The Candidates on Science

Thursday, I attended a seminar at AAAS, the Candidates' Forum on Science & Technology Policy. This seminar highlighted the latest issue of Science which contained interviews with the candidates on this topic. Scientists, in general, seem very concerned about the Bush administrations policies on science, and the use of its agenda to quash science and reports that go against conservative beliefs. Because of this outrage, Scientists and Engineers for Change has been created. It lays out the big science/engineering issues and lists the candidates positions on each. It's pretty well written.

Blimp

As Sarah and I were walking to the Senate today, she noticed a blimp in the sky. I said, "Hey it doesn't say 'Goodyear! Maybe it's spying on us!'" Turns out I was right.

Capitol Hill

I went to the Senate today! I really like just being able to do things like that here in D.C. I like being able to walk into my Senator or Representative's office, or to walk into the Capitol building to watch the Senate debate the intelligence bill. I also got to see all the big names, like McCain, Hillary, Diane Feinstein, etc.

On the way back home today, I passed a women who had a parrot on a finger and a parrot on her shoulder. She was just walking down the street. Probably the oddest pet moment I've ever seen.

Hurricane Parts

Leftover hurricane weather pounded DC with rain yesterday. I'd heard that it was raining, but figured it wasn't that serious, so I was planning on walking around, stopping by some stores to kill the time before I could take my bike on the Metro at 7:00 pm. I took a better look outside, and saw the water leaking onto my floor, and decided that maybe walking around outside wasn't a good idea. Luckily, I had my car, so I gave Sarah and Karen a ride to their places.

Unfortunately, no hurricane party this year. We had one last year in Princeton where everyone just ended up over at our apartment for dinner. I remember b/c we made mac and cheese.

NJ visits

Several days ago, Gov. McGreevey banned Pay-to-Play, the practice of "bribes for work." Prior to the executive order, if you were a contractor or vendor and wanted the State to select you to do a big construction project or other big project, you had to "donate" a lot of money to a political compaign. Smaller companies decried this practice, saying that since they weren't funnelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to a person's re-election campaign, they weren't going to get selected to do work for the state. We'll see how everything goes with the order and how long it lasts. It is currently set to expire in 2006.

I'm back in New Jersey! To get back yesterday, I took a Chinatown bus to Philly, the Septa to Trenton, and then NJ Transit back to Princeton. I met up with Katy and Philip in Fine. Dave drove us back to the train station, met up with Xcott, and took the train to New York to get on the Metro to get to Brooklyn to have some Haitian food. (Lots of travel, considering I could've just gone directly to NY on the train and saved a few hours.) We ate at Kombit, which was good for it's Haitian food.

Best Birthdays

I've been really remiss with blogging as much as I should. Here are some important updates:

I always remember Matt's birthday because it's the week after mine. That was key in high school when we would just exchange CDs that each other wanted funded by our parents. So, in the spirit of that, I've just shipped you a CD, Matt. I hope you like it. (Sorry I'm getting to it so late.) I'm really digging it right now. The Garden State soundtrack rocks! See the movie if you haven't already.

Additionally, Mike Lietz, also have another easy to remember birthday - two weeks after mine. So, I just need to remember Matt's birthday, and add a week.

Happy birthday to everyone!

Transportation

I was originally going to take a Chinatown Bus from Washington, D.C. to New York back to New Jersey. This would've cost me $35 (bus) round trip, with a transportation time of 4-5 hours on the bus, plus $15 and another hour on New Jersey Transit to get back to Princeton. So, best case scenerio, 5 hours; worst case without unforseen circumstances, ~ 6.5 hours. Since I wanted to get home at a specific time and not in the middle of the night on Friday night, I opted for the Amtrak from DC to Trenton instead. Duration of the trip back to NJ? 2 hours and 20 minutes. Cost for a roundtrip? $150. I decided to try it. Next time, I'll try the bus and see how that goes. You sure do get a lot of leg room on Amtrak though.

Rings, Lorded Over

I went back to Princeton last weekend for The Game. Sandrine, Katy, Eric, Emily, and the rest of the design committee did a great job of putting the game on this year. Great job! I was on duty for Clue #7 which was at the Woodrow Wilson School fountain. The clue itself was a bunch of rings cut out of a special plastic. Each ring was numbered, and certain rings were weighted so that 3 of them floated and 3 of them sunk. The teams had to figure out to float the rings to get the combination to the locks on a box they'd been given earlier. Eric had actually hung this clue in the fountain so that after about 5 hours of working on The Game, people had to wade into the pool, go through the spray of the fountain and pick a set of rings off of the Fountain of Freedom. It was quite a sight to see. Hopefully, I'll get pictures and post them later. The kicker was that after several hours of running around campus which included paddling a canoe, the team had to climb to the top of Cleveland Tower only to find that The Game was complete and that the promised pizza was in the Old GC Common Room. Cruel.

