The summer is just about over for as I have been living in my apartment in Cambridge for a week. Monday begins a week of orientation and shopping for classes. One week from today I should know my class schedule, and a week from Monday I finally begin. The process to register for classes here is exhausting. I know that my undergrad school was in the stone-age because they still had us meet with a live person to register rather than do it online, but I don’t think it’s just my inexperience registering online that makes this confusing. For instance, I don’t have an advisor yet but some of the classes I wanted to take as electives are cross-registered through Harvard Law. I can’t cross-register without an advisor’s signature, but the class started this week. I suppose I’m just a little lost being one among so many at a big university.

Enough school talk though. Cambridge is beautiful! I really had no idea how vibrant and easy to navigate it would be. I am a 5 minute walk from Harvard Square and the T and my school buildings are even closer than that. I have been walking around everyday shopping for the apartment and seeing to sights. I live across the street from the Old Yard where the statue of John Harvard sits. It’s really neat to walk through the campus and look at all the old buildings, although Union was pretty old too (est. 1795). Everyday on my way to the T or to my school I walk through Cambridge Commons which is a lovely little park with statues. It’s very peaceful and I think that little part of my walk has done well to calm my nerves in the past couple days. There are also lots of quirky things going on all the time in this area. In the Commons I have now witness what I think it s hula hooping club three days in a row. Basically there is a bunch of people standing in a circle playing with hula hoops and smiling. I don’t think it’s the next big exercising craze since a couple of them are just dancing with their hula hoops. It’s funny to watch and seems very 60’s. Also there is always music playing in the Square and lots of artisans displaying their work, which I really enjoy.

One of the neatest (and most practical) things I have found close by is The Coop (pronounced like a chicken coop, not co-op…I have been correct at least 10 times). Basically all Harvard and MIT students pay $1 a year (!) to be a member and then they get discounts on everything in the store. At the end of the year they also send you a check for 6% of your purchases back. Lately, because school is starting, all members got 10% off everything they bought! It’s a great deal and The Coop is huge. It has all the textbooks for the school, a regular bookstore, school supplies, clothing, souvenirs, and it even sells Clinique make-up and has (are you ready for this (e:Mike)…) a Crabtree & Evelyn in it. The lady in the store already knows me by name because I have gotten everything there in the past week.

Oh yeah…I am not going to update on the roommate situation yet. I need to give it more time before I make any concrete judgments about her. Pictures of my apartment, roommate, and Cambridge should be coming soon.

Okay well that’s all the updating I have time to do now. I am going to walk around and take some pictures today because I know I should do it while the weather’s nice. Hope everything is good at home. Despite the niceties of Cambridge I miss my bed, my mom, and my friends ((e:Mike) how ever will I get along without you now?!). Take care all.

Here are a couple pictures of Mike’s birthday (hard evidence that Mike partied, molested, and vomited his 22nd birthday away).


Mike with his b-day presents.


Doesn't he look super-skinny?!?


Wild partying with Jill, Yo, and the b-day Boy.


Mike getting really drunk outside.


And Mike's molesting begins...Yo is the first victim


Now my turn.


Late in the night.


Miguel sick by the car.

Here are a couple pictures of Mike’s birthday (hard evidence that Mike partied, molested, and vomited his 22nd birthday away).


Mike with his b-day presents.


Doesn't he look super-skinny?!?


Wild partying with Jill, Yo, and the b-day Boy.


Mike getting really drunk outside.


And Mike's molesting begins...Yo is the first victim


Now my turn.


Late in the night.


Miguel sick by the car.

[size=m]Happy Happy Happy 22nd Birthday Mike!!! [/size]
I'm glad I get to be here this year to celebrate. I think this is going to be your year :D

Tonight I talked for hours with a friend I haven’t talked to in months. Although we were as close as two people could be years ago, recently we have grown apart. It was not because of anything that happened, but rather we got busy and didn’t keep up contact well. In spite of the time between us, we talked as if we hadn’t missed a beat. That’s the way we’ve always been. I can’t really explain the connection that we have but since we met there has always been a weird level to our relationship. Even when I had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend we were able to talk more intimately with each other than with anyone else. In the past couple months I got really sad thinking that we weren’t going to stay close after we left school, especially since we didn’t talk a lot while we were there. However, tonight was the most wonderful, uplifting conversation I’ve had in so long. We feel exactly the same way about each other and it’s perfect when you can share your feelings with someone who understands everything you say. Although he’s the total opposite to me, he’s very good at sharing emotions and getting into my head. For my part, I can see the good in him and the way that he’s always trying…even when he falls short. I worried that our closeness might interfere with other aspects of our lives (we are definitely just friends, but sometimes good friends seem like more to other people) but he told me not to worry. It seemed odd and flowery coming from him, but he described our friendship as a relationship on a pedestal, above of the world around it. I think it’s really important to have someone who is family. He’s mine. There is no weirdness about it, no relational ties or sibling rivalry, just the knowledge that we can never get rid of each other; we are lifetime friends.

