My parents are in town for the weekend, and they watched Asher yesterday while I went to orientation for the Master's program at NYU. What a waste of five hours!

Half of it was spent emphasizing that graduate level work required the ability to synthesize information - not just spit back out what you've read. A good forty minutes was wiled away on the positively irrelevant topic of industry internship opportunities for those not planning to pursue a career in academia. My only related thought there was, “I wonder if I could get one of these guys to intern with me next fall? They get course credit. I get (presumably) intelligent, free labor.”

I did go out to lunch with six of the other incoming Master’s students, which was fun. One guy was older than me – a former investment banker who was on graduate degree number three and in search of career number two – because he could. The rest were either fresh from undergrad or only a few years out in the world. All seemed whip smart – which was encouraging.

On the agenda for today: Give back the ball that I took from Alyssa because I thought Alyssa accidentally took from us when her baby Gideon was playing with it one day at the playground but it turns out it’s not Asher’s so I in effect stole a toy from her baby. (Sometimes a run-on sentence is a beautiful thing) Go to Oliver’s second birthday party. Head into Manhattan to see Lea, Mike and the kids who are in town to visit Lea’s grandmother. Drop Asher off at Sarah’s parents. Return to Manhattan for Micah’s 30th birthday party. Oh, and deal with co-op finances. Did I mention that I’m now treasurer of this place?