interesting day

Today I went to a talk given by George Cham, the creator of the webcomic, "Piled Higher and Deeper." He was a grad student earning his PhD (like 10 years ago) in some form of engineering, but ended up drawing this comic about how much grad school sucked and now making the comic, and doing talks and such, is his full-time job. So basically this guy spent years being miserable in grad school, only to end up with a "job" completely unrelated to his field of study. Wow, am I ever happy to be in a one-year masters program on a subject that I completely adore. Although I have to say, he was pretty damn funny. Plus he was kinda cute and there was free food afterwards.

When I walked home from the bus stop later, I was listening to the Talking Heads song, "Don't Worry About the Government," and I definitely danced the entire four blocks to my house. It was great. I seriously couldn't help myself. It's SUCH a good song. I think it's going to have to be my new favorite by them.

I made a very fattening quiche (mmm, creme fraiche) for dinner tonight after eating a couple of those mini-quiches at the George Cham thing. Then on Project Runway, the contestants were in Paris. It was a French-filled evening. I miss France so much. I can't even begin to explain how jealous I am that my parents are there right now and I'm not, especially since they're currently in Veules-les-Roses (it's in Normandy), which is my favorite place to be in the entire world. Even more than New York City. It is the most charming, most French town you could possibly see. There are houses with thatched roofs and cows everywhere. And the ocean is spectacular. The water is pretty cold (though I always go swimming anyways-how could you not??), but low tide is incredible. The beach at high tide is all big rocks, which are not so comfortable to lie or walk on, but at low tide sand stretches for hundreds of feet. The beach is also encapsulated by these incredible white chalk cliffs, so you can hike along the edge of the cliff in one direction and come back along the beach during low tide.

Oh and one more thing before I quit procrastinating and do some real work: When I was walking my dog this afternoon, a middle-aged couple passed by me, and the man had a big red and green parrot perched on his shoulder-like a pirate! It was like, "Well, there's my dose of surrealism for the day."