life of the aptigator

Sat, 17 May 2008 18:26:28 GMT

Well, I figured since I'm almost done here at Vassar, I might as well post one more time. I finished finals yesterday. Poor performance on advanced organic chem, I think, but that's alright.

In a couple of weeks Adam and I are getting on a plane to San Francisco to find an apartment. We'll be back by the end of June, and then we'll spend the month of July packing up the car and driving allll the way across the country, starting from Boston. Of course we can't just stay out there once we've moved: we are flying back again for my cousin's wedding in DC August, and then getting on a plane yet again to go home (!) to San Francisco, where I will start my Ph.D. work in the Tetrad program at UCSF. I'll be working on that damn Ph.D. for about 6 or 7 years, so if you are on the West Coast any time in the foreseeable future, come and visit me in SF.

I really couldn't be more excited about this move. San Francisco is probably my favorite in the world, and I'll be close to the West Coast contingent of my family, who I love but who I have seen only once every few years for most of my life. I'm ready for a big change. I will, however, actually miss Vassar quite a lot, in particular the large amount of music- and art-related things I've been able to do here. I'm looking for an orchestra to try out for and I'm certainly going to try to put together a casual chamber music group, but I may have to wait until after my first year, after I've figured out what this grad school thing is all about.

While I am sad to leave Vassar, I think I got a lot out of my time here, both in and out of class, and I'm ready for something new. I'm trying not to get too nostalgic or teary, because neither will stop the inevitable, and both will probably make it more difficult. I know that the friendships that are really important will persist even if we're far apart. I'm bringing the most important part of my Vassar life with me (Adam) and hopefully I can convince lots of other people to end up in SF as well. Move to SF! This means YOU!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:40:23 GMT

The House of Seven Milks has a home!

TH A6 is where we will be next year. If you are a Vassar person and you will be here next year, come and visit us. We promise to host costume parties and have a REALLY F-ING COOL HOUSE.

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:47:55 GMT

what are YOU doing at 10 am on a sunday morning?

i'm going to a biochemistry midterm! i bet none of you are having this much fun bright and early on a sunday!

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:10:44 GMT

In case anyone was curious about my INSANELY CRAZY BUSY life, here is what I did today.

8 am: haul sleepy ass out of bed, shower, etc.
9 am: quartet rehearsal (Brahms, Faure)
10 am: read for afternoon seminars (SO MUCH READING)
12:45 pm: run to class, grab express lunch on the way
1 pm: Plant/animal interactions seminar
3:10 pm: Japanese Print seminar
5:15 pm: rushed dinner in the retreat
6 pm: head to New Paltz to get in some climbing time at the Inner Wall
9 pm: house team meeting
9:30 pm: go to Retreat for second dinner
10:30 pm: shower
11 pm: waste time, procrastinate
12 am: decide to eat banana, put banana on desk chair
12:01 am: sit down, wonder what that squishy thing under my butt is
12:01.05 am: realize I've sat on the banana
12:02 am: eat banana anyway
12:05 am: STILL HAVEN'T STARTED STUDYING FOR PHYSICS TEST WHICH IS AT 9 AM TOMORROW

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:11:17 GMT

Today one of my biology 106 students told me that I'm going to make a really good teacher.

It is so, so gratifying to hear that: I am on the right track in my life.

LIFE PLAN as of NOW:

summer 2007: get a head start on thesis research
fall 2007: write awesome thesis about minispindles in Drosophila
spring 2008: graduate from Vassar with a biology major and art history minor
2008-?: live and work near Poughkeepsie, apply to cell biology graduate programs
?-?: get Ph.D.!
?-?: RESEARCH
?-?: teach high school biology and art history

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:24:37 GMT

first missed class of this semester: biochem. i am so sick! this is the worst cold ever. i'm going back to bed.

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:54:59 GMT

Success!! I just changed my new earring (a second hole on the left lobe, pierced last September) with very little frustration and no pain at all. I put in one of the tiny silver hoops that I used to wear in my first holes, and I'm quite pleased at how it looks next to my fancy blue-bead dangly earrings.

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:12:42 GMT

It appears that this semester is going to kick a lot of ass, including mine.