Happy New Year!

Happy Rosh Hashanah to all those who celebrate. I went to Brian's house yesterday to hang out with his parents, aunt, and brother for the holiday, and also to share a meal. Brian's parents are great, but the house just wasn't the same without Brian there. It's always fun to see little kid pictures of Brian, though. Helen also showed me how to cast on the long-tail method for a new scarf I'm making for Suzanne. It's a pretty nice pattern. (Yes, it's knitting season again!)

Afterwards, I got a ride back to DC w/ Brian's brother, and I headed to Adams Morgan to meet my fellow Fellows for Happy Hour. Tom Tom was having a special after 9 pm called "Group Therapy" night where you could get 4 Bud Lights and 4 shots for $10. I stayed much too late, leaving after midnight. I was also under the mistaken impression that the Metro ran until 1 am, catching a cab to the Woodley Park Metro Station. (I'm pretty sure I got ripped off by the cabbie.) I learned the hard way that the Metro only runs until about 11:30 pm during the week, which really didn't help me at that moment. The biggest problem with living in SE is that cabbies can't easily pick up tons of riders like they can outside the bars, so they become reluctant to go to the areas that are more residential. My roommate had a cab refuse to take her home last week, and I had that problem last night. (Very disheartening). Luckily, the next cab I found did take me to the general area of my house, (but wouldn't actually drop me off in front of it, but rather the Metro station). I was just happy to finally be home.

Keeping Busy

Tuesday night, I headed into Crystal City to have dinner with Sarah. We hit a Vietnamese place that was good. (I guess I'll have lots of Ethiopian food and Vietnamese food while I'm here in DC.) Chopper is on a cross-country Scooter race a la the Cannonball Run of Burt Reynolds fame. It's more of a ride each day than a race, but I hope he's doing well!

Irish on Mondays

Monday night, I hit my first Irish session in DC. I'll be going to the weekly session at Nanny O'Brien's. I got there around 9 and was pleasantly surprised to find that the players were almost all in the 25-35 year old age range. As the night went on, more players arrived, of all ages, and it was a lot of fun. Scott always says that he finds himself to be the only youngish person at sessions, but at Nanny O'Brien's, this was definately not the case. There were also people there who I recognized from Irish Arts Week. They played some tunes that I knew, and others that I need to learn. I also need to pick a set that I want to do. What does the "Hare's Paw" go with? I also told a guy (Jon?) that I'd learn this tune he likes but noone knows called "Cleveland Park" which is also the neighborhood that the bar resides in. I also really figured out that I need to practice more and start keeping track of what tunes I know.

The first weekend

Rich came up on Friday to visit before he leaves for Austin, Texas. We hit an Ethiopian Restaurant for dinner. I seem to like to go to places named Addis Ababa. Afterwards, we headed to Kramerbooks and Afterwards Cafe. I still think this place is such a great concept. Bookstore, live music, bar, and restaurant. (With a computer for free internet access.) I'd visited it several times when I was in DC for Spring Break. We had dessert, and we even went back for brunch the next morning.

After Rich left on Saturday to help beta test for The Game, (Doesn't the website look great! I'm getting excited about The Game!) I spent some time getting to know my roommate Tina. We went to a BBQ for the FreeMasons of DC, Social Lodge #1. One of Tina's friends was hosting the BBQ. I departed the BBQ, and hit the metro to get to Foggy Bottom. I met Jane and we walked to the Georgetown area. We did a fair amount of shopping/window shopping. I discovered a new store called Zara, which is akin to a European Banana Republic. They have nice clothes, and they are Reasonably Priced! I got a shirt for $9, and it wasn't even on sale. I also got a nice button down shirt for work for $19. We decided to go to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, called Miss Saigon.

