I just sent in my application for what sounds like the perfect summer internship for me. I don’t want to jinx it, but I will say that I had to look up whether the British prefer “toward” or “towards” (Ans: “towards”). Hi, I’m detail-oriented, it’s nice to meet you.

The job’s still in Houston, though, so nobody flip out. Somebody’s got to stay here to look after the dog.

Which reminds me—did I tell you that John’s going to Abu Dhabi this summer? No? Well, he is. Part of the training for his new job takes place in the UAE, so he’ll be there for six weeks. We’re not sure exactly when he’s leaving, but it’ll probably be near the end of June. And to think I was bummed when he moved to College Station. Oy.

For the last few weeks, John and his friend Roy have been working in their spare time on a neat physics demonstration to show off at the Texas A&M Physics Festival this coming weekend.

If you know what a standing wave is, you’ve probably seen the classic demonstration with a vibrating string. But did you know you can also trace out a standing wave in FIRE? True story.

The apparatus is called a Rubens Tube, after its kind-of inventor. It’s a long metal tube with small holes drilled along its length, filled with a flammable gas and set alight. When you pipe music into one end of the tube, the flames jump into different wave patterns.

Last night I got to stop by campus and videotape their progress. With a little pretending and a little video editing, we almost made it look like they built this contraption in a single evening.

Pretty neat, eh?

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This is my week for getting hollered at by guys in cars, it seems.

Saturday morning John and I were at our apartment-to-be (more on which later, if I remember) signing all the lease paperwork, when I stepped outside for a minute to double-check my license plate number. As I was walking down the sidewalk, a man in a passing car yelled “Work it, girl, work it!” in my direction.

I’ll have you know, in case you are my mother, that I was not, in fact, working it, nor was I dressed even remotely like a prostitute. Guys are weird like that. And by weird I mean assholes. And yes, of course I mean all guys, at all times, in all situations. Assholes. Everyone knows there’s no nuance on the internet.

Anyway, I went back inside and told the girl doing our paperwork that the neighbors seemed friendly.

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While waiting in line at the UH Pharmacy, I noticed this handy tip on a pamphlet about preventing the spread of H1N1:

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you sneeze or use an alcohol-based sanitizer.

I spent the better part of a minute trying to remember if I’d heard anywhere that Purell was helping to spread swine flu.

Man, is this week dragging, or what? I don’t think I’ve spent a minute less in front of my computer than I would have otherwise, and if I did, it was because I was either playing taiko or sleeping. I probably did pay a little more attention in class, though, so that’s a plus. Still, I’m ready to be done with this exercise.

Some unconnected bits:

Last night I dreamt that John was being chased by an angry kangaroo. He escaped by running to his dad’s house and tricking the kangaroo into jumping into a frozen lake. Then I stole an airplane and turned it into a robot. I tried to sign my brother up for a locker at his new law school, but the roller skating rink was on lockdown. I did find my own locker, though, and it was full of old swimsuits.

Samson is sleeping with his eyes half-open. All I can see are the whites, and every now and then they’ll roll around a little. It’s creepy as all get-out.

Three showers later, I’m still wearing the same eyeliner I put on for the Galveston show Saturday evening. I’ll probably have to take it off tomorrow because it’s finally starting to get patchy, but it’s had a good run.

Yesterday I was in a crummy situation that was all my own fault, and the idea popped into my head that it would be an ideal time to give blood, since I was already crying. The worst part of crying, after all, is trying not to cry. Once you start, all the tension releases, and there’s relief in knowing that however much your situation sucks, you no longer have to put on a brave face.

John and I haven’t gotten to see each other much lately, and it makes me sad. This weekend we’ll miss each other again because I’ll be in Hidalgo the whole time. Then three weekends later I’ll be in Nashville. I want to spend more time with him before he leaves the country for six weeks at the start of his new job in June, but spring taiko season has other ideas.

One and a half more days until I can step back into my online life. Like I said yesterday, if I do this again, I’ll fine-tune it to where I can exercise my self-discipline without becoming an internet hermit.

I guess it’s a lesson in how hooked I am on the instant-gratification, continuously-updated constant flow of information from Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and all that. A minute ago, instead of opening tabs for Facebook and Twitter like I usually do when I turn on my computer, I opened up CNN.com. But the news hasn’t changed much since I last checked it this afternoon, so now I’m here. With nothing to say.

Yesterday I tried reading some of the featured articles on Wikipedia so that I could read SOMETHING online that wasn’t “prohibited.” I don’t remember what happened next, but I know I didn’t get very far, which is weird because you know how Wikipedia is. If you try to find one little thing for an assignment you’re working on, you’ll be there for hours. Apparently, though, if you set out TRYING to spend time on Wikipedia, nothing grabs your attention.

In other news, my foot still hurts about as much as it did yesterday. Looks like it’s sensible shoes for the rest of the week. Gotta keep this puppy fresh for Hidalgo: four shows in two days, for a total of five hours of performance time. Yowza.

Gah, I’m sure the rest of the world is talking about so many fun things in my absence. Thirty-eight more hours!

A little over halfway through, I’m feeling pretty blah about this exercise. It’s a success in the sense that I haven’t been on any of the sites I used to spend time on for the past four days, but I can’t say I’ve gotten much extra work done in the meantime. The main goal, though, is not to get more done during this week, but to strengthen my self-discipline in the future. A worthwhile goal, that, but hard to measure.

Quitting social media for a week has left me feeling disconnected and out of the loop. I’m completely cut off from my internet friends and people-I-follow, and I miss the casual chit-chat with my real-life friends, even the ones I see regularly in person.

Facebook and Twitter, for me at least, are all about being brief, witty, and shallow, and instead I find myself here on my blog, writing long, boring sentences analyzing the meaning of social media in my life. Gross.

If I do something like this again, I’m going to make it more like “only check Facebook once a day for a week.” It’s not actually interacting with people online that’s a waste of time, it’s keeping the site open and flipping over to check on it every time a new post appears.

Anyway, here are some of the things I considered posting to Facebook or Twitter today:

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