Santa Barbara :: Welcome to the Testoster-dome

As the days roll on here, routine begins to to shape. On Thursday there were still a few straggling piece of the workweek to be handled. Not for all of us in school (slackers) of course, but for Freeman and Vinay. There were also trips to be made to stores like Vons, Costco, and Home Depot, all in preparation of the festivities which were to follow.

Our days have consisted of a significant amount of Guitar Hero and beer pong. Thursday was unique as it was sprinkled with Detroit sports throughout. We tried to get Tigers-Red Sox double header on tv but couldn't find it. Then the Pistons clinched their series and the Wings let one slip away but all-in-all a pretty big sporting day for the D. It is really fun to finally get to watch some of these games with a big group of people, especially people all tied to the same team.

The whole trip has turned into an even bigger reunion than initially imagined. Vinay was able to make it here thanks in part to a business trip and Brian Egan came up from LA to hang out for a night as well. Tricia is on the west coast for a stint of work and has come down from Salinas to hang out and show us how hard real guitar is. Everyone is really coming through to spend some time together and take incoherent and sometimes funny pictures.

Friday we began to see the additive effects from repetition of our newly established, if still evolving, routine. Also, with some of the conference calls and grocery shopping out of the way, all of us were free to fully emerge ourselves in the spirit the weekend: celebration of Chad's achievement (which we all found out is forthcoming in October). Devotion to the cause, created more opportunity for reminiscence, catching up and general ridiculousness. For example, see the clip at the end of this post, when Vinay was dared to stick his hand in the ultra cold cooler for what we thought was an impossible length of time. I think he got a few dollars for it. By the end of the night, Mikey was volunteering this type of activity every 3 minutes.

I am proud of the way we all come together and have a good time though. We even come up with ways for Vinay to play flipcup without drinking. It's refreshing to operate in an environment with a number of people who are very comfortable around one another, but perhaps this is where the lunacy comes from. Also, the dynamic of a large group of men is starting to become more and more apparent to me. I am used to having a woman around all the time or working in an environment with a majority of women (RSPH). I will try to think more about differences and how the group dynamic works. We'll see what develops as the weekend rolls on.

warning! strong language