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| I've gotta say, this is the first year that I haven't been excited about being a year older. Like I was telling my dad and sister earlier, I'm no longer so young that people are surprised by my age given what I do. Starting now, with each passing year, I'm just getting older. There are no more benefits to look forward to...except maybe retirement? Yeah, yeah, it's a little soon for that.
There's my quarter-life crisis for the day  Happy birthday to me! 
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| The greatest song anyone has every played for me -
And they said our love would fade
it gets stronger everyday
And they say that beauty fades
You're more beautiful than ever
They said we'd drift away
We're still standing here
And it feels like every day’s
Our Anniversary
This guy, I tell you...he just touches my heart in a way no one else can
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| I'M DONE!!! Like really, really done! No more prospectus EVER! I had my orals this morning -- which went well, I think. I won't get the official numbers until March 6th, but my advisor told me that the committee was going to recommend I pass. WOOHOO! Now I just need to get together a dissertation committee so I can apply for candidacy. Okay, I'm done now.
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| Did you guys know that in 2006, Manuel's was voted the best place to take a first date by the Austin Chronicle? Well Milind didn't know that until yesterday night, and yet, he took me to Manuel's on our first date almost two years ago. How random is that? I guess it worked out well for us It's been exactly two years since we met -- not an anniversary we celebrate, but he remembers it anyway! haha correct me if I'm wrong, but not many guys remember stuff like that, do they?
Anyway, I had my writtens on Friday morning. Come Thursday, I had started to treat it just like any other test - "I know what I know, and I'm just ready to wing it at this point." Of course I didn't wing it, though :) Regardless, they were surprisingly not terrible. Now, after a weekend of completely ignoring prospectus, I need to start preparing for the orals (mine are on Tuesday morning). I absolutely cannot wait until this is over! I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with all the extra time it leaves me?! Oh! I know! I'll start actually reading for my classes and catch up on grading papers. Man, life is swell, isn't it? I'm so ready to take a vacation!
Okay, that's my update for now. Happy day after Valentine's day to everyone!
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| So D.C. ... I've been putting this update off forever. Now, in an effort to put other things off, I've decided to finally tell you guys about my trip!
Okay, let's see, flying first class was nice, it ALMOST made up for the fact that I had to take work with me. So day 1: We got into town in the evening, so we didn't really do much. We just went out to dinner and sort of crashed early since we all had to be up the next day. Day 2: This was our day of sight-seeing. We started out by taking a tour of the capitol. It was really freakin' cold outside that day, so we were really glad to get inside. From the capitol tour, we ventured over to the congressional office buildings to bug our senators/representatives. We didn't actually meet anyone important, but we did get to see Diane Feinstein giving a press conference from pretty close up. Anyway, our purpose at the congressional office buildings was not to stalk congress-people, but to get gallery passes so we could go see the House and Senate galleries.
So we got our passes, then met up with my old roommate from Spain for lunch -- I hadn't seen her in 4 years! So that was fun. Then after lunch, we headed back to the capitol so we could see the galleries. That part was really cool, even though no important bills were being voted on or anything. And the best part was, it was indoors! Seriously, it was really freakin' cold that day! From there, most of our indoor sightseeing was complete, unfortunately. So I wrapped my scarf around my face, and we headed back outside. Milind didn't have a scarf because he is much better at dealing with the cold than I am. And also, he left his scarf at home in North Carolina, so he wouldn't have had it even if he wanted it.
Ok, back to sight-seeing. We walked around the capitol and started to make our way to the National Mall. They were already setting up for the inauguration at this point, so the west side of the capitol was already completely blocked off. Anyway, the goal was to walk all the way down the mall and to the Vietnam War Memorial without turning into a block of ice. I must say, I handled it much better than I expected myself to Also, we took a detour through one of the Smithsonian Museums (Natural History) about half-way through so I could thaw out a bit. Lucky for Milind I'm such a whiner, because even if he was cold, he never had to complain about it. I was already complaining enough for the both of us, so he was able to maintain his tough exterior  Needless to say, we completed the walking tour and made it out alive.
