"End of the road and back"

Ever since getting to NJ, I haven't had much interaction with... people. With my husband, yes, who's most definitely a member of our species, and our now-not-as-new, adorable but challenging miniature poodle (to be discussed more in some later post), but the outside world, not so much. The driving thing, yes, dealing with it, and happily I now know that my husband, at least, is a great driver, the first step towards our getting a car.

 Today, however, was a spouses-and-partners meet-and-greet, which I'd worried might be my first step into full descent into 1950s-dom, or some kind of intimidating association of the women behind the Great Men, but which was low-key and reassuring in many ways - some of the partners are men, and all that I met, at least, male and female alike, have impressive careers in their own right. Some even have spouses/friends who work on French Jewish this-or-that. One is a grad school classmate of one of my favorite commenters here, Britta - although as this came up, I had to explain that I don't know someone in this woman's department in real life but via first name and blog, which as I was saying it struck me as a good way to come across as odd, unless blogs are so assumed at this point in academia that it would not.

 Most everyone had precisely the same concerns as I did - where does one get groceries without a car, and how does one remain sane when writing a dissertation in the woods? (The answers are take a shuttle/get a car and by meeting others in the same situation, respectively.) A couple of them even like poodles! Key, because Bisou needs some socialization so she doesn't grow up into a yippy lap dog. A sweet lap dog getting adequate exercise is just fine. And now I know both how things work a bit better around here, and even found someone with a bike pump! I can go somewhere further away than the laundry room! Although that's actually kind of far, and a bike will come in handy.

 And, biking is a good baby-step towards driving. After navigating in traffic just now, for the first time since who even knows (thus the completely flat tires, thus my continuous sense of doom the entire way), I find the concept of being a non-pedestrian somewhat less daunting. My first attempt here was a quick loop on a near-carless street, reminding me very much of Edina Monsoon's one attempt at jogging in the episode "Fat" - I was plenty winded after that ride, even though it was, as Saffy would point out, to the "end of the road and back." This told me that "like riding a bike" is a cliché for a reason. I still had the mechanics of it down, but navigation? With cars? The very idea of a left turn in rush hour reminds me too much of those Chinatown driving lessons, so even though heavy traffic here is not much of anything, eep, eep, and eep some more. But I appear to have made it back intact, and now have new lights and a kickstand and everything.

The town of Princeton itself, Nassau Street at least, seems chock full of Life's Winners - at the post office, I overheard a conversation between two men - grad students? postdocs? - about only applying for academic jobs at (insert elite universities in pleasant locations here). And I was completely sure it would work out for them. All the undergrads and vaguely undergrad-aged sorts seem like they're both super-intelligent and on some kind of athletic scholarship. Everyone exudes confidence and looks like they wouldn't have such trouble lifting a bike, a miniature poodle.