Thirteen years ago, I went to my third, and final year, of what's best described as "nerd camp" — a three-week summer program run under the auspices of The Johns Hopkins University's CTY (Center for Talented Youth Program).

It was at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and the class was on etymology:

etymology
et·y·mol·o·gy
n. pl. et·y·mol·o·gies
1. The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.
2. The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.

Well, when I send out my change-of-address info to my email address book, it turned out that Julie (and Debbie) both live in Northern Va.

Last night, I got together with my friends Julie (whom I'd last seen during my senior year of college, and is one of the best people ever) and Debbie (whom I hadn't seen in ages) at a restaraunt owned by Debbie's family, A & J Restaurant in Annandale, Va. (there's also one in Rockville, Md.).

Here we are (l to r: Julie, me, Debbie), after enjoying some seriously delicious real Chinese food (i.e. not General Tso's chicken and Chow Mein):

Julie's a doctor, I'm a software programmer, Debbie's an attorney. CTY would be proud.

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.