blakerson.com

So very tired. A week's worth of sleep deprivation on top of adventures in these cities, with wonderful people, and little more than a bag full of clothes and travel toys, has left me running on empty for days straight. As soon as I hit Austin it'll be bedtime, despite being 3:00 in the afternoon. Too bad that's exactly when all my amigos from A-town show up.

I feel stupid for not getting Gabriela's number, even if I secretly swore never to go to NYC again.

Regardless, this trip was everything it needed to be. Not only did I catch up with people who are dear and not-so-near to me, but I have some direction with this whole law school thing. From where I stand now, it looks like I'm going to take a stab at getting an insane score on the LSAT and seeing if it'll get me into Harvard.

So Harvard was a successful visit. And Boston, despite its cold, seemed much more like a potential home than NYC ever did. But regardless, I had committed to going to see Columbia, for the sake of fairness. The goodbyes were quick, but the girls were very sweet and they made Boston feel like home really fast. After which, it was an episode of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles as I went from Harvard, to the airport, to JFK, to Columbia. And there was one episode of feeling the love that broke all that up.

I fell in love at first sight.

On a train in New York, the transfer from JFK to the subways, I got a warm smile from a brunette with olive skin and red lips. Seeing a batch of empty seats next to her, I sat directly next to her on pure impulse, and it wasn't long before I struck up some dumb travel conversation about where we were headed. From there, it turned into a real conversation about how she was Peruvian, formerly here on study abroad, now just for work, and she spoke four languages, and how I spoke only three. She even skipped her train stop to keep talking. That 10-minute conversation felt more magical than any of the ones that ever started any of my relationships. When I had to get off at the train's final stop, we kissed each other on the cheek as I walked away, my hand reluctant to part with hers. I spent the rest of the day playing little what-if games, wondering if I'd ever see her again, wondering if I should call 411. So, Gabriela Aguilar, if you ever find this because you Googled your name, drop me a line, because you won't soon be forgotten.

After a long, long subway ride, I found myself staring at Columbia University, which has a nice campus but seems to have something that just feels ‘off' about it. Thankfully, the law school is a bit separated, thanks to a major intersection, and I shortly made my way to the Admissions office, where I was much more welcomed than I was at Harvard. After thumbing through some brochures, the receptionist recommended I have a meeting with an admissions advisor. The fella I met was very receptive, very encouraging, and even familiar with Plan II. It almost felt as if Columbia really wanted me there, whereas Harvard could care less. I felt loved.

After killing some time in the law school building, where it was warm, it was off to Chinatown to feel some family love with my 3 cousins in the city. Our meeting point, naturally, was a gigantic McDonalds.

I arrived more or less on time, thanks to a lucky train change I almost didn't make. When I got there, I found the guys, Ty and Wade, burning Camels while Kelly played the part of the good girl. Kelly guided us to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, which tasted like all other Vietnamese food I've had – bland, but edible. The conversations varied wildly because of the lives we've led – Kelly wants to leave the USA once she gets bored of art, Tyler wants to wander the country in search of something interesting, I told stories of Harvard, and Wade enlightened us to the adventures of Broadway musicals on acid. All told, it was a fairly short family reunion, as straight after dinner we made our way to train stations and slowly split off. I made it back to Long Island at 10:00, completely exhausted and ready for bed. After a shower and a quick packing session, I went to bed thinking about serendipity, wondering if I experienced something in the last 24 hours that would end up changing the course of my life.

That, and I hate public transportation. All things told, I spent about 4 hours of my day *not* on a train or a plane. If I had to spend that much of my time in my car, I could get a hell of a lot farther than Boston to NYC. That, and when I drive I feel like it's quality time – but sitting on trains and planes is just time out of my life lost. I need to live someplace where I drive, because I'll really go insane without it.

Ah, the day of visiting Harvard. It had a strange start, as Kathy's boyfriend suddenly dashed into the room Kramer style, presumably to make sure his girlfriend wasn't cheating on him. But it was Fiona, the roommate, who had bothered to run to the nearest dining hall and bring me back a full breakfast because she "wasn't sure what I'd like." But before long, it was lunchtime and Kathy and I were due for a lunch playdate, as a token of my appreciation. A simple BBQ burger at a place on campus did the trick and afterward there were no more delays or excuses, I was off to Harvard law.

The admissions office, not surprisingly, was very mean and generally wanted me to go away. I did, however, take the liberty of running around the buildings as much as I could, and I quickly found myself in an underground tunnel that connected all the law buildings, stopping in each building along the way. In my adventures, I happened upon JOLT, the Journal of Law and Technology - the one I'm interested in. The students staffing the office were real nice, and handed me their latest printed copy, and were generally more receptive than pretty much anyone else I spoke with all day long. At the last building, which appeared to be the law students' common building, I found the law bookstore and purchased a very clever Harvard Law t-shirt, while the people staffing that store were nice enough to be complimenting the shirt I was wearing. More importantly, on the way out that building I looked at the bulletin boards to see if there were any events happening that night. Thankfully, there was a lecture being given by the new Center for Citizen Media. They basically study the impact of the net on news media, and the lecture was set for 7. So I decided I'd sneak in and see what happened.

