It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like . . .

Thanksgiving. I know, Thanksgiving was two weeks ago, but hey, we should be thankful all year round, right? Also, I’m behind on blogging as usual. Two problem sets, a project, an essay, and two finals in two weeks can do that to a person. [On a tenuously related note, my latest attempt to increase productivity while writing essays – my average speed is just over three words a minute – includes copious amounts of music without words. To get through my history of science essay I went through three or four hours of the Piano Guys and the Vitamin String Quartet, Schumann’s Kinderszenen (played by Horowitz) twice, Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, and the entire soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Note that there are words in the Lord of the Rings soundtrack; however, I don’t understand Elvish.]

Anyway, Thanksgiving break began after class on Wednesday. After a last lunch in the dining hall, I was responsible for feeding myself for the next twelve meals. Food was actually the main concern of the weekend, since we still had shelter, heat, electricity, water, and most importantly internet connection in the dorms. There were a lot of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, some throwing of things into the oven, and a little boiling of water. It turns out cooking takes a lot of time.

I made my sandwiches more fun with one of my two cookie cutters.

And there was this dinner that included all the food groups.

What happens when you only have one bowl-like dish
(look at what the red cup is)

When I wasn't watching water boil, there was always p-chem homework. A friend and I got most of the assignment done between Thursday and Friday afternoon. Even with all that done, it still took another three hours at office hours to finish the problem set up.

Saturday I went with the pep band to Madison Square Garden for Red Hot Hockey. There were only a dozen or so people on the bus ride down, so it was a real party bus silent most of the way into the city. We got to Times Square early and decided to walk to Rockefeller Plaza to see the tree. It was absolute madness. Plus the tree wasn't lit. If I wanted to see an unlit tree I would have gone hiking. The person to tree ratio is much lower as well.

We returned to meet the bus and the rest of the band at the bowling alley where some alumni were having an event and wanted the band to play for them. Apparently there are high class bowling alleys, because that’s what this was. They fed us dinner in the barroom (just the fact that they had a bar should say something) and instead of overdone pizza and a jug of soda there was actual food. Things like sliders and chicken strips, but it was still good. That may also have been because we couldn't actually see what we were eating. Lighting was reminiscent of a film developing room or a highly inappropriate club.

After we played a few songs, we made the trek to Madison Square Garden. Ten blocks at Cornell is a twelve minute walk sprint to get to engineering classes from North Campus. Ten blocks in the middle of New York City during Thanksgiving with fifty instrument-carrying band members is a marathon-length ordeal. You could cartwheel from your dorm up the slope during a snowstorm faster than we were walking. Because besides the crosswalks every fifteen inches, there are people who think it’s a good idea to walk into the middle of a group. And then stop. Some of them even act confused when they get hit by limbs and/or instruments. You didn’t notice the giant instrument carrying herd of Waldo’s in disguise? Really? (Our pep band shirts are red and white striped, but most people were wearing jackets.) And then we finally made it to Madison Square Garden.