In Which I Consider Cloning Myself

Yawn, I just got back from my week in San Francisco, which was pretty much everything I hoped it would be and more. As luck would have it, I got to spend chunks of quality time with my brother (who lives approximately a mile from my apartment, but happened to be in Palo Alto over his birthday last week), did a ton of really helpful and necessary fieldwork for my DPhil, and caught up with Aviva, Brian, Chase, and other people who are totally familiar if you remember last year in Oxford, or when I went to visit Mexico, or way back in the day when Aviva and I worked at MTV together and realized that we are soulmates. (Basically, a lot of people who could lay legitimate claims to being recurring characters on this blog over the years, and who are some of the most quality people I know.)

It was nice for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I tried to expose myself to direct sunlight to keep up the light tan I got in Miami and shake off Scandinavian Winter Mortuary Pallor, which tends to stay with me until mid-April every year. But I also think part of it might be that this year has been about my fieldwork and work first and foremost, and I miss being in an academic community where everyone is doing their own crazy interesting projects. Hanging out with my favorite modern thinker and linguist and population biologist and experimental psychologist and other friends who are working at HIV/AIDS non-profits and tech start-ups and planning their lives totally reminded me why I kind of love that universe and want to keep at least one foot in it.

It does not hurt when they are crazy brilliant but also super-excited about Not Another Teen Movie, experimenting with ChatRoulette, or splitting a tub of Thin Mints ice cream together in front of a party of people that is fairly clearly judging the two of us as we refuse seats to remain standing by the dessert table. So now I am trying to figure out how many grad degrees I could accumulate and how long I can keep this going to hang out with people for the next ten years.