thoughts of a cozy afternoon

I made sweet tea today for the first time in a month, and the taste is so familiar and yet so unfamiliar.

I find I miss my job from last summer. I miss the work of it sometimes. It's so different from my work right now.

It is really hard for me to lie, especially about how I'm feeling about school.

I'm grateful to live in this day and age, one with airplanes for visits with friends, the internet for communicating with friends, and cars to go home.

Tomas, my shamrock, is not doing so well, because I haven't had the time to re-repot him. And the surprising part is, I don't fully care. It's really strange to me. Ever since I've repotted him, he seems foreign to me.

Time never passes slower as when you have a take home midterm to work on.

The chill in the air outside is refreshing.

Up for air

Well, one midterm and one problem set down, another midterm and two problem sets to go before next Wednesday. I had a fabulous weekend last weekend though, you can see pics of all the fun here. Yes I know we had fun taking these pictures. It was so great to be with the BWC people again, but a little weird to be touring NYC at the same time :). We still had plenty of fun, and I'm so glad I took the time to go. I went pumpkin picking today, as it's getting to be that time, and the leaves are absolutely beautiful in upstate NY (I'm sure elsewhere too).

There's not really much to say, as all the math has left me very little time to think, which is a good thing. The insanity ends next week, and the end will not come too soon. I'm definitely ready to be done being a first year. Next semester looks much better. Although, we did manage to get in a game of Dutch Blitz during our very brief break this morning, and it was quite fun. It had been too long... and now back to work.

CAM

Well, everyone, in case you didn't know, October is Celiac Awareness Month! And in honor of CAM, CNN is doing a special this week about Celiac Disease. I watched the segment from yesterday, and I was amused at how many clips of people eating that they showed. But, if you feel like tuning into CNN this week (some time between 9 am and noon, not convenient times for most I know), they're having special segments every day this week about celiac. Here's the schedule:

Monday: What is celiac disease?
Dr. Aline Charabaty of Georgetown University Medical Center's Division of Gastroenterology will join CNN's Heidi Collins in the Newsroom to discuss the basics of celiac disease, diagnosis and treatment with a gluten-free diet.

Tuesday: "Non-Gastrointestinal Complications of Celiac Disease."
Dr. Richard Mandel of the Center for Advanced Orthopedics in Philadelphia will discuss the orthopedic complications of celiac disease and celiac patients can improve bone health. Also in the CNN Newsroom, Dr. Robert Mangione, dean of the St. Johns University College of Pharmacy, will explain how gluten in medication can impact celiac patients and discuss the immediate need for labeling of gluten in medication.

Wednesday: "Gluten-Free School Lunches."
Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) will offer tips for safely sending celiac children to school and federal school lunch requirements to provide gluten-free meals.

Thursday: "Hope with Celiac Disease."
Vanessa Maltin of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and Beyond Rice Cakes author will be on CNN discussing new resources available to help patients cope with celiac disease including cookbooks, video podcasts, cupcake parties and celiac camps.

Friday: "Gluten-Free Dining in Restaurants."
Tips for managing food allergies at restaurants and how patients can ensure a safe dining experience.

Approaching the difficult

The past few weeks have been quite incredible. Going home for Fall Break, working hard before and after so that I could my three days of no math. Tonight I wrote up a set of solutions that had such hard work behind them, that it was such a feeling of victory as I re-wrote and read everything. I remembered all the frustration, all the giggles, all the jokes, all the "No, wait a minute"s. We've really fallen into a rhythm working together, that all our problem sets are really group efforts. But tomorrow, tomorrow is the day that we have to stop working together for a while and conquer midterms. The next two weeks will be alone mathematics time, and it will be interesting. But my weekends will be great.
When I went home for Fall Break, I went through some old pictures of my life pre age 7. For some reason I just wanted to see them. And I brought a few home, one of which is now above my desk to remind me of the complete joy and excitement that are in life if you can just recognize it. I was absolutely happy in this picture, really in all the pictures I saw. Favorites included: old man lounging, LOOK! it's my baby sister!, and the crayons on the sweatshirt. Recently I felt so removed from my childhood self, that I wanted to reconnect those bonds. It's good to remember myself as a child. Oh, and try explaining to a 4 year old why parents are always older than their children. That's a fun one that I don't really know how I got into.
Your tidbit of analysis for the evening: An absolutely continuous function maps measurable sets to measurable sets, and if F is of bounded variation, then the integral of the absolute value of its derivative is equal to its total variation if and only if F is absolutely continuous.
I hope you've enjoyed Analysis in the Evening, thanks for joining us. And if you want to know why those things are true, I can definitely tell you, thanks to Team Table (and Team Theorem)!