{"id":1480,"date":"1997-05-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1997-05-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/1997\/05\/03\/week37\/"},"modified":"2018-01-03T01:01:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T09:01:38","slug":"week37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/1997\/05\/03\/week37\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 37: State College"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div><b>Locations:<\/b> New York City, NY; Swarthmore, PA; State College, PA; Providence, RI; Somerville, MA; Cambridge, MA<\/div>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<div><b>Dates:<\/b> 4\/27\/97-5\/3\/97<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<p>Sunday I woke up too early and hung out for a bit with David and his mother. Eventually I gathered my luggage together and took the subway to Penn Station, then took a succession of trains back to Swarthmore.<\/p>\r\n<p>General NYC comments:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n  <li>I was pleased to find that New Yorkers aren't the sullen and incredibly rude beings I thought they were; they're just people. I watched a lot of people be nice and\/or polite to each other\u2014someone moved over on the subway, for instance, to let a couple sit together. I saw almost no actual rudeness or unpleasantness all week.<\/li>\r\n  <li>Having a subway map and having the city's layout explained to me did wonders for my navigational abilities (even if I did end up in Brooklyn in the middle of the night). I was thrilled to be able to tell which direction to head just by looking at the street numbers.<\/li>\r\n  <li>Speaking of subways, public transportation in NYC is excellent. One look at this city, or Boston, or DC, ought to convince any Californians who doubt the usefulness of a good public transit system.<\/li>\r\n  <li>There's public art everywhere!  Big statues, interesting architecture. Some I liked, some I didn't, but cool that it's there.<\/li>\r\n  <li>My friends in New York all say they like roughly the same thing about it: that it's \"the city that never sleeps,\" that there's round-the-clock Cultchah everywhere you look. I personally find that idea a bit intimidating and exhausting\u2014but then, my idea of a good time is curling up in a chair and reading all evening, and I've never liked nightclubs and bars and such. I guess this is why I live in the suburbs...<\/li>\r\n  <li>Prices are high. But not as much higher-than-elsewhere as I'd expected.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>On return to Swat, had dinner with Melissa B. Jim M helped me get my column done.<\/p>\r\n<p>Talked with Melissa B more on Monday; then a bunch of folks got together to go see a movie at the mall. Afterward, we all went to Chinese food, and got back to Swat just in time for the evening's SWIL movie. I shouldn't have stayed for it\u2014it became quickly obvious that it was going to be pretty bad, and I had lots of packing left to do. But I figured I'd be social for my last night in Swarthmore.<\/p>\r\n<p>In the morning of course I didn't get my car all packed up until about 11:30, then made a couple of stops on campus to say goodbye to various Melissas. During one of which I left my car blinkers on, as a sign requested that people parked there do; when I came out five minutes later, my car wouldn't start. I eventually got Security to give me a jump start, and finally got moving around noon (as compared to my planned departure time of 10:30 or so).<\/p>\r\n<p>The drive to State College was lovely\u2014lots of greenery, rolling hills, trees. Much nicer than last time I was there, during a snowstorm back in October or so.<\/p>\r\n<p>It was great to see Alex again\u2014hadn't quite realized that I hadn't seen him since graduation, and hadn't had much contact with him in the intervening seven years. Turned out we had a lot more to talk about than I'd expected. That evening he ran a session of the <cite>Shadowrun<\/cite> roleplaying game (cyberpunk + magic), in which I participated\u2014my first roleplaying since September. I'd never been in a game of his before; he turned out to be quite a good GM, and the other players turned out to be quite good roleplayers. A good time was had by all. (I played a young woman named Ace (\"as in Bandage\"), a streetwise shaman who heals people who can't afford more mainstream medical attention.)<\/p>\r\n<p>Woke late on Tuesday morning. Met Alex for lunch at 11, expecting to have a quick lunch and hit the road; instead, he got the afternoon off work, and we spent a few hours wandering around the Penn State campus in the bright spring sunshine and chatting about life and RPGs.<\/p>\r\n<p>I finally got moving around 3, and after a long but uneventful drive reached Providence around 10:30. Chatted with Andy P (yet another person I hadn't seen in years) for a bit, then went to bed.<\/p>\r\n<p>Early the next afternoon I headed for Boston. When I got to Steve &amp; Bhadrika's place, Jazz didn't recognize me at first, and continued to occasionally call me Brian for the next couple days...<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_2280\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 310px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/01\/10-cat-Riley-sink.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/01\/10-cat-Riley-sink-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"Steph and Harlan&#039;s cat Riley in a sink\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2280\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Steph and Harlan's cat Riley in a sink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Friday I took Bhadrika on some errands, got some money changed in preparation for the England trip, hung out at Steph &amp; Harlan's for a little while to keep their kitten company (I was apt- and kitten-sitting for them for the weekend), talked with Beth a little, saw half an episode of the <cite>Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/cite> TV show, and went to story reading. For about the 10th consecutive night, didn't get enough sleep due to waking abruptly at 9:30 for no obvious reason.<\/p>\r\n<p>Spent Saturday morning in relaxed puttering about in much-needed solitude. It was the first time I'd had completely alone in a living space in a couple of weeks; I'm learning that I desperately need a certain amount of alone-time every week, especially when I don't have a space of my own to retreat to (I'd been sleeping in an awful lot of living rooms). When I felt a little recharged, I headed over to Bhadrika &amp; Steve's to attend their barbeque, which, despite ongoing drizzle through the afternoon, went quite well. Got to see a bunch of friends and do a little catching up before leaving for dinner with Beth, which also went well.<\/p>\r\n<p>In the evening, Beth and Susan and Diana and I made the 45-minute drive in the rain to Franklin, MA, most of the way back to Providence, to see a Short Sisters concert I'd been looking forward to for a couple months. Then back to Boston and sleep, with music filling my head, only to wake up too early on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/1997\/05\/10\/week38\/\">Sunday<\/a> morning once again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<h2>Movies, Books, <i>etc<\/i>.<\/h2>\r\n<dl>\r\n  <dt><cite><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/find?q=Grosse+Pointe+Blank&amp;s=tt&amp;exact=true\">Grosse Pointe Blank<\/a><\/cite><\/dt>\r\n  <dd>Very funny, frequently silly, great music, quirky plot and actors (I consider this a good thing), occasionally a little too gory. Anyone who's recently been to a high school reunion or is considering going to one ought to see this, especially if you belong to an unusual profession like, say, hit-man.<\/dd>\r\n  <dt><cite><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/find?q=Hackers&amp;s=tt&amp;exact=true\">Hackers<\/a><\/cite><\/dt>\r\n  <dd>Dreadful\u2014they'd clearly interviewed some hackers for background, but they'd equally clearly ignored much of what they were told. Effects, acting, and story are all bad, with the exception of a few great lines from one minor character (and a couple of cute leads), which are definitely not enough to recommend actually seeing the movie.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<p>(Last updated: 20 May 1997.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In which Jed drives to State College and spends some time with Alex, then drives back to Somerville. And attends a Short Sisters concert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stage-10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/wander\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}