS... There is even an elbow rest on the driver's side. Yippee! The only thing missing is a remote starter, which can be handy when it is -10F outside I suppose.

So my new baby is a 2001 Honda Civic EX. I cannot wait for the new freedom, but there is also the responsibility=P.

Terrified

I am both excited and terrified.

I am going to step out of the ivory tower after what has been my whole life!

So this is it. I am going to step into the real world, and have a real job. I am going to be part of the "Corporate America".

Everything will be new. There will be lots of unknown. The reset button is pushed. I am starting all over again. It seems that the older I am, the scarier it gets to start anew. I guess it's because experience taught me what "hurt" feels =).

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!