Rugby was the theme for the rest of my evening, I left Jane, and hit Eastern Market to meet up with Tina and people from her rugby team. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten the name of the bar, and so I walked around the Eastern Market area for about 20 minutes before I figured out where I was supposed to be. Her team, the DC Furies, were having a fundraiser at Tunnicliff's Tavern. Rugby women are sure tough looking Amazons. We left with some people and went to the Bottom Line. The Bottom Line is the hangout of the guy's rugby team of DC. We got free drinks there!

The next day: Tina and I headed to Eastern Market to try out Bread and Chocolate. The plan for the day was to hit Adams Morgan Day (DC Street Fair) and meet up with another of my fellow interns. This was the first street fair that I'd ever seen an Ethiopian Food food booth! It was interesting to walk around Adams Morgan and see all the wares along with all the bars/clubs/restaurants in this area. Next, we headed to Tony and Joe's Restaurant in the Waterfront area of Georgetown. We were supposed to meet up with another intern, but he'd gotten stuck in traffic and didn't make it there until after we'd already left. It was nice to sit outside along the water. The Waterfront is a very pretty area with fountains and plants. Ahh, what a weekend! Off to a decent start.

Bike to Work

For my quarter century birthday today, I started biking to work. I was planning on waiting until the 2nd week of work, but I got restless. It's a pretty quick trip, ~15 on bike. The National Academies has a fitness center in its Keck building, so I parked in the garaged and showered up before work. Good stuff! I'll really be a bike commuter!

After work, some of the other interns and I headed to Jaleo for our first happy hour (for my birthday). We had tapas and sangria, and it was a good time. Afterwards, though, everyone left, so I went back to work, went to the gym with Rachel, and biked back home. I've got to figure out more things to do around the city!

Old Ebbitt's Grill

Some of the interns and I headed out to dinner last night at Old Ebbitt's Grill. While I waited for a table for 3, I noticed a women who'd asked for a table by herself. She looked around my age and pretty normal, so I debated whether or not I should ask her to join us. I decided to do it because I know I hate eating alone in restaurants. Ganelle turned out to be in DC for a seminar on Affirmative Action. It was her first trip, and we all had a lot of fun at dinner. Hooray for my socialness.

Rich is Published!

Check out the September 8, 2004 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics. You know you want to read about the "Mechanism analysis of controlled quantum dynamics in the coordinate representation." Abstract available here.

Moved to DC

I moved to Washington D.C. yesterday. Rich and I packed the car up and finally made it on the road, back to the apartment, and then on the road for real. I'm living in a house in the SouthEast area off of the Potomac Metro stop. My room is tiny and fits a twin bed. I have 4 other roommates who all seem to be pretty cool.

The first day of orientation was today, and it was fun meeting the other 13 Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Interns. We got an overview of the program, what it does, and what we have to do. We also met our mentors and started working in our real departments. As I meet more and more people (my new roommates too) I find more and more women who play rugby.

September Birthdays!

Happy Birthdays to Jaci, Andrew, Mike Vea, and Justin!

Maine Moose

Time to play some catch-up (and hope that Blogger doesn't mess up publishing this post again). The trip to Maine was a lot of fun. After leaving Connecticut, we headed to Portland, where we stopped in Abacus Gallery, where Rich's cousin works. We had lunch at an independent, outdoor cafe, Mims Brasserie which has me hooked on focaccia, goat cheese, and tomato sandwiches. (I've discovered that I like tomatoes, but only when they are good and fresh, instead of just blah. I think the blah tomatoes turned me off of them to begin with.) In Maine, we had some scallops wrapped in bacon, and also a lobster dinner. We took some lobsters back to New Jersey with us, along with a lot of produce from the Boethel Berg farm.

We got back on Sunday afternoon and spent the day cleaning and cooking. I had people over to pre-celebrate my birthday. The menu was Lobster Dip, Stuffed Zuchini, Fried Green Tomatoes, Fresh Corn, Mac and Cheese (made from scratch!), and I made a Bannester Family Famous apple pie (my first pie). Everyone left very full.

Connecticut

It's a beautiful morning out here in Connecticut. Rich and I are out here on our way to Maine. It's a relative visit weekend! Last night, It was the Connecticut Sharps and today it's his Aunt's house (with the horses and the Lobsta!)

I finished working at the Office of Legislative Services Library yesterday. My database project actually worked out. Now, it's time to get ready to go to D.C. I'll have to start looking for another job for January.

Ready, Set, Start School!

Today was the first day of classes at Rutgers. I just got back from attending the new student orientation for the MLIS students at SCILS. Hooray for the Library and Information Science Student Association (LISSA) of which I am a part.