Ballroom in Beantown

This past weekend was a ballroom competition at MIT up in Boston. Fortunately, the competition was primarily in the mornings, so I had evenings to wander around the city. I remember the very first time I went to Boston thinking how huge and busy the city was. Now, after living in New York for a while, Boston seems so little, and almost empty. Please don't misunderstand, it is a beautiful city (all that Jacobsville sandstone....ah, takes me back to the UP, except for the whole urban part....). It's just that I was walking downtown on Friday night and the sidewalks were empty, restaurants were quiet, and there weren't even any police or fire sirens. It gave me quite an eerie feeling to be in such an urban area that was so obviously not as densely populated as it looked. Ah, New York, look how you've jaded me. (I don't mind.)

The weekend was nice, after all. My partner and I did well in the competition, winning 4th place in Waltz, 3rd in Quickstep, and 2nd in Viennese Waltz, out of 96 couples. Since it was at MIT, I got to visit an old friend and Brother who is now a grad student there in physics. We went to see Sin City, which was well worth it. Even if you don't care for violence, or want a plot that is profound and intricate, go see it anyway. It is so visually stunning that it simply cannot be missed.

And now it is back to the proverbial grind. Proposals to write, homework sets to finish, and of course, research to eventually find time for. The end of the semester is on the horizon, though, I just have to make it there. Then I have all summer to work on nothing but research--how wonderful that will be!

I've had "Barrett's Privateers" in my head for three days now, as well. If you don't know the song, you should. If you do know the song, then you surely must know how much I miss Thursday nights at the Ramada in Houghton....