some things don’t change

I thought that when I switched subjects in grad school, I’d finally be able to go to parties and talk about what I do and not have blank and/or confused looks.  You expect that with hard science.  Normal people just don’t get it, or they don’t care to, or they’re just overwhelmed by the vocab. “Public affairs will be different,” I thought, “people will be interested and involved!”

Oh ho.  not so.  I went to a party with friends from undergrad a couple of weeks ago, and somebody asked me about what I’m doing now.  I started talking about international governance and who runs the world and the UN and international development, and my friend gave me this “Max, still at it,”  kind of look like “I love you but I never understand what you say.”    It was disappointing.  I was hoping to move toward mainstream appeal.

I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’m coming from grad school parties where all we do is eat and sit around discussing politics and economics and the world at large.  What you mean that normal people don’t want to do cost/benefit analysis of socialism over their beers?  Crazy!  Who ISN’T interested in how the US should respond to the hurricane/volcanoes of the world?  Global public goods!  Collective action!  Accountability of states!  None of these are recommended topics of conversation at a college party.  Don’t try it.

bam.

the other day one of my grad school friends told me “you have really good social skills.”

take that!  social skills!  who knew?  and I’m not even surrounded by nerdy physics dudes with NO social skills where I shine in comparison, these are future policy makers with craaaaazy social skills talking.

big sister’s little sister

Grad school is great, but very busy.  sometime soon I’ll actually post something about it.

BUT the real news is that big sister is now a big sister for real.  her little sister was born wednesday 4am, and I rushed down (after class and homework and car maintenance) to meet the new one and hang out with big sister while her parents were still in the hospital.  I got to meet little sister when she was super brand new, and then I got to play with big sister for hours and then I got to meet katharine and joe’s new baby too.  lots of baby holding.  when I got in the car to come back up to madison I smelled seriously of tiny baby.  cuteness follows.

yeah she's still really cute

awkward sister holding!

there are no slides in grad school

for future reference, I do not encourage this type of baby-treatment.

she's not really giving kisses, she's really just yelling in little sister's face

even though I don’t live there, we’re still friends

last weekend I went to visit big sister.  I needed cuddles (also I had a wedding to attend and needed to sleep somewhere in Illinois).  as I suspected, there’s way less cuddling in grad school than there was at her house.  I’ve decided to give you some recent photos of her so you can see what a kid she is. there’s more on my flickr, if you’re baby-stalking.  or if you’re her parents and you want a cute photo.

yum: empanadas and salad

now that I’m in grad school I can cook for my self again!  Though after seeing what I made for dinner my roommate suggested that sometimes we have dinner together, so soon I will also get to cook for someone else sometimes.  Today I made acorn squash and black bean empanadas, which turned out awesome.  they’re baked, but the dough has a bit of cornmeal so it’s still super crunchy good.  also I made my new favorite food, gujerati carrot salad.  grated carrots, salt, lemon juice, and then you heat up olive oil and toast your mustard seeds in the oil and then throw that hot oily mustardy goodness over the carrots.  the only part that sucks is carrot grating.  does this food processor I inherited from Cali grate carrots?  cause that’d be the most handy.