back in the jerz

Almost everything is the same.

New things:

1. My parents have invested in environmentally-friendly lightbulbs for the entire house. This means that it takes ~15 minutes for the lights to turn on. In another attempt to be more environmentally friendly, they have also decided to not really heat the house. So we all walk around in sweatshirts and hats, but, hey, anything for the environment, right?

2. My father has invested in a HUGE hi-def television. We used to have a small junky TV and now it's this streamlined samsung monster. The problem with a big hi-def television: any channel that isn't hi-def looks pixelated. But at least we have 4 Dexter episodes in hi-def, as well as "Step Up" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

3. Quakerbridge Mall in Lawrenceville, NJ has been taken over by stores selling Nikes and colorful zip-up hoodies. Also, the security guards now ride on Segways.

That's about it.

I'm almost over jet-lag and am meeting my brother at Haverford tonight to go out to dinner. Tomorrow I'm going into manhattan to see Masha in the morning, my friends Biz and Flashdrive from Rome in the afternoon (we can't go 3 days...), and Rachel, my best friend from Jewish socialist camp, in the evening. A full-packed day, that's for sure.

And then... I'll read for a week? I'm simultaneously reading Plato's "Symposium," "A Short History of Everything" by Bill Bryson and "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. I've got my head full.