idiosyncratic rejections

Question: what sorts of qualities are make or break in looking for friends, romantic partners, places to live, whatever, in your life right now?

this skiing photo is from a week or so ago, but I thought I needed more photographic reminders that sometimes I do fun things! hopefully to create more soon.

after a 3 hour practice test this morning, I decided to take a mid-morning break and sit down with some tea to read the newyorker - which I feel like I never get to do enough lately (thank you, Boards studying).

there are lots of times when I laugh out loud at new yorker articles, but this article by David Brooks on current research in social interactions ranging from how attachment patterns of children predict graduation from high school to why the professions that correlate most closely with happiness are social (examples include hairdressers and corporate managers). It also echoes the sentiments he expressed in his response to Amy Chua's article on parenting - mainly that learning social intelligence is really important.

It actually reminded me a lot of this blog that a friend recommended I start reading (also clever and laugh out loud funny) where a woman in her 20s waxes on relationships, careers, life moves, etc. Here's one of my favorites on whether something is totally awesome or rock bottom (since the two are more closely related than you might think - which I want to add to the theory of Type 1-3 fun)

you should read the Brooks article and Rachel's blog, laugh out loud, and tell me what you think.

Best line from David Brooks?

"...Erica used her powers of observation to discard entire categories of men as potential partners, and some of her choices were idiosyncratic. She rejected men who wore Burberry, because she couldn't see herself looking at the same pattern on scarves and raincoats for the rest of her life. She viewed fragranced men the way Churchill viewed the Germans - they were either at your feet or at your throat. She would have nothing to do with men who wore sports-related jewelry, because her boyfriend should not love Derek Jeter more than her"

(also cool that the name he uses is Erica, obviously) and because the high today is 0 degrees, I might brave the weather for some very short snow shoeing, but the rest of the day will be study, study, study.