That night, we ate dinner at home (we were staying with Milind's friend for the first part of the trip), and then made our way out to the bars. That part was miserable. Well not entirely miserable. We had great company, but it was freakin' 8 degrees outside!! 8 degrees!! Are you freakin' kidding me? I was not built to withstand that kind of cold! Anyway, hanging out that night was fun. (Thanks for coming out, Sid!) Day 3: Thankfully, we slept in. We had a massive brunch at home -- some more of Milind's friends got in that day, so we pretty much hung out at home, ventured down the street to shoot some pool, and then hung out at home some more 
Day 4: Another long day. Milind and I had to wake up super early....you know, for a Sunday morning. Anyway, we met up with my sister and her friends and our (mine and my sister's, not Milind's!) cousin for breakfast at Bus Boys and Poets before heading over to the Lincoln Memorial for the concert. Thankfully, it wasn't as cold as our sightseeing day, because we were outside for a really long time! ...long enough for me to have to use the port-a-potties at least twice. I blame the caffeine I had at breakfast. So the concert. You all saw it on TV -- it was pretty awesome, no? Well, we had a good time Rather than try to get on the metro right after the concert (it was really freakin' crowded), we decided to hang out in with my sister and co. till the traffic died down a bit. On the walk to the apartment, guess who we saw? Just walking on the streeet...pretty much right next to us? Anderson Cooper! That was pretty cool. We realized it was him about a minute before everyone else did, but by the time we thought to try and take a picture, he seemed really bothered, so we decided against it. To his credit, he was being really nice -- but I think the point at which people are running up next to you and holding cameras in your face without asking is a fairly normal at which to get annoyed. Anyway, we got to walk down the street next to Anderson Cooper for about a quarter of a block, so that was cool
Okay, I'm skipping ahead to the inauguration now, because we didn't do anything noteworthy between the concert and the inauguration. So the night before the actual inauguration, we stayed in Chinatown since it's so much closer to the National Mall than where we were staying before that -- and also so we could hang out with my sister. Anyway, we didn't get to sleep that night till about 12:30, and we had to wake up at 3:30! The plan was to head out at 4:30am, but it took a little longer than we expected to get all our layers on. And then, once we were finally out the door, we got as far as about 2 blocks when my legs started getting cold and, we decided to turn back so I could add another layer. It was pretty ridiculous. My sister had on her ski gear...and had strapped body warmers to her thighs. I was wearing two pairs of socks, two pairs of thermals, jeans, boots up to about my knees, and then my sister's fleece pants on top of all of that! And four layers on top, too! Plus a headband to cover my ears, a beanie, a scarf wrapped around my head/face, and my jacket hood on top of all of that! Even with all those layers, and hand warmers in my pockets, my feet were going numb after having only been outside for an hour!
So we're waiting for about an hour for the security gates to open (they were supposed to open at 7am), when they announce that the gates weren't actually going to open until 7:30! And that they were only going to take 50 people at a time through the gates! wtf? I guess I should point out the reason they were doing all of this is because it was also once of the entrances to the parade route. We didn't want to go to the parade, we just wanted to cross the parade route to get to the national mall. Finally we got fed up and decided to go around. Mostly because we were hearing from friends who entered from the other side of the mall that they didn't have to go through any security! So we hauled ass out of where we were and took the I395 tunnel to the South side of the mall. It was a long walk, but still much better than standing around since it made us less cold (and also, the tunnel is sheltered from the wind, obviously). Once we got to the mall, we decided to stake out a spot close to a speaker within sight of a jumbotron. We actually had a pretty good view until all the tall people materialized out of thin air! That was annoying, but in the end, we were able to see/hear everything relatively well. And it was really awesome just being there!
Walking home? completely different story entirely! We almost got crushed in a mass of people at one of the intersections. There were like a million people trying to go one way (to the metro) and another million people trying to go the other (just crossing the street)....basically, it was a big fat mess! Anyway, we finally got home -- without my having to use a port-a-potty all morning -- at about 2pm!! I think we spent like 8 or 9 hours outside, total? Yeah, it was crazy. Everyone else was ready to chow down when we got home. I, on the other hand, laid down on the couch and promptly proceeded to pass out. We had gotten tickets for a party that night, but once we got home from the mall, we were all kicking ourselves for having bought tickets. All we wanted to do at that point was sleep! Since we had already paid for the tickets, though, we went to the party (where we ran into Subin - what a small world!). We left by like midnight, though, just because we're lame like that. Also, we were freakin' exhausted!
I'll post pictures and/or videos at some point. We got several videos of the crowd at different points in the day as well as a video of Obama's oath. I'll try to post the one of his oath if I can get it from my sister. The one on Milind's camera is sort of dizzy-ing, if that makes any sense.
Anyways, that is the basic gist of my trip to D.C. in a very large nutshell. THE END.
Oh, I forgot! On the way home from the party, Joe Biden's motorcade drove right by us as we were waiting to cross the street! That was pretty freakin' cool. Oh, and our cab driver that night was talking to us about game theory. Also cool. Okay, THAT'S the end!
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