California, etc.
It's been a busy week-and-a-half. Last Friday I went to California to visit Jamie for a long weekend - an eminently worthwhile trip despite the 24 hours of flying time it entailed. Got to see a couple of old friends who are now living the high life out on the West Coast - though I guess you all qualify as "old" friends now. Wow. Anyway, point is it was a McQuaid (and Siena Catholic Academy) reunion of sorts. Good weekend - played miniature golf, went to a sort of grown-up arcade thing (odd), attended med school lectures at UC San Diego, reveled in the availability of fruit and the size of cars and the girth of people. Got some work done, but not much. This was not ideal, because I had to hand in a section of my thesis today - or at least something that could comprise part of one section, if it's not as bad as I suspect it might be. I've got a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow to discuss. But, you say, you returned from San Diego by Wednesday, so you had all the rest of the week, and the weekend, to work on the section and get it into shape. But no. Because on Saturday I was entered in the Selwyn coxed four in the Fours Head of the River race - a 4 1/4 mile race on the Thames river in central London. Excellent race, excellent weather, excellent row. We passed four people, and didn't get passed by anyone - finished just a shade under 21 minutes. Some pictures available here and here - we're crew 364. So that pretty much took up my Saturday, and led to a pretty manic Sunday (which was also split up by a three-hour rowing outing). Anywho, finished it up, handed it in, and spent today going to lectures and getting administrative stuff in order. I've got a couple more weeks here (with an assignment - to be determined tomorrow at the meeting), and then I head home for Christmas. Busy times. Going back to Oxford on the 24th for an American Expatriates Thanksgiving dinner, but other than that my schedule should consist of working in and around Cambridge, and two more rowing races.