just for laughs

here's the math department/lara's email gossip of the day.

(1) at the party last night, everyone (for the most part) was pretty drunk by 6/7pm apparently... so like mike, sometime between 5 and 7 pm jumped off the house's 6-8 foor off the ground balcony, and severely sprained his ankle... the guys decided to let him sleep it off until 4am when he woke up in great pain... then they took him to the hospital and discovered he'll need surgery... there's a lot more details i've forgotten but it's a completely wacked out story... the best part? mike, re: the whole ordeal, "yeah, i was doing it to impress women!"... um, ok...

(2) so catherine (aka new 1st year student who speaks her mind at immediately without thinking about it...) had an interesting exchange with the grad director in his algebraic geometry class this morning:
catherine: so, off the wall question: which came first, the (blah) approach to this or the (blah blah) approach?
prof.: if you were paying attention, we answered that monday
(5 minutes later)
catherine: well, i'm uncomfortable with that answer, can you tell me why i shouldn't be uncomfortable?
prof.: well, you're slouching... maybe if you sat up straight, you'd be comfortable
(for the next 5 minutes, after every sentence, the prof. apparently said "and this should make you more comfortable" or "and this should make you less comfortable")...
dude.

(3) meanwhile, while that class was going on, i was in combinatorics... aaron, a married 5th year student i've had one class with, comes in and sits next to me.... 5th years don't typically take classes, just sit in on things appropriate to their research, and combo is nothing to do with aaron's branch of algebra so... hmmm...
aaron: hi! i thought you liked algebra, not this stuff
me: um, no, the only thing that's certain is that i hate analysis... the rest is open for question... why are you in here?
aaron: oh, i decided it's good to learn to count better... we'll see how long it lasts
(pause for a couple minutes, then i notice aaron giving me a really weird look)
me: yes?
aaron: did you dye your hair?
me: um, no... maybe it changes color with the sun in the summer or something
aaron: oh, hmmm... well, if i never said so before, it's a real nice color

(4) after combo, i went to the student center to pick up lunch and on the way ran into mason, aka crazy fun friend from my budapest semester who visited a few times last year... i knew he was around and at the party last night but i hadn't seen him yet... he came with me to buy my lunch and then back to my office where we played with mind games (get the metal ring off this puzzle contraption, etc.) for an hour and a half an chatted with sarah... 5 minutes before my 2nd class of the day, andrew, even crazier BSM friend who i hadn't seen since europe, who rotates between rutgers, harvard, and some community college every few semesters, who in general looks/acts like he's stoned, shows up... hair/glasses totally different from before that i didn't recognize him at first... had a bizarre exchange with him before class

(5) no exciting topology stories, however....

(6) check out this email from eric's grandma to eric earlier today (recall eric and i stayed at her house in michigan for 2 days on our monster road trip in july)... i just about bust a gut laughing at the "thank her..." sentence that leigh came running into my room to check if i was ok :-P
~~~~~~~
Hi, Eric, Good hearing from you.
Please tell Lara that I gave her the book so no need to return it.
Thank her for turning my shower head so it really shoots heavy sprays
and feels great.
Let me know about the try out for the orchestra. Love, Grandma Adele
~~~~~~~

dude... so that's the gossip round the watering hole today... time for "scrubs" and then a movie (tonight's choice is "erin brokovich") with eric... night y'all