Welcome to the Jenkins Family
My trip to San Jose was better than expected. It was for winners of minority and women fellowships from NASA, so there were about 150 people of all ages and colors. It was a busy week, but meeting so many new people and attending some very interesting sessions ranging from leading a balanced life to networking to technical presentations. The
Hariett G. Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship, which I won, has been around for 5 years, and there are 20 students per year. It's very different than the NSF because it really is a family, and they take care of all the students personally. They did promote NASA a lot, of course, but they're more concerned about our personal and technical development. So it's eased a little nervousness about some aspects of MIT, but it's also made it just a little more scary.
On a small world note, I met a guy there named Kenny, and we were talking about grad school decisions, so I mentioned how I had visited Colorado, Stanford, and MIT. He said he had a friend in Aerospace Engineering who was trying to decide between Colorado and MIT. This sounded all too familiar to someone I knew, so I asked if the guy was from Austin, and coincidentally, the answer was yes. Turns out a guy named David that I met when visiting the two schools (and whom I still talk to) co-oped with Kenny at Johnson Space Center. So Kenny also knows Tanner from GT, whom I was in senior design with. We're already seeing the small world that is the Aerospace Engineering field.
Last night we had a pseudo Girl's Night Out, which was the best night in a while. Recently we met Madelyn, Alex's awesome girlfriend, and we've been hanging out more and more with her. Since Alex was out of town, we wanted to have a girl's night out at some bars in Fairfax, but oh shucks, we ended up meeting a bunch of Madelyn's hot friends. And to top it all off, they were giving away free Jager bombs for some reason at the second bar we went to. I haven't been that drunk in a long time...everyone seemed to find it amusing, so of course they wouldn't let me stop. I paid for that today - trust me! I miss my 207 girls a lot, so it's so nice to be able to hang out with Lindsay, Chrissie, and Madelyn. All of you are awesome. :-)
To San Jose
To San Jose for a NASA symposium - back in a week.
Post NYC
Sorry it's been taking me a while to update throughout this summer. I definitely thought it would be easier to do once school was over, but it's hard to do at work, and once I get home, I never want to get on the computer. I also feel that I question less and post more updates about what I do each week. I think that's because when I have a thought I want to expound on, I'm in a place where I can't immediately blog or where I just don't want to sit in front of a computer more. Maybe graduate school will be a mixture of the two.
As for my trip to New York...it was a lot of fun. I took the 6:30 AM bus (which, much to my surprise) was surrounded by hookers all up and down the street. I didn't know people picked up hookers at 6:30 AM on a Friday morning. The bus ride was painless, and my suggestion is to take over the 3 seats in the back and then you can lay down to sleep. Oh, and bring your own toilet paper.
In NY, I met up with Eric at Ground Zero. My thoughts on that place are all over the board. Right now there is a fence around the entire site with a small memorial along one side. I was definitely moved not by the sight or the memorial, but just by the thought of the panic these people must have felt and the bravery and lost lives of those who
entered the building to help others out. For those memories, I don't think anything should be built on top of the site other than a memorial. The current, plan, though, is to build the Freedom Tower as well as memorials where the Twin Towers once stood. Part of me feels that this is a good plan because we need to stand up to the terrorists and rebuild ourselves. I also know that I wouldn't want to work in that building, but maybe because I'm too emotional about this particular subject.
Anyways, that afternoon, Eric and I had lunch in Central Park, explored SoHo and some other neighborhoods, visited Rockefeller Center and the surroundings, randomly ran into a girl that was my class at TJ (my high school). Then I headed up on the train to my grandparents house near West Point, where I hadn't been in about 5 years. My grandmother just had her kidney removed because it had cancer, but she is doing really well, and the cancer didn't spread. I also saw a whole slew of other family, so it was just really nice to visit with everyone and explore Highland Falls again, where I spent much of my summer every year while growing up.
I can't believe how fast this summer is going. Next week I'm in San Jose for a NASA symposium for the fellowship I won for next year, then a week of work, then the Dominican Republic, then a week of whatever, then Boston! In somewhat unrelated news, it's cool because my best friend Lindsay and I now have enough in common to talk. I mean
really talk. All the 207 girls know what I mean. :-) Now we'll never get bored in the Dominican Republic - mojitos in hand, sunbathing, and talking.
