This morning, I got tired of being sick and scheduled an appointment with the Student Health Services. The moment I arrived at the clinic, I felt suddenly better. The placebo effect most certainly. The doctor told me that I didn\’t have a bacterial infection as I had suspected but just a bad virus that was going around campus. She gave me a bag of medications, which surprised me because I never got such bags during appointments. In it, she had given me a bottle of cough syrup, several tablets of ibprofren, bottle of generic sudafed, and a small handful of cough drops. She led me to the front counter…where my entire appointment was only $16. Only sixteen dollars?! And this was before any insurance stuff came into play. I wonder though if my tuition came into supporting the health services and lowered the cost of such fees.

So CHI (a conference for human computer interaction community) is coming up. It\’s taking place in Portland, Oregon. CMU usually sends all the masters students to CHI, paid for of course. I am wondering if I go…whether I should stop by the bay area (to see people and to see my parents) before heading up to Oregon or whether to go straight to Oregon from Pittsburgh. To me, is it really worth it to stop by the bay area…it would be about $91 more than if I flew to portland directly.

During winter break, I found that I really enjoyed being in my room in Lafayette. It\’s much bigger than the room I have in Pittsburgh. And it just had that feeling of comfort. Namely, my bed in Lafayette \”sinks\” unlike the firm-type mattress I have here. Plus, I have a full-length mirrors on my closet doors. Not a great place to do work though.