Yesterday I had Plant/Animal Interactions, a 2 hour twice-weekly biology seminar, directly followed by The Japanese Print, a 2 hour once-weekly art history seminar. It felt really good to get back into thinking, and to feel good about my abilities as a student of biology and of art history. Both classes will be partially student-led and discussion-heavy. There is absolutely no room for slacking on the reading, at all. k

In a few minutes I'll go back out into the cold (6 degrees! My hair froze this morning!), to biochemistry (by far the largest biology class I've ever had at Vassar), and this afternoon I will spend some quality time with lil moonz. After dinner and reading and talking etc. with both Lilys last night, I am thoroughly excited for next year's living situation.

Also, it's possible that I'm going to be making a webcomic, of sorts. It won't be too elaborate - just small doodles and possibly some collage, updated weekly or so. Details will follow, if I actually commit to doing this.

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:23:12 GMT

i hate posting about grades, but...

WTF calculus?!? i thought i would barely scrape a C in that class! i can see a few possible scenarios:

1. i did really well on the final (not likely)
2. i didn't do too well on the final, but everyone else did much worse (possible)
3. dorsey liked my reasoning so much on a problem on the final that he decided to ignore all my other grades in the class (NOT likely)
4. my second test saved me (possible)

it was probably a combination of 2 and 4. regardless, i am SO relieved.

2007!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 08:18:10 GMT

Happy New Year!

I spent the day and evening in the best of company. I adore you all. It's been a lovely year and 2007 promises to be just as good, if not better!

and i am still tipsssyyyyy oh my. good night!

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:40:17 GMT

I wish I felt a little more happy to be home, after all the anticipation. I dreamt I was in my room in Noyes last night, and everybody was coming by to sign out board games and help make a giant birthday sign (which had no name on it, but said that the birthday-person's mother was their owner) and someone from my fifth grade class showed up inexplicably. I was stressed out and pissed off, but at least my room was well-lit and my bed was comfortable.

Being in this house makes me anxious. It's so dark and dreary all the time. I keep trying to get up at 9 and magically turning off my alarm in my sleep, so I've slept until 12 most days. It makes me feel lazy and boring.

I had a lovely day at the new ICA with Lily yesterday. Surrounding myself with art never fails to make me feel at least a little better, especially with someone who is as curious and excited about it as I am. Added benefit: Lily knows a lot of media theory and (early-ish) modern art, so of course I learned quite a lot from her. Now there's the possibility of a Po-town/NJ road trip on the horizon - hurray!

Of course I should really be making the most of my friends here, while they're here, but for the most part social interaction is not coming very easily to me these last few days. I'm going to make a valiant attempt, because I love these people and I see them only rarely, but it's going to take some determination to get out of this damn house.

First, though, I need to get this biology research writeup done. My most recent knitting project also needs some attention, as do the books I've been meaning to read - really, what have I been doing lately that has taken precedence over these important tasks?

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:27:32 GMT

today was the first day i let myself sleep until i woke up (that is, without an alarm) since, oh, 2005 maybe?

it's good to be home.

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:50:03 GMT

I am an art history correlate, as of this morning (see below).
I have a (tentative) thesis topic and advisor (temperature sensitivity of the msps mutation in Drosophila and/or mRNA localization in msps mutant flies, with Dr. P).
The chamber concert is tomorrow at 8 PM and my quartet is going to rock.
Calculus and physics are (sort of) making sense and I don't hate them (as much as I once did).
I have only two problem sets remaining, and the rest of my work is finals (3 exams, 1 paper).
We made a CRAZY concept map today, in the last class meeting for BIO280.
I have a sweet zombie (temporary) tattoo.

Life is good.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Observations

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:47:45 GMT

1. Chicken salad is good. Chicken-salad-flavored burps are not.
2. I was totally taken by surprise when I opened my webmail and saw the "End of the Semester Reminders" email.
3. 3.5 hours of sleep is not enough.
4. When sleep deprived, apparently, I play crazy air-violin.
5. Brussels cookies take you on a journey to the end of crisp.
6. My hair is so much happier after a haircut.
7. Diet Coke with Lime tastes pretty good.
8. SLEEEEEEEEPY

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 05:44:04 GMT

hello friends,

i am 21. as of 44 minutes ago.

and i am sleepy.

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 05:19:27 GMT

since my last post, i have:

-helped several people figure out life
-figured out my own life a little
-preregistered for an art history seminar and taken steps to declare a correlate
-planned and executed a toga party
-been social (what??)
-made some new friends (again, what??)
-participated in a very successful masterclass with my exceedingly talented quartet
-actually practiced violin
-prepared for the upcoming camerata concert (friday, 8pm, recital hall in skinner, COME)
-sprained my ankle
-(mostly) healed said ankle
-done well on an art history paper
-failed a calculus exam
-gotten very, very excited for my upcoming 21st birthday (this saturday!)
-missed some people and looked forward to thanksgiving, when i will see them

a happy occasion

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:46:31 GMT

two years.

how wonderful is that?

