5/26/03

Usually, when I go through a few days of inactivity, I start to get restless and antsy. But somehow, this weekend, that hasn't happened. In the present case, laziness has only begotten more laziness.

I had planned to be very productive this weekend, seeing as how I went out practically every night last week and showed up at work in a zombielike state each day. But somehow, Saturday and Sunday flew by, and I never made it to work or over to the park to run. I didn't even vacuum my disgusting floor (especially the kitchen, agggh.) Today I did a little better: I went in to work around 10 a.m., went for a two and a half hour "lunch" at around noon (which mostly consisted of lying in bed and reading). After lunch, I went back to work for a while, then left at around 4 to go running. I did run, but never quite made it back to work after that. Of course, I don't feel too bad...it is a holiday, and as far as I could see, only three people in my lab actually made it in to work today, and one of them was my boss. The other kept trying to engage me in a discussion of "The Matrix Reloaded," but I resisted.

Have I mentioned that this is one of the ways that UCSF is very different from Harvard? I remember when I was working there and one year, I had to come in on Christmas Day. I'd spent Christmas with my parents, and then had to drive 100 miles to get to the lab. I have to admit that it made me feel kind of important, though, having to come in on Christmas. I was indispensible! But then, when I got to the lab, half of the people I worked with were there, too. It was practically like any other day, really.

That doesn't happen here. I think that's what people mean when they say that life in this city is "more civilized." Of course, it's tough to think of anywhere less civilized than Harvard Medical School, where everyone you see in the halls looks like they're about to explode (from rage, anxiety, general neurosis, etc.) at any moment.

On Saturday, I went with my friend Jen (known by Kymm as "Jen's friend Jen") to a free show at Amoeba. The band consisted of a DJ, a saxophonist, two drummers and...a sitar player. At first, the sitar was a little bit overpowering. As Jen put it, "a little sitar goes a long way." But as the show went on, the sitar player seemed to mellow out, or maybe we just learned to ignore it, and the show ended up actually being very good, despite the fact that the speaker on our side of the stage kept cutting out. I suppose if you want the sound system to work, you have to go to a show you have to pay for.

Afterward, we went out for coffee and gossip. As I spoke, I became increasingly self-conscious about the fact that I was constantly referencing people and things I know from online, particularly from the board. It is not quite so pathetic, I suppose, when you consider that many of those people are now real-life friends with whom I hang out on a regular basis. In fact, I hung out with them on Saturday and Sunday night. Over dinner on Sunday, I mentioned these feelings of patheticness to Pete and Jenfu, and we all vowed to attempt not to talk about the board that evening. Of course, we failed miserably. It's just a lost cause.