Olin alumni reunion: as much as I am not a bar/party/large-crowds-of-people-with-alcohol person, being with my old school buddies, in any context, is much like pulling on a favorite old sweater. Everyone is doing great - I didn't expect Laura to fly in from Abu Dhabi, nor Beth to come from Vancouver, and so forth - Cody came from California, I hadn't seen him since we graduated 3 years ago, Chandra and I made lunch plans, I'm cashing in my rain check on Karen and Krystin's housewarming party and going to bring them a moving-out bottle of wine (whoops), Boris is more freaked out by the news of Andy P's engagement than I am, DJ discovered climbing trees by his house that I now have to come out and try, and so on through the night. (Well... I lasted an hour, and then I was just tired.)
Probably the most frequent question I got tonight was "so, where are you living now?" It was easy to tell how long it'd been since I talked with the person from where they thought I was - everywhere from China to Virginia (I think this was a mistaken "Washington DC") to pre-emptive hesitant "Raleigh?" queries and a few folks who have already given up keeping track. I explained I was with Red Hat and open source and getting people excited about education for a living, and they laughed and said it sounded like a Mel job.
Hung out with Hari in Harvard Square and yelled at him to get off his ass and start Doing Stuff (which... has been a recurring theme in conversations with at least a half-dozen of my friends in the past 2 weeks - maybe this is part of my role in life, to kick my friends into doing stuff). It was quite good. He lent me an Econ book which I shall read tomorrow morning, plus a business book which I will read... ah, probably tomorrow too. They won't take long.
Finally left Harvard Square at 11:30pm, intermittently half-dozing on the train rides back out to the suburbs. When I'm tired, I'll do this thing on airplanes and public transit where I stuff my hands into opposite sleeves (like crossing your arms, except inside your sleeves) and lean over onto the nearest stable surface - train wall, bus seat, airplane-boarding-tunnel-thing - and close my eyes while I wait for a moment and rest. I'm still awake, just... in suspend mode, I suppose. It's usually only for a couple seconds at a time.
Walked 2 miles back from the train station, made it in at 1:30AM, and my feet hurt. Sitting here eating a late-night dinner and trying to rub them out and let them rest a little before I try to sleep, because they are sufficiently sore to be a distraction to unconsciousness, even in my current state of tiredness. I think I shall be nice to them tomorrow. And consider wearing shoes with arch supports next time I go dancing (it's the combination of Friday dancing and tonight's walk that are bothersome, I'm pretty sure).
I'm back in Boston for a couple days, and the view between Kendall and Charles/MGH on the Red Line is as gorgeous as it ever was; I've always loved going over the Longfellow bridge and looking at the Charles River and the city and the lights. I'm pretty sure it's time to leave, though; I'm here, I'm with my friends, I'm happy, hanging out with them is awesome, I just landed back in town today for gosh sakes - and already I'm restless again. Oh well. There are worse things than wanderlust, and it does take you to some interesting places.
My feet are probably ok now. Going to bed.