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 21:45:36 GMT

lesson learned on rock-collecting part of road trip:

i really, really like fossils, especially when i find them myself.

pictures to come, of fossils and of other things.

reason # 318493741089 the long winters are my favorite band

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:39:40 GMT

"Well, the ultimate goal is to have the listener "feel" the same way when they listen to the song as I was feeling when the events that inspired the song occurred. Does that make sense? I don't want anyone belaboring or fixating on what the "stories" are, if they can more easily enter the emotional landscape of the songs and just feel what they're about. I take a lot of the specific words, the ones that really locate the story in time and place, out of the songs when I do a second draft, because what I'm shooting for is that the listener be able to recall their own stories when they felt the same way."

-John Roderick

now go back and listen to all the Long Winters albums with that in mind.

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:50:11 GMT

i am currently in the middle of the two-days-of-insanity.

yesterday: class class homework DRIVE TO BOSTON, lily's house, then to allston to great scott for HARVEY DANGER

absolutely fantastical show, that's two incredible shows in two weeks (now if only they would tour together i could die happy).

then south street diner (i will definitely return there!) and back to arlington for ONE HOUR OF SLEEP and then coffee with my family. 3.5 hours in the car later, here i am, ready for calculus class?? inconceivable. i'm going to be such a zombie in my 106 lab. i am not fit to be a lab intern today.

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:45:19 GMT

if there's one song you purchase/download/whatever in the next few weeks, make it "pushover" by the long winters.

do it.

even if it requires you IMing me and me sending it to you, i will, because it's just that good. i have listened to it probably about 5 times since i woke up this morning and it just doesn't get old.

of course, it was even better live - but just listen to it! bahhh. i can't get over it.

and if, for some reason, you do not like it (probably because YOU ARE NOT HUMAN and YOU CLEARLY HAVE NO SOUL), try "teaspoon," also by the long winters.

as promised, the full long winters post

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:31:20 GMT

the story begins in biology 106 lab. i am course-intern-ing for professor long, who is talking way too much and taking too long and i am getting very anxious as it's getting towards 4:30. fiiiiiinally he lets me leave and i SPRINT to noyes and get ready as fast as possible. we leave about 5:10, make it to the station minutes before the train is to leave. everyone gets tickets and gets on the train, except me and adam, because we stupidly go looking for another functioning ticket machine. as i'm fumbling with my credit card, back at the first machine, we hear the train pulling away. at this point i am sort of hysterical. am i going to miss my FAVORITE BAND EVER because a fucking ticket machine wasn't working??

we try to stay calm and go to soul dog for dinner, so the tasty hot dogs sort of make up for the frustration. the 6:33 train down to nyc is uneventful and arrives on schedule. we find our way to the 6 subway pretty easily, purchase tickets (on a functioning ticket machine, thank goodness) and in a few minutes arrive at spring st. finding the bowery ballroom ends up being no trouble. as we're approaching the venue tara calls and says, very excitedly, "WE JUST MET JOHN RODERICK HE'S SELLING T-SHIRTS AT THE MERCH TABLE" or something to that effect. so we rush in and sure enough, after we've gone to the atm and gotten way too excited, there is the man himself standing at the merch table chatting with concert-goers. !!!!!!!! let me just say that this man is my favorite musician/songwriter/lyricist/singer approximately ever, so of course this is an exciting moment. adam and i make our way to the table and begin our shirt purchasing. there's an issue of paying with exact change, and shirt sizing, and john advising adam on which size to get, and then i buy my shirt and adam asks him to sign the cd, which he does, and adam mentions a space pen that he has with him and john says he has one too that he carries with him all the time, and we ask him about his trip here, and tell him we missed our train, and then tara comes up and says what we all sort of want to say but aren't gutsy enough to do it, specifically "we love your music, we are very excited, etc."

that is one thing i love about shows with slightly less-well-known acts - the band members actually show their faces offstage and even man the merch table.

so now of course we're all completely giddy, and we get into the main room and there is plenty of room right at the stage. anna and anastasia are already there and we're all going CRAZY clearly. we situate ourselves front and center, elbows on the stage. pretty soon the first opening band, "what made milwaukee famous," comes on. they're really upbeat and fun, and they all seemed to be having a very good time on stage and clearly were not accustomed to such a large crowd arriving early enough to hear them. their set is fantastic; none of us are at all impatient and just wanting it to be over, it's good enough to distract us from our anticipation of the impending long winters.