But before that, I had a couple hours to kill and a small appetite. I ended up following Fiona around, going with her into an economics class (which, despite being a 4-person discussion-based class, was way boring), and then to the dining hall for a snack. I have to say that the Harvard housing system is really cool – there are lots of ‘houses' (dorms), they're all smaller, the rooms are nicer and most have their own dining halls. Think Harry Potter, just without all that magic wand crap. Before long, it came time for the lecture, so I was back off to the law school, this time in blistering post-sunset cold.

The lecture wasn't a far cry from what I expected. This guy did a really good analysis of the sort of ‘people's media' that's happening with blogs, podcasting, etc. and it seems like something I'd really love to get involved in, should I get madly lucky and wind up at Harvard.

And then it struck me - March is the month of love. It's official; you can Google it. I loved the idea of going to Harvard - right as I hopped on a bus with Philip Trick to go over to the Boston U neighborhood for dinner and a game of catch-up. Apparently the bug had bitten him too, as he got back together with high school girlfriend Sorelle.

ps - for those who are wondering, I asked Phil about people from Oakridge who I hadn't heard from. He hadn't talked to many, but he did know that - get this - Conor's got his heart set on going to clown school, and Daniel went into the Air Force.

Dinner at a popular college bar, consisting of wings, a burger and fries, felt like comfort food in a town full of hot pots and Chinese food of countless varieties. I ended up making it home a couple hours later than I had expected, and I started to feel tense, because I had to get up early to make it back to NY. As it would turn out, the next day I'd feel love in even more ways than I had expected.

And a half-night's sleep I got, if only that much. As if by magic, I arrived at JFK airport just in time... to see every flight being delayed by 2 hours thanks to the fact that the clouds and the ground fell madly in love and started a passionate, foggy affair. As if by magic once more, however, *my* flight left on time, and I found myself in Boston before noon.

Boston is *way* better than NYC, for the record. It's an easier town to live in. The public transportation was simple enough, for example, that within an hour I had met Abby, and her friend Sharon, at the Museum of Fine Arts to see some ancient stuff. From there, it was off to Chinatown for lunch at the famous Taiwan Cafe. From there, we walked all the way down Newbury Ave. (high-end shopping street) until the very end, where we caught a bus to MIT. Seriously, those two girls knew how to run around a town. By MIT I was completely beat, but I was excited to see the place. From there we rode a turtle-paced bus in to Harvard, where I finally managed to catch up with Kathy, get indoors, and set my bag down.

Not that it had been that torturous outside. Boston is a beautiful city, as is Cambridge, and the weather once again had been unseasonably nice. I swear, I bring this stuff with me. Anyway, now that I was finally indoors, it wasn't long until I met Kathy's roommate and boyfriend. After a short run to the local dining hall with the three of them, we came back to Kathy's room to waste time. I chilled with various people all evening, meeting a German exchange student, a London-native hallmate, and occasionally even catching up with Kathy. That continued until about 3am, when Fiona and I retired to sleep and all the others had decided to start working.

It seems like P2 and Harvard really have a lot of differences, despite similarly brilliant applicant pools. Harvard's approach is, universally, "get'r'done." The work they do is very straightforward, and so long as it gets done, whatever else they do is fine. Seriously, these guys bring procrastination and sleep deprivation to completely new heights unknown by UT students - even the smartest and laziest. In any case, these guys know how to have fun, even if on a Monday night.

I'd have to sleep well, because the next day I was off to the belly of the beast - Harvard Law.

After two days in the city, I was completely wasted. I can see why the damn place lives on caffeine and cigarettes. I spent most of my day sitting around with Ruthie in her den, with the exception of outings for lunch and coffee. At 6:30, I was dropped off by Ruthie at the train station for what would be my first independent foray into NYC. Thankfully, on the other end of the train line was my dear Monica, a girl I hadn't seen in person in the better part of two years. We were both giddy to see each other as we caught a subway to Little Italy in search of dinner.

What a place Little Italy is. We walked down multiple street blocks lined with *nothing* but Italian restaurants packed together like sardines. As we proceeded down the street, more and more Italian guys standing outside their restaurants started to grab Monica's arm and try to pull her into the restaurant. Monica, suspecting she would soon be abducted, chose a place and we headed in for a table in the back. A two-hour dinner ensued, almost straight out of some awful romantic comedy, and we traded countless stories on life, love, career, the truly big things.

From there it was a taxi to the West Village, where we found a comfortable bar to settle down. It was a Sunday night, so there wasn't much to worry about from noise blocking out our conversations. Like always, the things to talk about just poured like rain, even as we got bored of sitting down and played games of pool and played with my camera. After several hours, reality set in and we decided to call it a night. She was off to home to get up in the morning for work, and I was off to do last-minute preparations for my outing to Boston. And maybe squeeze in a half-night's sleep.