Our server went down last night - the one that hosted documentation for the software I was working with. So instead of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs, I wrote my app to I.House, then went home and slept. A lot.
This morning I went into the office, noticed some parts of my I.House app needed to be mailed in, and called them up and said "Hey, I'm in Manhattan, and it's probably faster for me to walk these over to you than for me to mail them. Can I drop by after work?" They said they were reviewing applications that day. In fact, they were reviewing applications in 45 minutes. And if I could get my things over before then, they- "OH YES I CAN I'LL BE RIGHT THERE."
Several minutes later I was scrambling out the door clutching a sheaf of documents Seb had helped me print (explaining, among other things, why my internship offer letter described me as working during "summer 2007" in February 2008) and running half a mile to breathlessly hail (in front of a bank which wouldn't recognize my ATM card) the first taxi I've ever hailed in my life. As we zipped across Manhattan, I was gawking at the sights along the way - I have not seen any part of New York at all yet aside from the route between the TOPP office and the subway, and the UNICEF office and the same, which is a side effect of the 4.5 hour daily commute. We found I.House and (after a minor heart attack over the numbers on the taxi meter) I slid into the Admissions office with my paperwork and exactly 2 minutes to spare.
I think they were amused.
In any case, I'm moving into I.House soon (not sure of the exact date, but when they asked when I wanted to move in I said "yesterday.") Apparently they've decided that they like me. And I do like them. It sounds like there are all sorts of wonderful and random people - mostly international grad students - to meet there, and that I'll learn a lot and have my mind reassembled on a regular basis... and once again be among a lot of Ridiculously Smart People My Age Who Want To Save The World (or at least change it in what's hopefully a good way). Don't get me wrong - I love living with my uncle. The commute is just driving me slowly insane.
The 4 days preceding this one were no less eventful. The Olin hackathon was awesome and involved a midnight trip to the matsci lab with Greg Marra and a few off-campus visitors (utterly amazed that we could go to the lab at midnight) to rip keyboards apart. I had multiple mind-blowing conversations, saw far more fellow alumni than expected (Chandra! Christie! Tesch!) and these and other things pushed my return-to-New-York time back.
Wayyyy back. From Sunday after lunch to Monday morning (Presidents Day) to Monday afternoon to Monday evening to Monday very late evening and even further down. I eventually ended up getting a ride to the T from Eric Munsing Monday after an extended conversation on wiki culture, heading to Somerville to learn how to cook Ethiopian food at Mako and Mika's house (one of the most awesome dwellings I have ever been to), then working at 1cc with SJ on OLPC stuff (and sinking ideas through my very high-density skull) before catching the 5:40 train to South Station and then the 6:30am bus to New York (which I did sleep on).