second opening band, menomena, is very very good, musically pretty impeccable, but much more mellow. less of a stage presence, i think, but they do so many interesting things with technology (computers, synths, pedals, electric bows for guitars??!?) that they hold my attention, and i appreciate having a little mellow time before the massive excitement of the set change before the long winters. the set change seems to last an impossibly long time and we are desperately trying to avoid seeing the setlist, which actually turns out to be the stage layout sheet. we need not worry about the setlist, though, because: there is no set list. more on that to follow.

so. the long winters are onstage, checking mics and levels and things, and meanwhile we are all getting hopelessly excited and speculating about what the opening song will be and how we will signal so that we can all yell to request "stupid" at once, etc. etc.

FINALLY, around 11:20, john roderick stands up at the mic and says some stuff and then says, "well, this first song is a bit of a departure for us," so of course we all get the hint that the first song is "it's a departure". wise choice, i think - maybe not my #1 choice for a first song, but it's good because it's very energetic and gets everyone hyped up.

i don't remember the order of the songs at ALL, but at some point, maybe after two songs, john asks for requests so we all SCREAM "stupid!!" about a million times and he confers with the band while everyone screams out song names and THEN we hear the opening chords to what else but "stupid"! and then, the crowning glory, as we scream "stupid" one more time, john leans down towards us with this look like "ok, here we go, we're playing it for you, are you happy now?"

the whole thing just kind of blurs from there. i know all the words and even guitar solos to everything which is maybe a little weird, and it's crazy being in a room with that many people who have not only heard of the long winters but who like them lots.

the amount of connection with the audience is pretty fantastic. perhaps it's because i'm right in the front, but i feel like they are playing to just me and my friends. at one point they break into a blues jam, the "bullshit blues" as they call it, during which john plays his guitar behind his head etc. later, he accidentally leans on a button on the keyboard that turns on a funky beat, which they then proceed to jam to for a few minutes.

they play everything on my checklist of Songs I Have To Hear: stupid, new girl, teaspoon, blue diamonds, shapes. all of those songs, of course, are highlights. shapes was particularly good because we heard john say quietly to the rest of the band "let's play shapes" so we knew it was coming.

the moment that sticks in my head, though, is the earnestness with which john sings pushover. perhaps it's just because i have such emotional ties to so many of these songs, but seeing the man who wrote them sing them with such feeling is very powerful, and i am totally bowled over by the experience.

the stage banter seems very fresh and not at all scripted, very responsive to the audience. at one point john heckles some new york hipsters who he says are "too cool for this show," which they agree with. he says he knows his fan base: nerds.

by the time they finish, it's 1:20. two full hours of long winters bliss. we panic a little, because our train leaves at 1:50 and it's the last one of the night. fortunately tara's dad is still there, waiting for us (!!!!!) and he city-drives us very fast to grand central, where we make our train. unfortunately, the haste with which we left meant that we couldn't purchase the "what made milwaukee famous" or stick around to meet more people or talk to john roderick again. it's alright, though - i don't know if i could have handled more amazingness in the same night.

so, in no particular order, here is what they played, not that this will mean much to anyone reading this:

everything off "putting the days to bed" except "sky is open
from "when i pretend to fall": blue diamonds, scared straight, shapes, cinnamon, new girl, stupid, the sound of coming down
from "the worst you can do is harm": carparts, medicine cabinet pirate
from "ultimatum ep": ultimatum (acoustic version), delicate hands, the commander thinks aloud (which was the last song)
bullshit blues jam
jazz jam on funky keyboard beat

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:15:09 GMT

oh. my. god.

the long winters show was the best show i have ever been to, bar none, and probably will retain that title for years.

john roderick is a musical god.

despite missing our train down, and not getting back until the wee hours, man, just...wow. my mind has been blown.

full update to follow sometime later, for now i'm going to snuggle up in bed in my supercozy room (the heat is on!)

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:38:21 GMT

new record for latest i've stayed up doing work:

3:30 am.

on the plus side, my URSI poster is done (or nearly, anyway, i have time for finishing touches and tweaks tomorrow) and i managed to skim my physics reading, sort of. but the main thing is, the poster is done. PHEW.

I AM SO TIRED.

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 02:18:26 GMT

rest in peace, Daisy.

you were the best dog in the world and you will be missed, terribly.