A few weeks ago my iPod's shuffle function showed its usual prescient wisdom and played Destiny's Child's song So Good. It wasn't the message of the song that felt so appropriate at that moment (it's actually kind of a tragic song), but its chorus:
I'm doing so so so so so
I'm doing so so so so so
I'm doing so so so so so good good good good good good
You get the idea! With this pounding into my earphones as I strolled through Cambridge on my way to my office, I sang along (as always) and, with the self-reflection that comes just before a birthday, I really meant it. I AM doing so so so so so good. I've had a really fun and productive year. I did two super fun stints of fieldwork in amazing places, met tons of interesting people (and interviewed a lot of them...), saw my family a lot, lived in two houses with tons of character (and characters!), really enjoyed teaching, ran a seminar that I was proud of, really enjoyed *not* rowing... Things are so good. I didn't get sick this winter like I did last winter, I didn't sprain or break anything (a rare occurrence in my pre-Cambridge life), and I avoided the crippling loneliness of last year's term breaks (mostly by leaving town :) ). My friends are wonderful enough that they sent an outpouring of attention and good wishes yesterday for my birthday. Everyone was genuinely excited about it... way more than I was, somehow. They gave me facebook posts, lunch, roses, books, art supplies, hugs, emails, texts, and a Dixie Chicks bag all the way from the US (thanks, Deena!). My family gave me Happy Birthday sung over the internet and money in all kind of forms, including a check for $20 in the post from my step-grandma. Awwwwww. I was doing so so so good before all these moments of thoughtfulness, but they make things even better. :)
Thanks to all of you for making my year and my birthday so so so so so good!
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Britain's beach
Last week I was in Devon and Cornwall, the two counties in the "boot" of England - the southwest tip. The first four days were at the British Society for the History of Science conference in Exeter (a beautiful town with hills and a medieval cathedral!), where I gave a talk, chaired a session, attended many many sessions, and slept through only one. What a success! It's a really fun crowd, almost everyone knows each other and is super friendly. I made 7 new facebook friends, if that's a measure of the friendliness of a crowd...
Then came my first UK road trip, in the backseat of a postdoc's car for about 90 minutes from Exeter to Polzeath, Cornwall, a little chunk of cliff on the north Cornish coast, right on the Atlantic. I kind of like road trips in the US and I've been on lots of them, including to New York, Toronto, Texas, and Florida. But the idea of being on the "motorway" (highway) for hours in the tiny flimsy cars this country drives did worry me a little. Themes of the drive included "what does that road sign mean?" (me), "should we trust the SatNav?" (the driver), "are we nearly there?" (her boyfriend, jokingly using the British translation of "are we there yet?"), and "DID YOU SAY SOMETHING?" (the cars are basically not insulated, so you can't hear over the noise of the road. At least that negated any fights over choosing a radio station!). Then we spent 4 lovely days walking the coastal path, drinking tea and Cornish cider, hanging out, splashing on the beach, SURFING.... all in the rain. Cornwall is usually cloudy and cold, so no one seemed surprised but it was inspirational to see how they just kept going and ignored the weather. The guy who rented us our SURFBOARDS was wearing shorts, flipflops, a down jacket and a wool hat. He said we'd be fine in our super awesome borrowed wetsuits because the water was warmer than the air... Who knows if that was true, but we were too busy getting tossed around in the enormous waves and chasing our surfboards and then very briefly riding the waves before getting tumbled under them and scraping the sand to emerge triumphant into the wonderfully salt-free rain to notice our shivers. It was SO FUN. We were out there 1.5 hours and had the best time ever and then ate pasties on the beach (which we bought in our dripping wetsuits, and no one in the shop even looked surprised) and went home to shower and pretend to read while actually passed out with exhaustion. We also read the guidebook's entry for Polzeath, and it described the Polzeath beach as "for wannabe surfers"! We took that to mean "everyone", rather than "losers who can't surf", especially since the guidebook added: "Even the babies are in wetsuits." :) Hooray for holidays!
the wannabe surfers in our super hero outfits
Why should rain stop a BBQ?
Pasties on the beach
One of the three cars we arrived in - a two-seater SmartCar! (I rode in a slightly bigger non-smart car.)
Cornish Rattler - the best cider EVER
Historians of science on holiday!
Then came my first UK road trip, in the backseat of a postdoc's car for about 90 minutes from Exeter to Polzeath, Cornwall, a little chunk of cliff on the north Cornish coast, right on the Atlantic. I kind of like road trips in the US and I've been on lots of them, including to New York, Toronto, Texas, and Florida. But the idea of being on the "motorway" (highway) for hours in the tiny flimsy cars this country drives did worry me a little. Themes of the drive included "what does that road sign mean?" (me), "should we trust the SatNav?" (the driver), "are we nearly there?" (her boyfriend, jokingly using the British translation of "are we there yet?"), and "DID YOU SAY SOMETHING?" (the cars are basically not insulated, so you can't hear over the noise of the road. At least that negated any fights over choosing a radio station!). Then we spent 4 lovely days walking the coastal path, drinking tea and Cornish cider, hanging out, splashing on the beach, SURFING.... all in the rain. Cornwall is usually cloudy and cold, so no one seemed surprised but it was inspirational to see how they just kept going and ignored the weather. The guy who rented us our SURFBOARDS was wearing shorts, flipflops, a down jacket and a wool hat. He said we'd be fine in our super awesome borrowed wetsuits because the water was warmer than the air... Who knows if that was true, but we were too busy getting tossed around in the enormous waves and chasing our surfboards and then very briefly riding the waves before getting tumbled under them and scraping the sand to emerge triumphant into the wonderfully salt-free rain to notice our shivers. It was SO FUN. We were out there 1.5 hours and had the best time ever and then ate pasties on the beach (which we bought in our dripping wetsuits, and no one in the shop even looked surprised) and went home to shower and pretend to read while actually passed out with exhaustion. We also read the guidebook's entry for Polzeath, and it described the Polzeath beach as "for wannabe surfers"! We took that to mean "everyone", rather than "losers who can't surf", especially since the guidebook added: "Even the babies are in wetsuits." :) Hooray for holidays!
the wannabe surfers in our super hero outfits
Why should rain stop a BBQ?
