Snowfall

Trying to update a bit more regularly.

Got right back into the swing of things at work after Thanksgiving. Trying to pick up some momentum before the holidays, but it isn’t really happening. E started last week too. Already crazy fucking annoyed with her, but I’m not wasting my breath on her here, so to speak.

I met up with my high school friend who’s studying here in Philly. It’s been almost 10 years since we’ve seen each other, and it was awesome catching up! This doesn’t work with everyone, but I do I love it when you can just pick up where you left off, without any awkwardness, even if you haven’t kept in touch with someone. It was funny that we seemed to be living parallel lives – we’re following very similar career paths, and we’ve both been in lengthy long distance relationships (though she just got engaged!). I hope we can hang out more; I’d love for her to show me more of Philly too. We met up at this really nice wine bar she likes, and I got a bunch of recommendations for other good restaurants in the area.  

J came down on Saturday evening too, and we had a fantastic weekend. Went out to a great Greek place (actually suggested by high school friend mentioned above). Sunday morning we woke up to find it was snowing! This is unusually girly of me, but I was super excited that we were together for my first Philadelphia snowfall – it was pretty romantic 🙂 It was coming down pretty hard, but since it wasn’t particularly cold, we went out to frolic in the snow. I took a ton of pictures in Rittenhouse Square, then we went to the Reading Terminal Market, which I’ve been meaning to check out for a while now; I didn’t realize how big that place is! We grabbed some coffee and pastries while there, and then headed back out to wander through the Christmas Village. When we got home we watched the movie Upstream Color (it’s by the guy who did Primer, if that means anything to anyone). The movie was good, but somewhat frustrating – not nearly as frustrating as Primer, which is absolutely impossible to follow unless you’ve sat through it a dozen times and took notes. Upstream was much more accessible, but afterwards I read a commentary by the director/writer?/producer?, Caruth, and I actually found his interpretation of the ending kind of disappointing. But hey, the movie fueled over two hours of conversation between me and J, so it was certainly a success in that respect.   

  
The new post doc, RS, from STL started in the lab this week. He seems like an incredibly nice guy, and I’m looking forward to having someone besides E around, who’s closer in age to me. On his first day, his partner texted that it was RS’s birthday today, and invited us out to celebrate. We went out to a really good restaurant (who’s name I’ve already forgotten) in Chinatown, which is not a neighborhood I’ve had a chance to explore. I had a great time – RS and his partner B are super social and easy to get along with. B mentioned wanting to throw a little Christmas gathering next week, which I’m pretty excited for. 

I’m heading back to NYC in the middle of next week for my brother’s 30th birthday. My dad’s birthday is next weekend, but unfortunately I ; can’t really take that much time off next week; this annoyed my mom more than it did my dad, but she’s gonna have to deal. So I’ll probably come back on Wednesday, and then take off from the 24/25th-Jan 2/3rd. Spending the holiday in NYC with my parents, as per usual. Hopefully a lot of my friends will be visiting, and we’ll get a chance to catch up.