Invariably, after any period off from school longer than a weekend, torrents of the same inquisition echo across campus:
How was your break?
Was it a good break?
Where did you go on your break?
What did you do on your break?
Everyone runs around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming these same irritating questions at each other. “Blah blah blah break blah blah blah.” I would venture to say that 95% of the students do the same thing as I do: go home and do nothing. I ran into a bunch of teammates on Friday before I left as most were heading to practice for a workout. They all seemed jealous that I got to go home while they all had to stay at school for most of the week to practice and get ready for IC4As. I consider them to be the lucky ones. They get to blaze around the track in tough workouts and head to Boston for one of the meets I’ve enjoyed the most. Plenty of times this semester I’ve walked by the track on the way to the UC for dinner and seen everyone working out. It leaves me feeling sad that I’m not a part of that anymore. I would feel a lot better if I could run again normally and I could join them again at least one or two days a week.
Sarah has an elliptical machine at her house so I went over there yesterday and did that while she did some homework. It was better than the rec center since we put on Animal House and I had to strain to see the only clock in the room. The machine was a lot different than the ones at school — the school ellipticals are more like those nordic trac skiing machines and don’t make you cycle your knee through much of a range of motion. This one was more aggressive and its resistance was also greater, which probably put more pressure on my IT band. It didn’t hurt, but it seemed a little tight afterwards. I’ll try some running today to see how it goes (a couple loops around the block) and maybe head over there for some more elliptical. I don’t enjoy it that much, as I’ve said, but it’s better than sitting around and being a bum.
I do have some work to do over the next week. First, I’ve got to typeset and turn in the Theory of Computation homework that my professor has been so lenient about. I’ve done the actual work on paper, but now I’ve got to typeset it, and I feel really lazy and don’t want to do anything school related. I’ve also got to start on the design overview for the sensor network project I’m working on. As it turns out, my Theory of Computation professor said most Master’s students who do a project just write a paper based on a proposed system but don’t actually implement anything. If I can convince my adviser to finalize our design as quickly as possible (we’ve been screwing around a bit and changing things), then I might actually be able to get the paper done by the end of March. If I do that, then I’ll make the deadline for the Master’s project and get my degree in May. That would be nice, but I’m not betting the farm on it. This week I should also modify my TA lab grading script to handle infinite loops when running students’ code.
My dad has a trip to San Francisco this week, so that would be cool to go out there and come back, but I doubt there will be empty seats on the plane. Since I’m hurt, worrying about having to run hasn’t been bothering me as much, so I can be more flexible about stuff like that. Unfortunately, I’ll probably just be stuck here.
Screwing around on the Internet as I do nearly every day, I came across something interesting: a maple-flavored pie that someone had found at some restaurant in Vermont. The pictures and testimonial made it sound really good, so I scoured the Internet for recipes. I found one that appeared on several sites, which took maple sugar. Since you can’t really get that in a store around here, I ordered some from Vermont and made the recipe with the help of my mom (with the crust). It wasn’t all that great and didn’t look like anything in the pictures. It came out more like a maple flavored quiche — very eggy. Later, I found the recipe that was probably the one in the pictures and variations of it. Basically, just condensed milk or cream, maple syrup, and some versions have flour, but no eggs. I could try making that one.
Being able to eat decent food and sleep in my own bed are two great things about being at home this week. Since the first day of my freshman year, I’ve never slept well at school, but as soon as I’m home, I’m out like a rock every night. I don’t know what gives. Also, the UC food has been really crappy and repetitive as of late, especially with regards to having some kind of vegan patty just about every night as the main attraction. Being able to eat good stuff again has improved my mood.
So, that pretty much sums it up for the next week or so. I guess now it’s off to see how my IT band does today.
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