Busy busy busy. Went to a church retreat this weekend. Talked some seriously deep philosophy, slept for about 24 hours.

British Guy: "Who was that one French guy?"
Me: "Descartes?"
British Guy: "Yeah."
Everyone else: "?!?!?!?!?"

Met my first Young Earth Creationist. The same British guy. A very knowledgeable guy, actually, but he gets his information from dubious sources. He tried to talk to me about the limitations of U-Pb dating, but I'm sorry son, I've DONE U-Pb dating. With a laser.

Today was a meeting for a cool mission that they're sending to Mars in 2016. We went out to dinner afterwards and I sat myself down next to the PIs of the major instrument. They were older than they looked so I got to hear a lot of great war stories. The best one was about how this french guy they knew used to carry a big old bronze bust of Lenin in his suitcase every time he came to Russia. It took everyone a while to figure out that the bust was hollow and he was stuffing it full of caviar right before he left Russia each time. The ratio of men to women at the meeting was about 6-1. At dinner it was more like 20-1.

Guy 1: "What are you going to do when you get your first marsquake?"
PI: "Analyze it, of course."
Guy 2: "Science paper! Bingo!"
PI: "Hopefully we'll get a magnitude 7 right after we land."
Guy 1: "You know that's not going to happen, you never get the big one right away."
Guy 3: "It's like dating... you never get the big thing right away. You have to spend a couple of months or years waiting..."
Guy 1: "Waiting and losing money!!!"
Guy 3: "...before you get what you want."
PI: "We can write a protocol for what we should do after the first marsquake."
Guy 1: "It is so sad, he has spent so many years without getting any marsquakes that he doesn't even remember how to do it anymore."

That part was kind of awkward. I was glad that the one American didn't say anything.

They advised me that I should start thinking of missions now because it took thirty years for many missions to go from the first proposal to actually flying. And then they could fail.

I only had 10 euros so I carefully choose a cheap meal and didn't have any drinks, appetizers, or dessert. 9 euros, perfect. Unfortunately, as I should have foreseen, when the bill came they decided to split it evenly. Which meant that I owed 27 euros. I think they noticed the look on my face, because they decided that there would be a "special price" for post-docs and students, which started at 20 euros but eventually made it to ten euros. Thank goodness.

My building changed the code for the door without telling me, so when I returned home at 11 pm, I was locked out. I tried to access my wifi using my netbook on the street but since I live on the 7th floor, it was out of range. I flipped through my mental Rolodex of people who could put me up for the night.... all of the ones who wouldn't be terribly put out were just terrible ideas. Finally a random guy from my building entered the door and I nabbed it before it closed. He told me the code. What a pal.

Tomorrow more meeting, a riverboat dinner cruise down the Seine with M and the rest of my new mission-to-Mars friends. Wednesday I leave at 6:25am for the Netherlands, where I'll be talking Mercurian volcanoes for the remainder of the week.

Saturday morning, return from the Netherlands.
Saturday evening, meet-up with the "Paris Adventurers Club". The Meet-Up is entitled "P�tanque-a-donk". I am going just because of the name of the meeting.

Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday of the next week: This dude I used to have a very slight recreational crush on for like two months during my sophomore year in college is coming to visit me. We're going to have dinner or something. He's a mathematician. Legit.

Wednesday, J, a (male) friend from Brown U arrives.
Wednesday night, Will is in town from la Bretagne. He wants to go for a drink with me and M. I'll bring J, of course.
Thursday night, the 4th of July, it's the graduation of an old family friend. I've been invited to dinner... do I bring J?
Friday/Sat/Sun... Dinner with the mayor of Greenwood Village. Do I bring J?
Friday... modeling. Do I bring J?
July 10th. J leaves.
July 12th. My college roommate comes!
July 13th. Modeling. I definitely bring her.
July 14th. Bastille Day (The French National Day). The Fireman's Ball. Hot firemen are already all over town selling tickets. I definitely bring her.
July 18th. My college roommate leaves. Tragedy of all Tragedies.

I suggested offhandedly to Will that we go on the Trans-Siberian railroad. He's totally into it. I don't know. I've never really taken that long of a vacation before when I wasn't going home. Would it be sketchy to go on a long vacation to Russia with a random guy? I mean, sketchier than going camping for a weekend with two random guys? Maybe I can convince him to go to Turkey with me instead. Or to Majorca to ride the ostriches.

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