hello information give me memphis, tennessee.... =P

dude, so memphis jenny is hero of the day for giving me "memphis: the album" for my christmas present... she's been working since the summer on collecting good memphis/blues songs to burn me a homemade CD for a gift, and it's super spiffy. =) i was way excited.

so my day? mostly hanging out w/ jenny... hadn't seen her since she moved to ohio for grad school the first week of august, and she's leaving again sunday to go back, so i won't see her for months again... we went out to an indian restaurant and then to the pink palace for fun... they had a spiffy planetarium show of the constellations of the winter skies and the stories that go with them... super cool since i've been trying to learn them... then we saw an IMAX feature on chimpanzees in africa that was super cool as well... finally went bookstore-ing and starbucks-ing, and had a party overall... jenny quote of the day was "some of your friends say you're complicated? dude, the rules of dealing with lara are pretty straightforward and simple... i should write an instruction manual!" so who knows. =)

speaking of my friends who think i'm complicated, i'm generally laughed at by my non-memphis friends for locking my cars and double and triple checking them and for making sure everything is out of view in my car, including any slips of paper with writing on them... while jenny and i were in the pink palace (in a middle-class part of town, generally i feel really safe there) the car next to mine was broken into -- out of state plates and they had a bag sitting on the front seat that was taken... i'm NOT paranoid... just a product of my surroundings =P

it's interesting b/c jenny and jessica are the two HS friends i still keep really well in touch w/... both live out of state and are currently in grad school in their respective fields... it's really bizarre to me to run into other people from the past and chat about what they're doing... like 11pm candlelight church service on christmas eve... kara smallwood (in 6th - 8th grade with me) was there visiting from kansas, and david barton (in K-4th grade with me) was there, who's been in town all along, just hadn't seen him in like 12 years or so... and when you're talking to people you haven't seen in years it inevitably follows after the "hi, how are you?" that you ask "so what are you up to now?".... it feels like there's a small percentage of people in grad school like me, and otherwise for 90% of the people my age the answer is "oh, i'm still in town, meet my fiance/significant other... i (fill in straightforwardly explainable job like building houses, sell stuff, whatever)"... despite the stresses this semester, i really do love what i'm doing now... it's just kinda a dose of reality of the fact that what i'm up to with my life lately (studying and soon hopefully actively doing research mathematics) is rather abstract and not the common thing to do... its applicable to real life and i'm proud of it, but my dad's always on my case of why don't i do things that are more natural, like switch over to biology or something... whatever... at times though, comparing notes w/ the majority of my local friends i feel like in a way i've traded in other relationships for the world of academia... not in that i don't have a lot of good friends from a variety of places, but in that my life is so geared towards that, and grad school is definitely set up for people who are single and in charge of their own schedule, not leaving much time for too terribly much outside of it... i enjoy the way things are going now.... but it's just kinda interesting that each time i'm home the divergence between my life of studying and making my own plans as i want them (e.g. my massive road trip next month) and the lifestyle of settling down with spouse and kids and a local easily understandable job is more and more noticable... and i don't know how exactly to phrase what i think about that... i feel like i'm in yet another minority, which is usually neither bad nor good, just an observation, and another fact about me to confuse most everyone who knows me and is not in that category.

dude, i am so rambling. the end.

p.s. i hate being sick... not bad sick, just the same sniffles, sore throat from last week lingers on... whatever. later.

p.s. #2: major accomplishment of the year -- with the new computer we got, yesterday we taught dad how to turn it on and off... today i got dad an email address and got him to write his first email. welcome to the digital age, dad, who can't handle a remote control =) major victory... woo-hah! =P