Center for Awkward Youths

It's finals season again (coinciding with Neeson season).  This means that the weeks are generally gross.  But Thursday night was a brief, wondrous reprieve from it all, one of those nights with so many good elements, I don't know where to begin.  Empanadas from the biscuit people I adore.  Actually, a whole dinner from them.  Chill bluegrass music.  Al fresco dining amid trees, Christmas lights, and a little fire.  And of course, the lovely, lovely company.  It wasn't just that Sachini and Catherine are past ridiculous in their fun/nice distributions (off the charts on both scales), but also that we got to spend much of the evening discussing Mike's nerdy past.  I thought I could relate to him, Geek Camp alum-to-alum (ah, CTY), but he went far beyond a couple of misguided summers and into real hardcore stuff, with a special math and science high school (that Landlady Chang and Brother also went to), then teaching Nerd Camp, getting blacklisted, and then of course, back full circle to biostatistics here.  I had never felt so cool in my life.  Nor so proud that I 'only' spent 2 summers at Geek Camp.