Back in Cambridge

Back in Cambridge Well, Im back at MIT after a lovely Thanksgiving in the land of the Pilgrims (and some good post-holiday shopping, too!). Adam and I took our friend Chris 09 back to Plymouth with us his dad works for the Department of Defense, so his family lives on Okinawa, and it would have been silly for him to fly all the way back there just to turn around and fly back here. So instead he came to Plymouth with us on his first visit to an American suburb. We took the commuter rail out of South Station on Wednesday afternoon, after I finished up two more grad school apps (eek!) and Adam had finished a 16.100 (Aerodynamics) lab. We got to Plymouth in time to laze around and watch War of the Worlds with Adams dad (um, lame movie) and crash into bed early (that 5/3 of a day thing I talked about last time). I woke up Thursday morning with Adams best friend from high school, Malox (actual name: Alex), towering over me. Malox had come to collect Adam for the annual Plymouth North/Plymouth South football game, even though it was pouring rain and freezing. I elected to stay in bed. After I finally dragged myself into some clothes and makeup, Adams relatives came over and we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner not as good a Thanksgiving dinner as Im sure my family had back in Ohio, but dont tell Adam I said that. Friday was, of course, shopping day, and we got to introduce Chris to good old American consumerism. I bought presents for my mom, my brother, and my dog. I also found a great little sleeper for the baby daughter of my best friend from high school (Im from Ohio, okay?) its a white sleeper with blue and green glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs. (Yes, I bought a dinosaur sleeper for a girl. And why not? Girls are allowed to think dinosaurs are cool too.) After shopping, Adams mom needed to get some more money from the bank, so we stopped by the drive-through window (you know, the one with that vacuum tube that you put the check in). Chris was very excited about this tube. I think it may be the thing he currently likes best about America that and the beautiful people who work at Hollister. After shopping, I wanted to go see Rent, but I got outvoted, and we went out to dinner with Adams family, then over to Adams friend Jimbos (real name: James) and hung out around a bonfire. We came home and lounged in the hot tub on Adams roof and pointed out various constellations and nebulae to Chris. On the way back up to Cambridge this afternoon, Adams mom stopped at Walmart and bought us groceries hooray for moms! So Adam and I came back and made homemade pasta sauce, and now were curled up with the illegal space heater under a fuzzy blanket watching TV movies. Yay for holidays! A question, not really answered: 1. Dalia asked why ingesting carbs makes you tired. This is a very hand-wavy explanation, but I suspect that its due primarily to the sharp increase in blood glucose after a carb meal high blood sugar is supposed to make you tired, although Im not really sure why. I think it probably also has something to do with the spike in brain serotonin that occurs after a carb-rich meal new research in the works from Dr. Wurtman, my 9.15 (Biochemistry and Pharmacology of Synaptic Transmission) professor, suggests that eating a carb-rich meal transiently raises your brain serotonin as much as a dose of Prozac. True story! 2. Dave asked if my family really cuts down our own Christmas tree. Yup! We go to a tree farm a few miles down the (dirt) road from my house. Last year, when Adam came home with me, I handed him a saw and said Make me proud, city boy! Heh.