Day 2

I calculated that yesterday I walked to school averaging over 4 mph.  Today, I left about 15 minutes later and took the same (river trail) route a little bit slower, about 3.6 mph.  I wore a pair of the cheap, cushy backless mary jane shoes I am hoarding and was surprised by how comfortable they were.  No rubbing, no soreness on the bottom of my foot.  (I did notice when I got home that my feet are turning into two gigantic calluses from all this walking, but I guess that's OK.)  I got to class with time to spare. 

This "seminar" has about 18-20 people in it, several of whom are also in my class from yesterday (including the woman from the psych department whose first + last name is the same as mine only without the leading "S" and the two second-year marketing students).  Our first set of readings is "And monkeys" in a big way.  For example, did you know that rhesus macaques, like humans, automatically distinguish between members of their own social group and others, spontaneously associate novel objects with specific social groups, and implicitly evaluate ingroup members positively and outgroup members negatively?  And did you know that capuchin monkeys, like humans, show different levels of risk tolerance depending on whether the outcomes are framed as gains or losses? 

This afternoon, I printed approximately 3 gazillion articles (and read about 1.5), but my office was unbearably warm and stuffy, so I left at about 3:00 and walked home the shortest route (down the major street) with a short side trip to the public library to pick up the last two books I requested before school started.  (The rest of my request list is on a Netflix-like "hold" for now.)  It was extremely sunny and warm (in the upper 70s) and I was glad to get home, change some of my clothes, take off my shoes, turn the A/C fan from low to high, and crack open a cold can of Diet Coke. 

This evening I have a bunch of reading to do so I can meet with the other professor I am an RA (research assistant) for this year.  Good times.