Random trip to NYC
So tomorrow at 6:30 a.m., I'm going to New York City. Yup. Takin' the bus. I'm gonna hang out in the city with a guy I met on the Florida RASC-AL trip who's in visiting from Michigan, and then I'm gonna head up to West Point, where my grandparents are. My grandmother just had her cancerous kidney removed and is doing well, but I'm going to stay there for a day.
Sounds like a good, spontaneous trip for me!
cops + badges/handcuffs/guns + drinks = an excellent night
So Lindsay met this guy Jeremy at a work cookout I took her to, who happens to work for the Diplomatic Security Services (J is the cousin of someone at The Aerospace Corporation). They hit it off that night and have since been hanging out some. So last night after the excellent engagement party Beth threw for BJ and Kim, we went out to Clarendon to a bar with Jeremy and his friend Adam, who, as they say, is in the "protection" business at the Pentagon. The bar was cool, and we also got to hang out with Hellman and Rob (Lindsay's friend whom we both hung out with when I lived in Pasadena). It was awesome seeing Rob again because he's so freaking funny and fun to hang out with. (And on a side note, Thursday we went out with Matt and Alex to karaoke, and those two together tell ridiculously funny stories, so that was awesome.)
Back on topic...it's interesting hanging out with those kind of guys for many reasons. For one thing, they know all these tricks to inflict pain in very simple ways, and they decided it would be fun to try these out on Lindsay and me. If they weren't trained with these skills for their jobs, that would be too intimidating for me; but instead, it's kind of hot. They're also a number of years older than us, which I never thought much about, but that's kind of hot too.
As for the rest of the night, Rob and Matt left a little before 1, and just before the bar closed, we headed out with the boys and hung out for a few more hours. So, it was a good night. :-)
And lastly, people often say that men in uniform are hot. These guys don't wear uniforms and have no "cop paraphernalia" other than a gun and badge. So, my question is: Do men in uniform really turn women on? Or is it the idea of the power that is implied by the uniform or the job, and the uniform really isn't necessary?
It's like The Gladiator
No guts, no glory. A lesson I've now learned twice too late.
The least likely candidate for high cholesterol...
...is apparently not me! I had my MIT physical last week, and the blood work came back saying I have high good and bad cholesterol. The doctor told me to go on a "low-fat" diet, and when I tried to explain to him I already eat low-fat, low-cholesterol foods, he wasn't really listening, and told me to cut out the first fatty thing he heard me say - low-fat peanut butter. All 5 grams of fat I get from one tablespoon. Who does he think he's kidding? Since I exercise and eat well, I really can't change all that much. It's most likely hereditary, but it's not bad enough to have to be put on meds yet. It's just an interesting turn of events that I definitely wasn't expecting. I don't know how seriously to take it and whether changing my diet will help at all, but I guess it's better to be safe.
In better news, last weekend was Katie's wedding, and it was most excellent. Jen, Meg, Emily, and I stayed downtown at the Hampton Inn. Katie was gorgeous, of course (pic coming soon), and Charlotte is a cute urban area. After the reception, Meg, Jen, and I (Emily was sadly not feeling well and went home) had a great dinner out on the patio of the main street in downtown Charlotte. We polished off a bottle of wine and chatted about boys, religion, the future, and all those grown-up things we rarely get a chance to cover all in one sitting. Afterwards, we went to a bar called Ri-Ra's, which happened to have a Dave Mathews cover band, so I was happy. Meg tried to teach us proper bar etiquette and flirting rules, and I realized I need to go out more to practice these things. And I need to go out with someone who can teach them to me again. We then went over to a Latin club and salsa-ed and pachata-ed (spelling?) with each other as well as some nice Hispanic men. I got to practice my Spanish, which always makes me happy, and I was happy that I wasn't too nervous to speak to my partners in Spanish. I really do have to get over that first hill, and I'm fine. Overall, a very good night, and even though it's only been a month and a half since graduation, I realized how much I miss those girls! I wish Melissa could have been there. I think I have to admit I'm a little attached to my 207 roommates (ha, that sounds like I have two hundred and seven roommates), and it still hasn't quite set in that you all are not moving to Boston with me! But come visit!
Speaking of Boston, I am getting nervous and excited all at the same time. I'm nervous about everything from moving to decorating to money to classes to research to having time to have fun. But at the same time, I'm excited about each and every one of those things. I wonder if I can finally allow myself to live a little more and worry less about making all "A"s. I mean, I keep telling myself that I want to have fun and explore and meet new people and try new thing, but then I get caught up in the magic of a row of "A"s every semester. Can I change? Should I change? I don't know which one of those is harder for me to answer right now.
