My Life Before Economics

The countdown is on. It is officially the last free week that I will ever have in my life. No commitments, no work, no pressure, and even no friends. You would think that reality should be setting in and maybe I would begin to pack up my belongings and brush up on matrix algebra. But as long as the sun stays out and the margaritas are flowing, I don’t think I could be more oblivious to the fact that next week at this time, I will be living in my new home and beginning the next step along this journey we call life. Sure, I am excited and maybe a bit nervous, but sometimes Carpe Diem should be the way to live.

It’s been a good month since graduation, and I guess it has gone by pretty fast. The first few weeks I was home I earned a few bucks (and I mean a few) substitute teaching. I also took a spontaneous trip down to the District to do a little sightseeing and to check out my Montreal Expos in their new home with their new name. While in D.C. I did some things that I never got around to or was unable to do last summer including visiting the National Arboretum and the new Museum of the American Indian. The National Gallery had a Gilbert Stewart exhibit, which was also pretty cool. In addition to sightseeing, I had two opportunities to be on national television. First was at the Memorial Day concert on the west lawn of the Capitol. Unfortunately, I never quite made it onto the big screen, but I did have a seat that was about thirty feet away from Colin Powell. The second opportunity for a TV appearance was much more successful. Steven Levitt, author of the wonderful book I was reading at the time, Freakonomics, just happened to be doing a book reading in town. I found my way to Politics and Prose, way up in the northwest corner of the District and discovered that this was not only a book reading, but that it was being taped by one of the most entertaining channels on television today, CSPAN. I was going to have the opportunity to make one of my dreams come true… being one of those people in the audience, and CSPAN loves those people in the audience! To make a long story short, I made my national TV debut in style and my left arm even got a close up. Even cooler than that is the fact that I randomly saw someone I worked with at the BEA last summer at the reading! Those are the little things in life that I just love… and two in one day! How much more lucky could I get? After the book signing, I met Asha (one of my future classmates at SU) and we went out to an Ethiopian restaurant. I got quite the education that night as I learned that in Ethiopia the people eat with their hands, when they get to eat at all. (I know that’s awful, but I couldn’t help it)

So yeah, anyways, back to my month of freedom. I have never been someone to do things spontaneously, but this month definitely takes the cake (yum… cake!). Recently I learned that one of my most beloved friends, Amanda, was a newly christened Red Sox fan… she got in with a good crowd at Riv. Not only is she a new fan, but she was also getting ready to skip town on her own adventure to Dayton, Ohio for a couple years of grad school and teaching. Now, Amanda is generally about as spur-of-the-moment as I, so when we decided that we were going to try to get Sox tickets on Sunday for a game on Tuesday, I was both surprised and pleased. One thing about the Red Sox though is that unlike the former Expos, they sell out every home game. Using my connections to the RI mafia, we were able to scrounge up three tickets to the game, which was amazing. Thanks to Adam, Amanda was able to see an amazing game. Sox won 7-0 and David Wells was pitching a no hitter through almost 6 innings.

Later that week, I made a spontaneous trip down to Rhode Island. I think I deserve frequent driver miles. Hung out with Adam and was treated like a queen. Ate amazing food, including a divine chocolate pecan pie. Then, I got to play ski ball and later on in the evening, darts. The next day, we went to the beach to hang out with a couple of economists. This was definitely a great weekend.

The spontaneity doesn’t stop here though. On Tuesday of last week Krystal called me to see what I was doing on Thursday. I was thinking of going down to a concert at Meadowbrook, but I didn’t really have anyone official to go with. It just happened that Krys had two tickets for the concert on Thursday, so I got to go. My dad drove down with me and bought his own ticket to see the Strange Days Festival featuring The Doors, Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, The Yardbirds, and Pat Travers. The concerts were great, and during the Doors, Krys and I ventured down to the stage and had a great time dancing in the “pit.”

Well, I suppose that about sum up the exciting parts of my little break. Other than skipping town, sleeping and hanging out with my little neighbors has been the story of my days!