You know, all apartments have noises. My own is notable for a certain gurgling that makes it sound like the sink’s about to hurl and an interesting basketball sound coming from the heater. Robyn, on the other hand, lives on the only street in Providence which anyone takes to go anywhere, which often leads to my accusing her, of a morning, of staging some sort of major Nascar event in the wee hours which, for whatever reason, she has not seen fit to also attend. Recently, I almost got into a boxing match with her radiator. These things happen.

It’s not overall clear yet whether grad school social life is weird or adult social life is weird. We’re all busy people, so, besides the grad center bar–our own little Cheers–it’s quite possible to go without seeing a friend for a month or two at a time.

There’s a second problem. If you consider the sorts of things that people are interested in as being  “interesting”–and really, why should you?– it is the unavoidable conclusion that among the many fascinating, intelligent people with whom I spend my days, I am among the most boring. I had 3 classes today, for example, totaling some five hours of class time, and saw a total of 13 people.  It’s remarkable to consider what my social life would consist of without Gchat and Facebook. Remarkable in a kind of Tom Hanks “Castaway” kind of way.

More soon.