Taking the train 8 hours from DC to Boston getting in at 1am was not the best thing I’ve ever done, but it also wasn’t the worst. I met my friend Lee, and we went to a Chinese restaurant in Harvard Square called Hong Kong. I ate a quadruple stack of scallion pancakes (plus #1), and a fried tofu dish – totaling an additional 1500-2000 calories at least to my count for the day. Well, it was past midnight, so I do wonder which day I would allocate that too. Either way, it’s not good. So far, 1 point in favor and against Boston.

The next day was mostly spent in a coffee shop with me thinking about business and book ideas. It was a day of dampness and dreaming.

Day 3 was the day I met Ezra for lunch and coffee at Algiers in Harvard Square. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years, but we had an extremely pleasant conversation about love, life, aspirations, and reflections on the days of middle school and high school. For some moments, we talked about Gabe, our friend / my boyfriend of sorts who had died 20 years ago… I held back some tears and explained that I sometimes felt that he was watching me.

And of course a typical parental argument. Apparently, I have no idea how to lead my life. There’s a lot I can say to counter that, but I’m not going to bother.

Today was a morning of classes at Harvard Business School. I attended a strategy class on the patent expiring on aspartame and how NutraSweet dealt with it. Then there was a finance class on employee stock options and options in general.

After that, I had a ginormous Korean lunch with a former colleague. We talked a little shop. But mostly we ate refills of kim chi. Was that the third plus? I think it was net neutral.

I feel okay but also a bit empty.