turkey day '06

bala cynwyd, PA

the advisor had a bunch of us over to his place in the afternoon, all the stranded international folk -- hengyi and his wife, and the basners from germany with their ebullient 2.5-year-old son. hengyi + wife gave me a ride there, my penance being that i was forced to speak chinese in the apartment, and then sit silent at the back of the car as the two of them displayed the approximate navigational capabilities of a sweet potato.

(i sort of kid. they're really nice, and i will die horribly if i don't have him to help out with my image analysis next year.)

the advisor's house is tucked away, as one might expect, in a little suburban nook, noise muted by distance, all the illusions you can afford to buy once you have tenure. it seems to be pretty much them -- their elder son has moved away, and the younger is a fratboy senior at wharton (i'm going to singapore!). (even though it's the most natural thing in the world with the benefits and everything, i'm always weirded out by this legacy business -- surely the last thing you want as a male student in college is to be having your wild-ass parties practically next door to where your dad works as a professor.)

the basners were already there, and i settled into cheese and pinot grigio (cavit, 2004) and actually getting to know my advisor as a human being. i've long suspected that he's pretty much the apotheosis of the educated liberal male, and the signs are all still there -- chief among these that what he talks about outside the lab is not work. very few things are more painful to behold than really smart people who can talk about nothing but the blade-thin sector of human knowledge that has their flag fluttering over it. anyway, talking was good, and having a little kid bouncing around with a toy godzilla while screaming in german was a more effective social lubricant than any amount of pinot grigio. also: i'd never considered it before, but dr. basner is kind of interesting. i should talk to him more in the lab.

we got through feudal systems, hairy encounters with bedouin arabs, and the scourge of the american suv before dinner was served. the kids were interrupted from turkey day football, and we sat down to the usual bounty, heaping servings of everything with gravy. the advisor's younger son made his first appearance, and the cognitive dissonance increased about three-fold -- he's the consummate frat kid, down to wanting to come to dinner in his sweatpants. i know i'm being stupid, and of course this is a cookie-cutter scene all around the country -- distinguished parents have adolescents who go to college, create mayhem, occasionally drink themselves into the ER, and then go on to be professors and businessmen and senators themselves, just like philip roth says. still, it's always mind-blowing when you have to sit there and see the process play out in front of your eyes. america really blows my mind. the advisor's son had two friends over as well, and they ate themselves into a turkey coma and went to sleep, one in front of the tv, two on the ottoman upstairs, in preparation to wake up at 11 and go out drinking. dr. basner and i agreed that those were the days (definitely should talk to him more).

coffee and pie made an appearance, and we talked about everything, rogue elephants, boxing chimpanzees in thailand, and by the time it was time to leave, i felt a lot better about the years ahead working in the lab -- things are just so much easier when you know that your PI is willing to interact with you as an actual person. many aren't; and i confess that when i took the place here, i wasn't 100% sure this was going to be the case.

(on a different note, i'm straying a lot from what this blog was originally like. too many names; too much personal nonsense. i think this page is becoming an ersatz confidante. i'm going to consciously stop doing that for a little while, and maybe password protect. let me think about it.)

anyhow -- i'm certainly thankful that i'm not a cube rat, or a ne'er-do-well, or that any of the awful things that were shaping up to happen about two years ago never came to pass. so happy whatsits, even if thanksgiving isn't your thing, and may your whatevers be however you want them to be.