Thanksgiving, Princeton

[mdinitz]

Thanksgiving was fun -- I met up with my family in New York, like we always do. We did the usual stuff, although we didn't go to the Macy's parade like usual because it was raining that morning, although it cleared up by the time the parade started. We went to the very end, though, and did our usual following behind the parade thing. There was

Comments

[janviere]

Short, unsatisfactory response:

My dear, I'm homesick. The massive generalizations are just that. Don't take them (or the incorrect labels--a friend of mine in Rochester, NY is doing a pretty good job of recreating the Berkeley life) too seriously. My only real complaint is that I haven't yet found many people that I really feel comfortable with, and I was just trying to distill the essence of "my kind" into an easily digestible blog entry of frustration.

Treat serious west-coast activists as you would members of any religion. They believe that your apathy and gas-guzzling, meat-consuming lifestyle are destroying our planet just as fervently as your local Christians believe that you are going to hell, and look down on you in much the same way.

The produce in supermarkets in California is much, much better than anything I've found in New Jersey or New York, no matter how expensive.

Don't assume there's nothing objectively better about Berkeley than Princeton until you've been there. ;)

[mdinitz]

Yeah, I wasn't really being that serious either; I should have put in more smiley faces :-). This is definitely partially a reaction to me being jealous of all the Princeton photos that you always post -- Pittsburgh isn't nearly as nice. And I do agree with a lot of what you said, especially the trees (although we define wimpy in different ways -- I really missed having lots of pine and spruce around to make winter a bit greener). And I also have been getting annoyed with some of the self-righteous vegetarians in the department here, so this was mostly inspired by them. I also have an intense loyalty to Princeton, so I tend to get defensive when people indicate that it's not the best and coolest place on the entire earth :-). Although as a University alumnus I have no problem believing that the town kind of sucks -- there's never been much alumni love of the town, just of the University

[simrob]

And I get mad at the radical leftists AND the crazy Christians, for just those reasons!!! ARGH! It's a tough life, I tell you, with so many jackasses in the world.

And homesickness I understand; the hardest part is rebuilding something that's enough like the life you had that you can recognize it as a life. I think I'm just barely getting there myself.

& I did like the pictures

[bprescot]

I wonder if we might just simply agree to condemn radicals of any particular belief? It seems easier. The fact that everyone, no matter from what coast they hail or the degree of reluctance with which they consume moist, tender, succulent, *slobber* juuuiiccy pieces of cow flesh...... Mmmmmm..... Cow Flesh...... Aghhhhhhhh...... I'm sorry. What was I saying? Oh yes. Vegetarians suck.

[marymcglo]

Everyone gets homesick. Berkeley people are just more vocal than average people in all things, and therefore you hear more noise about the east coast being inferior. :-)

But, of course, food *always* tastes better when you're high off of secondary (or primary) marijuana smoke.

[anonymous]

I'm an east coast vegan, and if you eat rotting flesh you suck ;-) I don't think I'm any better than anyone, but I think people tend to get that perception when I say "I don't eat that". It isn't that I'm better than you because I don't eat it, I just don't eat it. Though I really hate people who drive gas guzzling SUVs/pollute the enviroment/suck at life in general. Drive the hybrid (or better yet, walk).

[bprescot]

Wait. What?! How is Lauren's shrieks of, "It's SNOOGLE-BOOS!!!!" then mad leap to get a hug at all sexual? While the hug might be for her, the shrieks of obscenely long ridiculous pet names (e.g. Moopsie-woopsie-snoopsie-snoogle-woogle-bottom-bunny-bear-cakes) is usually an attempt to annoy or embarass me. It doesn't really work that well. You're talking to a man that sang the part of the Lion in his 2nd grade production of the Wizard of Oz, for which there exists ample video evidence. Trust me, I don't embarass easily. But good Lord man! Sexual? It's quite possible that I get less play than Snoveck, or even you! How sad is that? I've been dating Lauren for four years and a day fly probably has a higher per annum score right higher than mine. So again, Sexual? I object. Unless you limiting your example to freshman year. In which case, yeah, I concede.

[simrob]

Wow. Livejournal. Yeah.

[bprescot]

??

[danpeng]

I'm with Rob.

Wow. Livejournal. Yeah.

:)