Outings and networking

This weekend, Nikita had not one, but two outings. On Saturday, we went for a walk with my friend, Ilana, and her partner, David. They were in town packing up Ilana's apartment in preparation for their move to Bloomington, IN (where they'll be teaching in the fall). Nikita was fresh from a nap (when I went to get him, in typical fashion, the room light was on, and he had barricaded the door by moving his crib. He had a wonderful smile for me, though, when I cracked the door open.) and babbling away in his stroller until Ilana and David joined us on the street. Then, Mr. Reserved Toddler clammed up.

We went to The Reef Cafe for a late lunch. The Arabic soap opera on television made Nikita feel at ease. I exclaimed, "Look, Nikita, just like what Babushka watches, only in Arabic!" The Reef Cafe serves real homemade Lebanese cuisine, cooked by a real mother at the stove. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen at the time. One of her sons, who mans the counter, turns out to love kids (he says that he wants 7!). Nikita warmed up to him, especially when he was given some free baklava. He didn't mind the okra of Ilana's dish, either, but he was not pleasantly surprised by the pickled radish that looked like watermelon.

On Sunday, my family and I went to Bradley Palmer State Park in Ipswich after a mid-morning nap. Poor Galina was dressed up, ready to go, and had to wait two hours for the rest of us to wake up. In any case, the park itself was okay. Not much better than the Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, and a longer drive. In a way, it was worse than Wellesley because there were TONS of mosquitoes. I must have gotten about 6 or 7 bites on my legs. And yesterday, I rushed home to remove a tick Igor brought home with him! I really hope Igor didn't get Lyme disease (although he says he normally feels fatigued and arthritic), but I saved the tick in a jar just in case.

Nikita was the best dressed of us because he had long pants (it was a bit chilly). Igor carried him most of the time, but we were surprised to see him explore when we put him down on the ground. Given his reserved nature, we expected him to stand still and want to be carried. Instead, he immediately found a big stick (see photo) and other fascinating material on the ground and among the grass. We concluded that he must have considered the park a larger version of our backyard (and there weren't many new people), so he felt right at home. Actually, the park was even better than our backyard because he was allowed to tear up leaves to his heart's content.

The saving grace of Ipswich is the food, but we were too hungry to wait for it. Igor refused to consider the Clam Box because of its long lines, and so we settled instead for some clam chowder and a lobster roll nearby. Dessert was Dairy Queen ice cream because I couldn't remember the location of White Farms Homemade Ice Cream, which turned out to be located down the street! Next time...

Last night, after removing Igor's tick (and wondering at Nikita's latest trick: when Igor gives Nikita the thumbs up and calls him a good boy, Nikita responds by vigoruously pumping his fists up and down), I went to a networking event sponsored by HHMI (which gave me a predoctoral fellowship) at Fire and Ice. Formalized networking events kind of freak me out, but I actually had a good time. Caught up with some folks (a fellow MIT grad student and a person I know from chowhound), and met some interesting folks including a cardiology fellow, a neurosurgeon , a former MIT undergrad (who graduated the same year I graduated from MIT; made me feel a bit old), and an assistant professor from Harvard Medical School (I was a bit embarassed when I asked him, "Oh, whose lab?" and he replied, "My own.").

It was really neat to hear the reaction, "Oh, cool!" when I told people that I will be teaching scientific writing and communication at MIT. The HMS assistant professor asked when such programs would exist for faculty members. I told him I'd get back to him once I had some grant writing experience under my belt.

One of the more amusing aspects of the evening, however, was talking about babies. The neurosurgeon's wife gave birth 7 weeks ago and is currently obsessed with slings. The obsession puzzled him, but made complete sense to me! I joked with the former MIT undergrad that he probably didn't expect such talk at this type of event. He replied he had no idea what to expect, and considered the talk to be useful for the future - coming attractions for say, 2008.

When I got home, I worked on Nikita's summer sweater (racing to finish it while it's still summer) while listening to Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose on tape. The narrator doesn't do the book justice (his falsetto voice for the female characters especially irritates me), but I still enjoyed the story while finishing the right front of the sweater - only the sleeves to go! All in all, a pleasant evening.