Stuff happens
Oct. 2nd, 2005 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdh1. I was walking along today, considering what to have for dinner, when a girl came running up to me and shouted, "Do you have a phone?"
"Uh, yeah," I said.
"Can I borrow it? I'm having an allergic reaction: I'm itchy and sweating and pale and my tongue is swelling up and I don't know what happened!"
I gave her the phone. She called someone, told them to "come take me to the hospital right now", tossed it back to me, and went running off.
Surreality, yay!
2. So, perhaps you remember how, a few days ago, I posted about planning to email professors. Of course, as soon as I posted, I went ahead with sending the emails (like taxes and death, one of the inevitable rules of the universe is that if I complain about anything on LJ, I will be so embarrassed by whining in public that I will immediately suck it up and do whatever I was procrastinating) Friday evening. I had imagined that I'd get replies in about a week (after all, it's the weekend, people are busy, etc), which would be mostly formulaic, but hey, I'd least I'd have made contact.
This is what really happened: I got the first reply within hours, another two by the time I got up the next morning and checked my email, and the last one late last night. Two of them were pretty much what I expected, though the people were very nice and informative.
One of them wrote back and said, "Unfortunately, I'm retiring in a few years and aren't accepting new students, but you should email these guys and this other guy, and look up this thing, and by the way, what are your grades and GRE scores?"
I emailed him back, saying, "Thanks for your help, I'm really grateful, good idea, I'm getting blah blah and scored blah."
He wrote back. "Hmmm. Actually, you know, I'm not retiring for three years, why don't you send me this other stuff, and I'll give it to this private fellowship we have."
I, um, was kind of surprised. To say the least.
Another of the emails (the guy who responded within hours) said, "Hey, thanks for writing, you should email these guys and this other guy, and look up this thing, and by the way, we're having a conference on this very topic next weekend, and you should come and meet me and my grad students and other people studying the same thing."
I write back and say, "Wow, yeah, that'd be really cool, but I don't know if I can arrange transportation there in, you know, five days, and besides I'm not registered, won't that be a problem?"
He responds (again, within hours, this dude totally needs to spend more time away from the computer), "No, it's fine, I've signed you up as a volunteer and forwarded this message to the other people working the conference, and they've all got your name and will keep out an eye for you."
So. I'm going to Wisconsin on Friday! I feel all unbalanced. I wasn't really ready for my entire future life to take off in 48 hours.
"Uh, yeah," I said.
"Can I borrow it? I'm having an allergic reaction: I'm itchy and sweating and pale and my tongue is swelling up and I don't know what happened!"
I gave her the phone. She called someone, told them to "come take me to the hospital right now", tossed it back to me, and went running off.
Surreality, yay!
2. So, perhaps you remember how, a few days ago, I posted about planning to email professors. Of course, as soon as I posted, I went ahead with sending the emails (like taxes and death, one of the inevitable rules of the universe is that if I complain about anything on LJ, I will be so embarrassed by whining in public that I will immediately suck it up and do whatever I was procrastinating) Friday evening. I had imagined that I'd get replies in about a week (after all, it's the weekend, people are busy, etc), which would be mostly formulaic, but hey, I'd least I'd have made contact.
This is what really happened: I got the first reply within hours, another two by the time I got up the next morning and checked my email, and the last one late last night. Two of them were pretty much what I expected, though the people were very nice and informative.
One of them wrote back and said, "Unfortunately, I'm retiring in a few years and aren't accepting new students, but you should email these guys and this other guy, and look up this thing, and by the way, what are your grades and GRE scores?"
I emailed him back, saying, "Thanks for your help, I'm really grateful, good idea, I'm getting blah blah and scored blah."
He wrote back. "Hmmm. Actually, you know, I'm not retiring for three years, why don't you send me this other stuff, and I'll give it to this private fellowship we have."
I, um, was kind of surprised. To say the least.
Another of the emails (the guy who responded within hours) said, "Hey, thanks for writing, you should email these guys and this other guy, and look up this thing, and by the way, we're having a conference on this very topic next weekend, and you should come and meet me and my grad students and other people studying the same thing."
I write back and say, "Wow, yeah, that'd be really cool, but I don't know if I can arrange transportation there in, you know, five days, and besides I'm not registered, won't that be a problem?"
He responds (again, within hours, this dude totally needs to spend more time away from the computer), "No, it's fine, I've signed you up as a volunteer and forwarded this message to the other people working the conference, and they've all got your name and will keep out an eye for you."
So. I'm going to Wisconsin on Friday! I feel all unbalanced. I wasn't really ready for my entire future life to take off in 48 hours.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 02:13 am (UTC)**Wolf**
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Date: 2005-10-03 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 02:21 am (UTC)I look forward to the conference stories to come.
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Date: 2005-10-03 02:27 am (UTC)Hee. But I was really amused by that dude too. I am currently harboring the daydream that I so impressed him that he decided he couldn't give me up to some other professor, and wants to steal me for himself. Sure, it's just a coincidence, but hey, I enjoy my overactive imagination.
Thank you!
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Date: 2005-10-03 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 02:33 am (UTC)I can only imagine that there'll be plenty of stories.
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Date: 2005-10-03 03:10 am (UTC)I think you'd do fine, if you guys're already talking like that. Chummies! XD
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Date: 2005-10-03 03:32 am (UTC)And I was actually quoting him there. He called it "a special, private fellowship program", even.
Thank you, though! ^^
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Date: 2005-10-03 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 02:48 pm (UTC)Grad school stories are forthcoming, then. :D
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Date: 2005-10-03 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 08:42 pm (UTC)I can only hope. But, given my life, I'm sure I'll end up with a story about the crazy communist preacher I sit next to on the plane, or the 70-year-old professor who starts a karoke event...
I'm pretty sure *something* surreal will happen. *laughs*
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Date: 2005-10-05 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-05 09:34 pm (UTC)And no worries; there were a lot of people there, so we didn't really get a chance to talk.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-06 12:00 pm (UTC)Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba...
;)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-10 02:32 am (UTC)