Today was very good.
Erik took me sailing on the Charles, and taught me how to handle the jib. He's right; it is like flying. (The aerodynamic principles are similar, too.) And when the wind hits and you have to drop the sail and climb to the edge of the boat so it won't tip? FUN!
My day got even better when we had a totally awesome first community test meeting. And we ended 22 seconds under time. I ran out of the office all charged up and happy, and then...
...I ran into HGSE's open house and got embroiled in conversations about learning stuff! and had sudden flashbacks to Olin's candidates' weekend, how it felt to be surrounded by so many people having the conversations that you'd had with wonderful, like-minded friends, but only really in bits and snatches that could never come often enough, and the sheer magic of saturation "zomg everybody here does this? all the time?" and so you know how I get when I get all fired up about engineering education and there was this rousing chorus of everybody pitching in ideas, and...
...and then still completely high on that, I learned to punch and now my arms are sore from whaling on a heavy bag, and the rest of me is sore from kicking, squats, crunches, jumping, and because gloves are heavy when you're holding them up for upwards of an hour. ("Don't think about how hard you're hitting... think about how easy you can hit. Your elbows just straighten; it all comes from the hips.")
And I am happy. Tired. Happy. The good kind of worn-out, finally. Mmmm.