Saturday, July 4, 2009

Firsts: a little bit of this and that

The last 30 odd days have been full of firsts for me. I started my first summer not in the Midwest, went to my first ResNet Symposium in St. Cloud, MN, and am preparing for my first major move.

Summers in the Midwest start mid-May and contain hot, muggy days where all you want to do is eat freezy pops and lie under the AC unit. Summers in Connecticut apparently consist of rain, rain, and more rain. I am told this is not the norm, but that was also said of snow in December and January, the cold temperatures in spring, and I don't know how many other things relating to weather and seasonal behaviors. I'll believe "normal" when it finally comes. Trading muggy days for rainy days is an improvement for breathing, but not for my mood stability. Damn you seasonal affective disorder!

The first ResNet Symposium was at its most simple, amazing. Somewhere after Day 2 I stopped being able to describe the fun. There was of course, the expected networking, learning, teaching, sharing, etc. but the level of humor and good ol' fashioned goofballery far exceeded my expectations. I now have many friends that I cannot wait to see again at future Northeast ResNet conferences, as well as looking forward to next year's conference at Western Washington University. And definitely looking forward to 2011, when Yale hosts the Symposium! It'll be a lot of work, but I'm excited already!

As far as the major move is concerned, it's interesting already. I reserved a 12' truck from Penske, as they had the cheapest price/truck and gave discounts for online reservations and AAA membership (it just paid for itself). When my dad and I went to go pick it up Saturday AM, we were given a 16' truck for the same price. Joy. I have now have a monstrosity to drive across the Eastern third of the US. Because 12' wasn't big enough, right?

Other random thoughts, given my current insomnia...iPhoto's "Faces" can be pretty entertaining; mine in particular thinks that car wheels are people. Why can't I mark more "Locations" in iPhoto? The iPhone photos label themselves due to GPS, but I'd like to add more info to the other 500 photos that I haven't taken with the iPhone. Goose Apocalypse in the park today was entertaining: my little brother threw some leftover bread into the water, and then next thing we knew there were 20 Canadian geese surrounding us. I climbed up onto the picnic table to "take pictures." Rain on the 4th of July should be illegal. And I should definitely go to bed.

1 comment:

RunawayJim said...

The beginning of this summer was not at all normal for southern New England. The whole "April showers bring May flowers" thing generally holds true. It usually doesn't hit the mid-80's on a regular basis until June, but it also doesn't rain for 6 weeks straight.

As for winter, it's really a crap shot. Winters here can be tough or easy. The past 2 winters have been nuts. The past several before that have been pretty weak. I'm a big fan of snow (being a skier and all that). The amount of snow we got in December this year was a little abnormal. Usually those kinds of storms hold out for late January or February. Winters can last into April here, but usually stop by the end of March (though Easter snow storms have been known to occur).

Good luck getting acclimated to the weather here. All I have to say is that once you're used to it, it throws you a curveball. :)

We have a saying here, "If you don't like the weather in New England (sometimes it's CT), wait 5 minutes".

Good luck driving the large truck. The last time I did that, it had a broken passenger mirror and kept blowing towards the truck on the Jersey Turnpike, preventing me from being able to change lanes. That was especially fun when I got to the George Washington Bridge. But I'm sure your experience will be a bit better than mine.