While I have not gotten nearly as much writing done this past week as I would have liked, I have had an enjoyable week overall. Tuesday I talked with my “daughter” on the phone, as she has returned from a month-long trip to China. Wednesday Jean and I visited Adrianne and her cute three-month old baby boy Jack. The past two days I have chatted with several former students–Marwa, Monisha, Sneha, Agnes, Aishwarya, Wenjing–as well as heard from several people via email–Hanna, Ela, Terry, Shelby–and a detailed blog comment from Jim. No matter how much I enjoy reading and writing during the summer, hearing from friends is even more enjoyable, and every one of those people had something interesting to say.

One of the things I discussed with my most recent students was the AP scores which they got in the mail. So far nobody that I have heard from has gotten a score lower than ‘4" on either AP Calculus or AP Statistics. Should I begin dreaming that everybody got at least a score of ‘4'? :)

Tomorrow I am going with Alan to Yankee Stadium for what will undoubtedly be my last game there before it is torn down next Fall. I enjoy sports, but mostly reading about it in the daily paper. I rarely watch games on tv, preferring to spend my free time reading, although I do wander inside when Jean and the boys are watching games to check the score periodically, and occasionally I will read a magazine while a game is on. I attend live games even less because I don’t enjoy being stuck in the middle of 10,000-50,000 rabid screaming fans, plus the time spent driving to and from the game is a monumental waste of time, not to mention the outrageous costs compared to watching a game for free on television (ignoring the huge cost of monthly cable, that is independent of the game itself). But I always enjoy spending time with Alan, and it is nice once ever few years to actually see the likes of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez in person. The last Yankee game I saw live their right fielder was still Paul O’Neill.

Currently reading: Lisa See’s tale of a Chinese girl coming-of-age in 19th century China Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The foot-binding portions are a bit gruesome, but the rest of it is absolutely enthralling for a slow-paced study of people and culture.

Currently listening: Willie Nile is one of the underrated singer-songwriters, and his boxed set The Arista Columbia Recordings is a wonderful set of music.