Not to sound paranoid or anything, but I’m convinced by this point that the Devil himself has a hand in the events that have occured to me of late. Just as I was recovering from last week’s stomach flu, the pestilence migrated up to my respiratory tract to deluge me with heavy congestion and a sore throat. To make matters worse, even while my laptop is still sitting in the repair shop, my TV suddenly died last night in the middle of a show. Cut off from my portable and multimedia computers, I figured that at least my trusty desktop workhorse was still in operation. But only hours after I commented on this, in one of those classic “spoke too soon” moments, my internet connection went dead as well. I was cautious leaving my apartment this morning, feeling as if someone is slowly trying to cut me off from the world, at least electronically. Until I can pinpoint the nature of such sinister intent, I’ll have to be extra careful with every step I take.

As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already, my luck took a turn for the worse last weekend, precipitating a series of events that I’m only beginning to recover from. It all began right before my trip to New York for my talk, when my laptop decided to die for the second time in 2 weeks. After bringing it back to the bozos who claimed to have fixed it last week, I flew down hoping to spend some relaxing time with my folks back home. Upon arriving, we headed out for lunch, but just when I sat down at the table, I realized my wallet was MISSING! I knew I had it in the car, so it was only a matter of minutes between leaving the car with the valet and walking into the restaurant that I lost it. I spent the afternoon canceling all my credit/ATM cards, and even filed a police report. Incidentally, this happened to be my first experience inside a police station, and it was nothing I’ve ever imagined. Looking around, I saw officers sitting at old wooden desks like those from a public high school. On one side were stashes of various paper forms and a typewriter (no, not a computer keyboard … a MANUAL typewriter). And on the other side, a lady was staring at a MONOCHROME computer monitor! Not exactly like the stuff on CSI. Fortunately, the talk itself went well, and I got to rub elbows with some Neuro bigwigs. Without any IDs and with a fraud alert all over my accounts, it almost feels like I’m the fugitive. I even missed my return flight amidst all the drama, and had to resort to the Chinatown death-mobile to come back home, just in time to pick up a nasty stomach flu. I guess if there’s a silver lining, it’s that I survived such a whirlwind of a week. Let’s hope that I’ve depleted all my bad karma for a long time to come.

With all the writing I’ve been doing at home, we were hoping that Winter Restaurant Week in Boston would give us a chance to take our taste buds out for a treat. But as with every other Restaurant Weeks, this one was a mix of hits and misses. Our first stop was at the highly-coveted Icarus, where highlights included a rich cauliflower soup with braised short rib, and a sea scallops appetizer with chanterelles, bacon, & potato. The second place we tried was Julien at the Langham Hotel, where the classy antique dining room setting was complemented by a mesmerizing Maine shrimp and lobster bisque. Our last stop at Ariadne, unfortunately, turned out to be a disaster. Not only did the waitress misinform us that their Restaurant Week menu was unavailable, but the food and service turned out to be overpriced and as Simon Cowell would say in his snooty accent, utterly forgettable. Otherwise, the week’s been pretty busy, but ended with a high note with a night out with Melody’s co-workers at 33 Saturday night, and a free screening of the comic thriller Lucky Number Slevin on Sunday. Now all I have to do is finish writing my review article, work on my NYAS talk, compose 6 more chapters of questions for Kaplan, and grade 120 Pharmacology exams.