Life as a Physicist

Sometimes it seems like our (USA, suburban) shopping life is spent in big-box shopping stores like Walgreens, etc. While I don’t mind them, I don’t like what they have done to the smaller stores that used to exist. Living in Marseille really drives the point home: to collect ingredients for a home cooked meal we will often visit a butcher, a vegetable market, a bakery, and perhaps, also, a pastry shop - though that last one is often the same as the bakery. In the US we might just go to someplace like Whole Foods or other big-box retailer.

As a result, when here in the US, I usually try to go to the local place first, and only after that doesn’t work to the big-box chain store. Just outside of Fermilab, for example, is a grocery store called Family Foods. It has been there as long as I can remember. A Walgreen’s has just opened up across the street from it. It is a sad fact that 2 of the three times I walked into Family Foods I had to then walk across the street to Walgreens.

Today, here in New Jersey, Paula and I had to get a document notarized so that I could travel out of the country alone with Julia. We started with the local Metuchen Savings bank - which looks like it is doing great business, but ended up walking over to the Chase bank to get it done. The Metuchen Savings bank had us waiting for about 15 minutes before we walked over to Chase. Chase, actually, had less business going on inside it so was able to serve us right away - so perhaps that is a counter argument.

And you can see this starting to happen in France as well. There are big-box super markets all around Marseille — just none that are in the downtown area. I’ve been to them once or twice - they are cheaper and always filled with people. I hope there is always space for the small local shops in this day and age of globalization (which, btw, I am very much in favor of).

For the last two weeks Paula has been back at her mother’s taking care of Julia while I have been off having fun working at Fermilab. This weekend we exchanged places. For the next 1.5 weeks I’ll be taking care of Julia at my parent’s in New Jersey while she is off being a physicist.

It shouldn’t be all that hard, right?

Julia isn’t speaking English or French yet, but apparently she is speaking Japanese. I gave Paula a iPod nano for Christmas and Julia got a hold of it before Paula did and set its language to Japanese. We have no clue how to set it back… Does this mean we should just give it to Julia?

Ah, those coketards are at it again [obscure "fake" reference].

I mentioned to a friend that I was doing a series of owl shifts. He wrote back: “And remember that Dr Pepper has no genuine medical qualifications.” We got it from this “scholarly” article:

The moral integrity of soft drink giant Schweppes was called into question today after it emerged that Dr Pepper is not a real doctor, has never been to medical school or received any form of health training, and has been using the title under false pretences.

However, I know the Dr. And I know the Dr well. It clearly has medical effects: I’m awake right now because of the Dr. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that article is a sham, and the author isn’t even a real journalist! Or at least a serious one. When will they learn? The Dr. is best.

I’m in Canada this Chirstmas, with Paula’s family. Look what I’m missing back at my family in New Jersey:

I can’t decide if I’m glad I’m up here in Ottawa or not. BTW, the guy with the best kick? That is my Dad, a now-retired professor of physics at Rutgers…

I’m not sure how we have managed to stay married for all of 2.5 years:

Me: When we land in Ottawa we will have five cell phones: 2 from France, 2 from the USA, and 1 from Switzerland. And all of them will have outrageous roaming charges.

Her: When we land we will have no gloves or mittens.

So. Who has their priorities right??!?

By this point in the year I usually fear Jingle Bells. Deck the halls causes headaches. But not this year: stores in France don’t play the music incessantly. We’ve been trolling around town purchasing (small) gifts and narry a Christmas tune is to be found.

What a pleasant change from the USA! Perhaps when I return there three days from now I can enjoy one or two days of Christmas music without the ill side effects!