We got so burnt! Look at (e:Mike)'s back...I'm the same way...

Nope, these are just pictures from our day at the beach. The weather was so great, just enough of a breeze to lull you into thinking that it wasn’t hot and you weren’t getting burned to a crisp. Okay, well I’m not too burnt but I will definitely be sporting the lobster chic skin until my redness turns to tan (I hope). Anyway, enjoy the pictures of (e:Mike)…I know you are all jealous that I got to beach it with someone so hot!

I was working on a fundraiser for an organization that I routinely support and I decided to look them up online. I came upon this link which I’m posting. It’s a report by Elliot Spitzer about professional fundraising for 2001-2002 and it has lists and lists of statistics about the percentages of donations that actually go to charity. It’s pretty amazing and a site worth bookmarking. Enjoy…or be horrified.

I used to love the show Made on MTV. For those of you who have not seen it, it’s basically a reality show that takes kids (usually in high school) and gives them a chance to get made into anything they want. They get a coach who is an expert in whatever they want and in three months they work toward a major goal. In the end there is a final test or event that proves how well they have been “made”. In the first season there were some really interested kids with fantastic goals. One football player wanted to become an opera singer, a prissy girl wanted to be a BMX biker, etc. I loved trying to think of things I would be Made into if I could be on the show (of course I would never ever want to be on tv). It was such a departure from all the other reality tv shows that exploited people and showed how greedy and cunning humans are. This show highlighted the capacity for people to have dreams; it showed how hard work can help you achieve something more important than money or peer acceptance. But now Made is so disappointing. The new kids seem to basically want to be made popular. Each week it’s like one wants to be the prom queen, another wants to be class president, etc. I used to love Made because I felt like it showed people (especially vulnerable high school kids) that they could do something completely unexpected and really be good at it. Now it just feeds into all the stereotypes about what kids should want. I used to give the kids so much credit because they were reaching outside of the norms of their peer group, but now they are just getting professional help to run a student council campaign. Sure, some kids still have neat goals, but it’s become much more diluted. I miss the old days of Made, when kids were really putting themselves out there and achieving more than they ever thought they

Sometimes I think I might be a little too afraid of ending up alone. I’ve already started to worry about not getting married or having children and I’m only 22. Recently I realized that it’s probably because of my mother’s circle of friends. My mom has 6 best friends that she stays in close contact with from college. Out of those friends, three have never been married or had any children and three have been married once and had two children. Basically that’s like a 50/50 shot at either having a family or being totally alone. My mom is the one who straddles both groups. She did marry and have one (perfect) child but then got divorced almost immediately, thus living most of her adult life without a husband. Although I can see from all of my mom’s friends that being married and having kids does not ensure happiness (at least one married woman is very discontent with her marriage and kids), I know the women who didn’t have kids now wish they had. Furthermore, they have told me that they wish they weren’t as picky with the men that they dated because now they realize that having someone can be nice even if they aren’t perfect. Now, I’m not saying all my standards are dropped because I am just terrified of not getting married (not yet anyway) but I feel like looking at them can be a cautionary tale. I know some women can be perfectly happy if they are childless and unmarried, but I know that I want to at least have children. I was born wanting to be a mom. To make matters worse, I know I could never be as happy as these single women because they are all extremely close with their siblings and their sibling’s children. I will never have any nieces or nephews if I don’t get married since I am an only child, so I can’t really rely n family to keep me company. Although I’m sure that my mom’s friends aren’t the best sample of how women end up, I think that growing up see so many single, childless women has made me scared. Thank goodness there are so many more ways to have a child without a man now. I wonder if my mom’s friends would have had children if they could have used sperm banks? Then again I think most of them kept thinking they were going to get married and the time just drifted away. Anyway, I need to shake off this fear for a least a couple more years since there is no way I am getting married any time soon.