December 30, 2003

• happy holidays from boston!  i hope everyone's having a fun and heartwarming holiday season.  i'm having the usual nice and relaxing break, with some surprisingly mild weather as an unexpected bonus.   it's a little strange this year since bill and fifi aren't around; now that they're no longer living in boston, they don't have the luxury of spending the holidays in both boston and san fran.   hopefully my parents haven't been too bored with just me around. 

  
  

  i spent most of the afternoon today with some friends in harvard square.  it was a fun time - after having lunch at pho pasteur (upscale pho, if there is such a thing), we wandered around harvard square for awhile before settling at au bon pain for some coffee and conversation.  for whatever reason all the pastries were 50% off, so if this is some sort of holiday promotion, take advantage of it while you still can!  

  
  

  harvard square was such a cool place for me way back when.  it used to be a common hangout during my high school and early college years - i have many fond memories of time spent in record stores like newbury comics, hmv, and tower records, not to mention some less fond memories of time wasted in girly-places like urban outfitters and beadworks.    harvard square was also where i wasted hours of time just surfing the web or checking email.  the internet was just beginning to take off back then so the campus connectivity was like an online playground for me.  i used to work in boston during the summers, so i'd always have a lot of extra time to kill - what better way to kill that time than in front of a computer (j/k, sort of).  i would just carry a book-bag and simply pose as a student while i checked my email at the harvard science center. 

  
  

  memorable harvard science center moment:  one summer i was in a computer lab the same morning all the entering freshmen moved onto campus.  a lot of students were in the lab trying to access their email for the first time - one of these promising freshmen took a seat next to me at a computer that wasn't turned on.  he must have fumbled with the monitor and workstation for at least 15 minutes before i mercifully told him that the power switch was on the keyboard.  i guess it was understandable, since the student may have been unfamiliar with such 'user-friendly' macs, but it was still funny seeing this student, assuredly ready to take on the 'best and the brightest', struggle with a simple act of turning on a computer. 

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