Academical Nerd

A diary entry from the 14th of March, 2021. - Look, it's so pretty! - It was, indeed, pretty. Blue domes of some church contrasted with gray clouds and rare snowflakes. I tried to hold my head still to not disturb punctures on the skin. The pain wasn't unbearable, of course, but annoying and unpleasant. It's all good as long as it helps. We went past the church and hid in the subway. I always spend a lot of time here, on long escalators and in numerous carriages taking me around the city. And whenever I have someone to hug while standing on the escalator I am happy; urban lifestyle at it's finest. We hurtled down on moving stairs and crammed ourselves into a carriage. Old stations are gorgeous: there are stained glass paintings and wall carvings all over the place, sometimes there are statues. In every station you see a plate with names of architects who built the place and dates when it was built. I usually don't stop by to admire the beauty, but I know it's th...

A diary entry from 2021-03-10. This day started with symptoms of caffeine abstinence. Less torturous than the last time I tried doing this, but it still took me a while to crawl into my chair, hugging a cup of boiling hot black tea. It's dark, slightly bitter and at least warms me better than water. The work seemed harder than usual: I barely did anything at all. Soon it was time to get going. I gasped as the door opened and cold air rushed into my lungs. Twenty degrees below zero, centigrade. All the slush froze, forming awkward uneven khaki-colored lumps that are hard to walk on. An hour and half a dozen subway stops later I arrived to my hairdresser. Bold, skinny guy in his fifties, very good at his work and exceptionally picky with office placement: the most expensive and luxurious areas there are in Moscow. He greeted me with a handshake and waved at a chair.  - Any preferences? - He asked, smiling. - No, not really. Make me pretty, - I smiled back; I always do.  The next...

A diary entry from 2021-02-28. A perfect crystal is an infinite periodic structure that consists of atoms. Or at least that's what the textbook I spent a morning with told me. Neither a charming shine of a sapphire nor a flawless rose-cut diamond, only infinities of geometrical structures and ways to describe their properties. Imageni a mab who has spent his life working in this field: can he tell more about a sapphire shining in his wife's anniversary ring or it's trigonal crystal system? I hope to always choose the former.  It was surprisingly warm outside: a delicate March was floating in the wind. The snow was melting, revealing wastages of pets and their owners alike. This year usual shoals of stubs swimming in puddles weere ajoined by face masks, largely dwelling near subway stations and in parks and alleys. We met near the subway exit, hugged - snowflakes on her hat stung me with remainders of winter cold - and went for a long walk, jumping over puddles and slush. Hu...