From an email conversation with my new roommate, John Spain*:
John: You don’t read on your phone on the train, do you? I’m trying to figure out whether instapaper or some such thing is worth looking into.
Allyson: I have an eReader, so if I’m reading on the train, I usually use that. But I prefer to listen to Yale’s iTunes U podcasts and reopen anew, every morning, the pain of not having gotten into Yale.
John: Was it really that painful?
Allyson: It was pretty much the first time I’d ever not gotten into something I’d applied to. On the other hand, I got the notification via email on my way to Hawaii with my family.
John: Bleh poor timing. Is it still painful now, aside from during podcasts?
Allyson: I cry myself to sleep every night, bottle the tears, and mix them with my Chia seeds for appetite control and colon cleansing. Have you not heard the weeping?
Allyson: Seriously, though, the lectures are terrific. Especially Death by Shelly Kagan.
Truly, listening to a philosopher lecture about whether it’s possible to survive my death has revolutionized my mornings even more than steel-cut oats have.
*John Spain runs the excellent blog The Heat Lightning and asked me to point out that he’s never met a Yale graduate he liked.