you can't trust the raw vegetables
By anders pearson 15 Apr 2002
went to connecticut this weekend to meet up with the rest of my family at my grandmother’s house. my sister even brought her dog.
<p>we spent a lot of the time doing yardwork. my grandmother has managed to hang on to a big house with a sizable amount of land (well, a lot considering that it’s the middle of suburbia) but can’t really get around well enough anymore to keep things maintained herself. plants seem to grow at an incredible rate in connecticut. in maine most of the vegetation is killed every winter and the few plants hearty enough to survive a maine winter usually aren’t the kind that grow quickly. everytime my father goes down to visit her, he brings along tools and cuts away huge swaths of the ever-expanding vegetation. and everytime he goes down, it’s grown back and creeped even further out.</p>
<p>so we spent most of the daylight hours on saturday and sunday raking leaves, clearing the branches that had cluttered up the lawn over the winter, and cutting down vines. the whole time, miranda (my sister’s dog) ran around happily smelling all the new connecticut smells and alternating between cooking herself in the sun and cooling off in the shade. despite a little sunburn, i have to admit that a little exercise feels good every once in a while.</p>
<p>on sunday night my aunt (who also lives in connecticut) came over and we all went out and watched <i>A Beautiful Mind</i>. good movie. some of the visualizations of how he ‘saw’ patterns in numbers were kind of cheesy but otherwise it was good.</p>
<p>at 0607 this morning i was roused from <span class="caps">REM</span> sleep, pulled my shoes on, got in the car and rode to the train station. got on the Shoreline East railroad to New Haven, transferred to the Metro North commuter train, rode into Grand Central, got on the subway to 42nd st, transferred to a 1 train up to 103rd, got out and walked to my apartment. took a quick shower (my grandmother forbid us from taking showers while we were there, citing some “water shortage” or something that connecticut is having) and walked to work. considering how poorly my body typically deals with the morning, i’m impressed that i can even remember parts of my day.</p>