Jeanne

It is time for post two! Since a lot of you complained, this time its a new post not a new blog. :p
Since, I am again going to write about a person, I thought keep a few things from last time. So, its just the name, even though I know her full name. :)
This post is about my current PI/ boss, Jeanne. She is the sweetest person I have seen in last 5-6 months in Worcester and since I wanted to write about some person, I thought why not her. She is 5' 2", old and so all grey hair, doesn't seem intimidating, but definitely is authoritative. She is a very famous scientist in her field of work and so always has a lot of work. Loves talking! her usual attire is black jeans, cotton shirt, a sweater or a jacket over it and a nice scarf around her neck. She almost always has different specs everyday. Must be easily above 55 but is extremely active, running from one room to another all through the day. Funniest thing about her is that she sort of squeaks when she laughs. A lot of people mock her by trying to imitate that laugh, but its pretty difficult to reproduce that sound. She has short grey hair and often likes to flick locks of her hair that are on her forehead. . To give you a rough idea, I think she looks like a very old Uma Thurman. A lot older than the one in the photo. The reason why I think she is really sweet is because of two events. Well, two significant ones.

First, on the first day that I went to the lab, they had a lab meet. According to the tradition of their lab, they usually have lab meets over lunch. It seems they started this because, as I said before, she loves to talk and so even though the meeting is supposed to be for 3 hrs, if goes for about 3 hrs. But I usually don't like to do that, one because food is a big distraction when you are trying to think and second (the more important one) is that I have a slice of cheese pizza everyday. :) So, basically I was the only one without lunch. Everyone came in, settled in their places and started to have their food. Jeanne was the last one to come in. She had a box of meatball pasta in her hands. She walked up to me and said, "Umm...would you like to have half of it? I don't think I can finish it." Unfortunately, even though I was hungry, I had to say no because it had a big 'meatball' label on it. :p But just she saying that was very nice.

Second was a funny event. To give you a background, in USA, from at least what I have seen, no one drinks water. Its either coke or beer. So, I guess most of the water fountains don't get a lot of drinkers. There is one such deserted water fountain between the lab I am working in and Jeanne's office. On my second day in the lab, I went out for some water.  Just as I was about to finish drinking, she walked past me. She walked a few paces, stopped turned back and asked me, "Hmm..How does the water taste?". I was a little shocked at the question, who won't be? All I could manage to say was that it tasted 'normal'. Then she said, " I haven't seen anyone drinking water from this fountain for quite some time. Its good? Ok. Let me try it". She went to the fountain and drank 2 sips of water from it. After which she just stood for 2 sec and  it looked as if she was trying to analyze the taste of it. Then she looked at me with smile and said, "Hmmm..it is nice. Normal.", laughed in her peculiar way and walked to her office.
There a lot of other smaller experiences, nice and funny, that have happened after those first two day and by the end of the each day for the past two week, I am just in awe of her simplicity. 

Doug

I had decided to write this new blog yesterday and I am actually writing it today. Considering my usual laziness, this is pretty good. :)
The title of this post is Doug, because  I am going to write about Doug. Unfortunately I don't know his full name, but doesn't matter. Its not that important. Doug is a driver of the shuttle that takes me almost home from UMass. The drivers usually rotate on different routes, but he is there on my route once every week.

To describe him, he is old, about 55- 60 years old, all gray hair, rectangular specs about 5'5''. Now that I think about it, he looks almost like Clint Eastwood except the frown. But what I think is different about the guy is that he has a big, broad smile on his face. Always. For some reason for another he is always smiling and laughing. Always has a joke to tell or a funny story to share. This is one reason why I find this person really interesting and decided to share it.

So, it was about 7 30 yesterday when I left the school building, wearing my big heavy armor (my winter coat, its huge and heavy) and listening to music. I was walking  towards the shuttle that would take me almost home. Between the shuttle stop and the school building there is a big lawn which is not that well lit and so if you are walking over the lawn at night, all people can make out is your silhouette. When I had crossed half the lawn, Doug points at me and starts walking towards the shuttle behind his shuttle saying something to other driver and went back to his shuttle. When I entered the shuttle, as usual he had a joke ready. Since I usually don't understand American humor and also since I had a good song playing on my phone, I didn't listen to it. But then again he started pointing at me again and smiling. So, I removed my headphones and asked him what had happened.
Here is the story: The day before yesterday Doug had seem a guy like me wearing a big coat walking across the lawn, at about the same time. So, he opened-closed the door of the shuttle to signal that he was waiting for him. It seems the guy suddenly stopped looked at Doug and suddenly sat down on the grass. This time of the year its pretty cold and I think it was also raining a bit at that day. So, this weird behavior of that guy made all the passengers and Doug jump in their seat. he said he was scared a bit when he say the guy suddenly sit on the grass. :-D

But the funny part was, I was the second passenger. After me I guess 6 more people entered the shuttle and Doug told each of that person the same story, exact same words, pointing towards the dark lawn, to everyone. Even after repeating the story 6 times, the smile on his face never faded even a bit. The best part of it, according to me was that when the 6th lady entered the he asked her if she was there the day before yesterday when this thing happened. Unfortunately for him she wasn't. But then he said to himself (loudly), with a big smile on his face, "I have to find someone who say this! Man, we were surprised and scared! I have to find someone to share this with!".
A lot of people would have just forgotten about it. Just a boring story of a stupid guy for many. But Doug enjoyed it and was still enjoying. More than that he wish to share it as many people as he could. Isn't that a nice way to keep yourself entertained however boring your life may have become?