Saturday, December 5, 2015

Dear katie,

I had so many hours of daylight today it was crazy. I woke up at 9:15ish and Sarah and I studied in Coffee Lab until noon, had lunch at Al’s (yeah, that’s right — also it was her first time eating there so success), and studies in Ford until 4, and then moved to Knight Lab where I ceased being productive, although it was a productive day overall. The goal was to start north campus and progressively move south, with enough time in each place to get in the zone but it also gives us the opportunity to move around and not get bogged down in one place, which usually leads to you losing steam. I think it worked because I actually didn’t really get too sidetracked until the end of the day. Helped that we avoided super high traffic areas (Starbucks, Norris) and depressing places (Norris, the library). I also like the idea of blocks of time for work (is this just the Pomodoro Technique or whatever but less well-formed?) because it’s more motivating. I’ve also realized it’s better to segment your time and get in the right mindset for whatever you’re doing. Like if you’re going to go grab dinner with friends, really treat it as a study break and don’t whine about all the work you still have to do. I feel like that was a big thing I learned this year, segmenting time. Because I used to hole myself up to do “work” (even though I would obviously get sidetracked) and not see people. But now, I think scheduling in social things (in the right doses) even when I’m so-called busy is actually doable and way less lonely.

I had dinner with Dan and Linda and Dan has read that one post on my first date and it was kind of weird because I sort of forgot that these are public…on the internet…and read by people other than us…When Linda asked how the date went he jokingly said he could retell it YIKES internet is forever. I guess it’s just surprising when people bring up your internet personality/work IRL — kind of catches you off-guard. Sometimes you assume the internet is so fast-paced that what you say probably just goes unseen/unacknowledged, when sometimes it’s just the opposite. (Dan if you’re reading this right now — hi!)

Saw Kathy briefly because she was in Evanston, and then went on my second date with that guy. We had drinks (and he ordered cheese curds), talked (conversation still felt very easy), then we watched CREED. So good! Michael B. Jordan is so so so fine — even when he gets beaten up badly he still looks good. Also his love interest is that girl Jackie from Veronica Mars! I think I would’ve appreciated it more with some Rocky context but it was still a really good movie, good balance of emotion and action and though it follows a typical movie arc it never is 100% triumphant. Highly recommend. Maybe I should go watch the other Rocky movies now.

He walked me back to my place and said he wasn’t sure if we’d see each other before break (since this is finals week RIP) but that he’d like to hang out again when we came back in January! We hugged and he kissed my cheek (I walked into my building the living embodiment of the blushing emoji, though I do kind of wish we’d kissed, but I’m also good for taking things more slowly because this is all kind of new to me). I don’t know, I just really like how easy and natural this has all felt. Like I’ve never really felt awkward or bored when I’m with him, and he’s a nerdy cute that I’m pretty into. I think him saying we should hang out in 2016 is a good sign (can you tell how adept I am at reading signals??)

Your weekend with Jacob sounds nice. Wish I remembered to like/light candles. And no I haven’t really done much on Uncommon but I do like the idea a lot. I think designing spaces online that encourage genuine thought and conversation has been and will be a really important but elusive goal to achieve. Also NICE on the Twitter follow!!!

Going to try and finish outlining a paper before bed.

Love,

Nicole

P.S. For some reason we were recounting Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn movies and I told him about the time we WILLINGLY PAID FULL PRICE to see The Internship because all you knew about it was that it was about Google and had no idea it was starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. One of the worst $$$ and time we’ve ever spent.