the things we do for our alma mater

Okay, this is going to have to be a wimpy post. I have just arrived in Philly to visit my alma mater. I left California at a time that I would have likely been going to sleep at the last time I was on the campus of my alma mater (with the exception of the last reunion).

On top of it all, I have promised my beloved former department not one but two lectures on my research. One of which is scheduled for 9am EST. That is 6am PST!!!! What the hell was I thinking? Fortunately there is a place to buy good coffee on campus and I will avail myself of that repeatedly I am certain.

The good news is that I can hit the bookstore just in time to buy Bryn Mawr College baby gear for my college roommates' soon to exist 90% certain that it's a girl baby. I really do feel for this child. She will have a pair of amazing and very intelligent parents but might experience just a little bit of pressure to attend a seven sisters college. Not that I can blame her mother. We loved (and hated) our years at Bryn Mawr. I think it did amazing things for both of us and I feel that I had a much better college experience than my friends who attended big co-ed state universities. I actually feel that more girls/women should consider single sex colleges. I went because it was the best school to which I was accepted and I was worried about the whole all-female thing. It turns out it was one of the best things life decided for me although the year I spent in Israel just after graduation did a great deal to help me put my hard core, Bryn Mawr nourished ambition into perspective. I'm not sure that I would be a biologist today if it weren't for Bryn Mawr and the professors I had there.

Could you imagine my obnoxiously anal yet flighty mind trying to make it in a career outside of academia?

Better not.