Ready

Only 9 little days stand between me and my break from New York. I would have spent the entirety of it in Barcelona, correcting as much as possible of my severe David deficit, but I munificently agreed to limit my vacation to 5 lovely nights in Spain upon learning of IESE's inconvenient final exam schedule.

I am already existing mostly in a spring break daydream. Today I mentally packed for my trip. I plan to be stern with my bookshelf, after performing remarkably on midterm exams, and leave each and every textbook behind. My compact shiny red suitcase will happily transport a fine balance of ski clothes and my most favorite underwear. What trip could go wrong when your suitcase is full of snow-proof clothing and a top-ten list of your panty drawer? (I acutually do not use the word panty. It just sounded funnier.)

Sad as it will be to return from Barcelona alone, I could not bear the thought of spending the second half of the break in my dorm room. My perspicacious roommate suggested we go to Portland instead. I wont even have to set foot out of JFK before taking spring break 2006 another 3000 miles. It will be a big trip for Emily and me both. Portland is the reason we became friends in the first place, and I was beginning to fear that if I didn't introduce her to it soon she would abandon me for someone who would. Also, at this point in my abstinence from coffee, Stumptown is worth the trip alone.

Yes, it's a fine itinerary and even finer company. I hope you return to see the results.

Midterms

Midterms. Why does each class have two midterms? It means that every week for 7 weeks we'll be taking midterms. How is it possible to be scared enough to cram for 7 weeks of midterms? The semester is only 14 weeks. Does that make sense?

Sentience or Comatose

I quit drinking coffee on January 24th, 2006. I'm pretty sure I hadn't gone a day without coffee since 1994, when I went to International Music Camp and let my voice coach convince me it was bad for my range. I popped caffeine pills all week and firmly established an addiction.

For half my life, I've drank some variation of a daily cup or ten of coffee. I went through an iced phase, the froofy phase, an au lait phase, and many sordid black phases. Mostly though, it's been a thick french press balanced with just enough whole milk to make it that perfect caramel color.

My coffee has religiously sat on the edge of my desk for every college final. It's christened every road trip, perpetuated every Sunday morning, and stained every white t-shirt. Coffee is synonymous with Portland where I spent the last 8 years with a viscid cup of Stumptown in my hand. When I think of summer, I think of the big clay Mexican mugs littering my Dad's front porch. When I think of love, I think of David...and coffee.

I'm working up my courage to start drinking it again on March 9th. I just wanted to last for awhile. Proudly put my happiness on hold and appreciate the directionless world that is the renouncement of coffee.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Snow Day

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Central Park got 26.8 inches. I got my skipants out.
There's nothing lovelier than a walk in fresh snow.



My first stop was 71 Irving Place for a cup of Earl Grey tea
and a Balthazar croissant.




Everything looks different covered in icicles and white
instead of garbage and people.


But by tomorrow it will be all cleared away.


I made it to Washington Square without using a
single sidewalk.


And I enjoyed the view from a completely deserted
study lounge.

Impending Storm

I'm sitting in bed reading about adrenergic drugs waiting for the snow to fall. Maybe it's not your typical Saturday night thrill, but I am excited. I am excited to wake up to a white glow, to wear my mukluks again and have a quiet city walk, to possibly see NYU's record of never closing get broken.

Let Us Eat Fat!

Today, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the results of a $415 million federal study on the benefits of a low-fat diet were published. Almost 50,000 women particpated in an 8-year longitudinal comparison of the effects of a low-fat versus a non-restricted diet on the development of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The shocking outcome is that there was no difference.

According to Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society, it was the "Rolls Royce of studies." It was certainly well funded and well designed with an unfathomable amount of participants, but the low-fat diet itself was far from conservative. Women in the low-fat group limited fat to between 20 and 29 percent of their calories. The non-restricted group consumed a 35 to 40 percent fat diet. Overall calories were not restricted and the women in the low-fat group didn't necessarily increase soluble fiber, fruits and vegetables, or other foods considered to be protective against heart disease and cancer. Still, women (and probably men) can give up the idea that just limiting their cheeseburger intake is going to prevent them from developing one of the top two causes of death in the United States. Especially if you're waiting until you're 50 (like the women in the study) to start cutting back.

For a less-biased, more detailed account, here's the citation for the study in the current issue of JAMA, or you can see it at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/295/6/629.

Prentice, et. al. (2006). Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Invasive Breast Cancer: The Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial. Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 295 No. 6:629-642.

The New York Times also published a nice summary today.
HEADLINE: Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds
BYLINE: By GINA KOLATA
February 8, 2006 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Column 5; National Desk; Pg. 1

China Triptych

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This week:

I walked through Chinatown.

A Chinese man vomited blood on me.

My sister moved to China.

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