When you drive from Baltimore to New Jersey, the exits are further and further apart. But once you come closer to New Jersey, the exits seem to draw closer. Exiting to write my blog feels the same way - when I feel like this whole US- life-grad school- thing is a LONG time, my blog entries drop to once in 6 weeks. I wonder when I will begin to feel like the end is nearing and that there is more happening to blog about.

I went for my first conference (ever!), which explains the NJ trip. It was wonderful to see the celebrities from Community Psych. The poorly funded field that we are, our celebrities arrived with rich ideas, wearing simple cotton clothing. The US-version of jhola types. No matter where I go, I chase or become a jhola type. My friend, J, says that the Community Psychology conference makes us all drifters and I want to thank her for the english equivalent of jhola type.

Coming back to the celebrity business - I remember feeling like I could see my textbooks metamorphosing into people. It was wonderful to also see the people I'd been thinking I'd want to work with if their respective universities had accepted me. It was like meeting people who I 'expressed interest' in on Shaadi.com who were now married to other people. The feeling is akin to seeing glimpses of my alternate lives. Thankfully, I love mine. Academically and otherwise.

And she steps into her blog. Shyly. For the fifth time in her life, she feels like a stranger to her blog. This time it's not alienation but shyness that she grapples with. More later.

Interesting line in the blurb describing a film called Two Lovers, starring Joaquim Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow:

" Leonard is forced to make an impossible decision between the impetuousness of desire and the comfort of love"

That single line summarizes my thoughts about all choices.