There's always far too many things to be reading

and today is certainly no exception. Not just applying to school (though I will be going back to my organic chemistry textbook once I finish here), but also the various stuff I pick up on the side. I finished Sluggy a few days ago, which puts me securely back at only being distracted by short things on the web . . . at least until I get started on another web comic. But hopefully I can go back to the half-dozen books I'm somewhere in the middle of reading. I'm almost done with What Remains to be Discovered, though as I can only read that in Jake's room while he's gaming my progress has been a bit sporadic there. Moving rapidly through The Mismeasure of Man, which is well worthwhile as all Gould books I've read so far tend to be; should be done with that by next weekend, I think.

And then there are the various books that I've been stuck in the middle of for some months now. It may be a while before I open up Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology again, not because it isn't interesting, but because it's dense and mathematics-heavy, and reading it at the same time I have chemistry texts to work through just doesn't fit. I should finish up with A Brief History of Time, because it's taken me far too long already, but it's something I can set aside indefinitely and come back to later. Perhaps before the next quizbowl tournament. Then there's the various stuff in Spanish-- I'm a chapter into Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego, which came in the mail two weeks ago, while in my copy of El Hobbit, bought this past July, I'm only up to Rivendell. Hard to just sit down and read 100 pages of fantasy-Spanish. But I know more words for witchcraft, wizardry, and mythical creatures than any non-native speaker in my classes yet.

Spring break has gone by far too fast here. Last year I remember it dragging on and on, even the days I was in Boston with Jen... not in a bad way, just that it didn't feel anywhere near this short. My brother was here Thursday afternoon through yesterday evening, which was nice but kind of weird. He hadn't cut his hair since November, so instead of being just a little shaggy around the edges like it was at Christmas, it was all long and curly, like the summer back when he was seven and everyone mistook him for a girl. (I reminded him of that. It didn't go over so well.) I enjoy Dan's company, usually, but having not been home for any considerable amount of time since he was 12, it's somewhat strange. It's like with anyone else that I've gone two years with talking mostly online, but moreso because he's gone from a middle schooler to a high school sophomore, and I'm beginning to lose any gauge of who he is now. So we joked and hit each other and played off the old sibling rivalries. At trivia on Thursday he was able to casually gesture toward the TVs at the bar and ask "Hey, what's that?", and when I turned back to ask what he was referring to, he had a piece of my quesadilla in his hand and this huge grin, and looking on, Jake, though well familiar with my susceptibility to getting things taken out from under me, could not believe I'd just fallen for that.

It's fairly common when the academic teamers are gathered that Steve will decide that "We really ought to go do something. Like go bowling." Thursday happened to be the first time that we all heard this and said "You're right. Let's go bowling!" So we did. It should be said that neither Dan nor I have any talent at bowling, though my game (perhaps necessarily) got better as the night went on. (Read: less zeros, with a smattering of strikes and spares.) Steve and Gerry had decent games, and Alysia's not bad . . . she lettered in bowling in high school. Jake surprised everyone by beating us soundly, which means not that he's an expert bowler, but that he can at least send a ball straight with some power on it in a consistent fashion. And then there was Marcus. . . dear me. For those of you who haven't met or heard me describe Marcus, it'd be tough to manage it here, but the sight of him shuffling toward the lane in his bowling shoes before just kind of dropping the ball on the floor was . . . was something.

Bleh. Too much work to do. Suppose I'd better scan the news again and then get back to reading about alcohol syntheses. Much as I'd rather they didn't, both diplomacy and break are rumored to end tomorrow.