Pasties on the beach
One of the three cars we arrived in - a two-seater SmartCar! (I rode in a slightly bigger non-smart car.)
Cornish Rattler - the best cider EVER
Historians of science on holiday!
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Sharing America
My friend Deena is visiting from Chicago. She and I threw a 4th of July BBQ at my house in Cambridge - complete with imported Reese's peanut butter cups, imported yogurt-covered raisins, imported s'mores, local watermelon (but not enough room for a seed-spitting contest, unfortunately...), popcorn, corn on the cob, yellow mustard, BYO meat (Deena and I grilled veggies for everyone, but they had to provide meat if they wanted it, which was maybe not a very American requirement but no one seemed to mind), Waldorf salad, ants-on-a-log, and a red cocktail (sangria), a white cocktail (pina colada), and a blue cocktail (mystery blue alcohol + lemonade!).
It took us all day to get ready, even with the noble help of Tobias, my (I think?) boyfriend and also a skilled vegetable-slicer and a muscled alcohol deliveryman. Deena and I even bought sparklers! (And had to get carded and given a Safety Talk by the guy at the hardware store. Just to buy 20 sparklers! They also sold Roman Candles - I wonder what the Safety Talk for those is like.) We used my (few) American t-shirts to decorate the chairs in my adorable postage-stamp back yard, and hung up red white and blue bunting (£1 from Tesco) and strings of glittery stars (£2 from Tesco, and now recycled to hang in my room!) and Deena's hand-drawn US flag. We put the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain on my iTunes, and fired up the BBQ. (Minor hiccup - the bag of coal I found in our garden shed, which I assumed was leftover charcoal that my housemates had bought, turned out to be COAL, like actual dig-up-in-a-mine, burn-in-your-stove coal. We spent a few confused minutes trying to light it, before I made a dash to the corner store for CHARcoal, which is somehow different from coal. Why anyone is selling coal in 21st-century Cambridge is another interesting question...)
20 or so of my friends were very good sports and came wearing red, white and blue, a Wonder Woman t-shirt, a NASA t-shirt, even a giant US flag shirt that my friend found in a charity shop. They tried all the strange American foods Deena and I had made, and admired the colorful alcohol. One friend even brought peanut butter cookies and a homemade cake decorated with a US flag in frosting and fruit! Deena, ever the teacher, gave a fabulous lecture and demonstration on How To Make S'Mores, while my Cambridge-PhD-student buddies watched, engrossed, before elbowing each other out of the way to get the best spot around the BBQ. How heart-warming to see the subjects of our former ruling country (as well as Canadians, a German, an Irishwoman, and a Mexican) join in the celebration of our country's birthday!
S'Mores 101
Crowding the "campfire"
Star-spangled sparklers
Tobias cutting Melanie's flag cake, while I struggle with the graham crackers that traveled from Chicago with me a few weeks ago (the marshmallows came in Deena's suitcase!)
It took us all day to get ready, even with the noble help of Tobias, my (I think?) boyfriend and also a skilled vegetable-slicer and a muscled alcohol deliveryman. Deena and I even bought sparklers! (And had to get carded and given a Safety Talk by the guy at the hardware store. Just to buy 20 sparklers! They also sold Roman Candles - I wonder what the Safety Talk for those is like.) We used my (few) American t-shirts to decorate the chairs in my adorable postage-stamp back yard, and hung up red white and blue bunting (£1 from Tesco) and strings of glittery stars (£2 from Tesco, and now recycled to hang in my room!) and Deena's hand-drawn US flag. We put the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain on my iTunes, and fired up the BBQ. (Minor hiccup - the bag of coal I found in our garden shed, which I assumed was leftover charcoal that my housemates had bought, turned out to be COAL, like actual dig-up-in-a-mine, burn-in-your-stove coal. We spent a few confused minutes trying to light it, before I made a dash to the corner store for CHARcoal, which is somehow different from coal. Why anyone is selling coal in 21st-century Cambridge is another interesting question...)
20 or so of my friends were very good sports and came wearing red, white and blue, a Wonder Woman t-shirt, a NASA t-shirt, even a giant US flag shirt that my friend found in a charity shop. They tried all the strange American foods Deena and I had made, and admired the colorful alcohol. One friend even brought peanut butter cookies and a homemade cake decorated with a US flag in frosting and fruit! Deena, ever the teacher, gave a fabulous lecture and demonstration on How To Make S'Mores, while my Cambridge-PhD-student buddies watched, engrossed, before elbowing each other out of the way to get the best spot around the BBQ. How heart-warming to see the subjects of our former ruling country (as well as Canadians, a German, an Irishwoman, and a Mexican) join in the celebration of our country's birthday!
S'Mores 101
Crowding the "campfire"
Star-spangled sparklers
Tobias cutting Melanie's flag cake, while I struggle with the graham crackers that traveled from Chicago with me a few weeks ago (the marshmallows came in Deena's suitcase!)
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