A busy weekend

I woke up at 4:45 am on Saturday to take the 6:20 Amtrak back to Newport. The Amtrak normally fills up at New York, but I discovered that if you fake sleep across both chairs, no one bothers you. Once the train leaves the station, I miraculously wake up, and have an extra chair on which to spread out my legs. Everyone else on the train is stuck with a stranger.

That night, I attended a reception for Barry Hinckley, who is running against Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for the 2012 seat (http://www.hinckleyforsenate.com/). Never before have I been in a room with so many conservative Rhode Islanders. The reception was fun, because it was essentially a cocktail 3hr with plenty of hors d'oeuvre's, and it gave me an opportunity to schmooze with like minded individuals. Interestingly, Barry and I know each other from playing squash, and our relationship began when I found out he attended Deerfield, Choate's rival.

The next day, my family and I drove to Hartford to attend a graduation luncheon in honor of Shu Saha, a classmate of mine at Choate. It was great to see some of my friends post-graduation and also to gorge myself on excessive quantities of Indian food.

I took Amtrak back that night. I should add that it's profoundly annoying when fellow passenger near you have an inane conversation. I kid you not ... for 2 hours, these two ladies were talking about trivial matters too loudly and periodically calling friends and using speaker phone. I just wanted to scream "SHUT UP!" but I guess it's important to be polite ...