Back in the USSR?

Back in Boston for the summer. I'm excited for the summer, but I'm also a little sad to leave DC. It really grew on me there at the end. I've grown accustomed to it in some ways and developed some good routines. It also didn't hurt that I was done with school for a few days. Nothing like removing all the pressure to make you appreciate something. If you were watching Rocky IV while getting kicked in the testicles constantly and then the testicle kicks were removed, you would even learn to like Rocky IV. Now I'm not saying DC is anywhere as bad as that movie, but it helps to be done with the year of school. Of course there's also the psychoanalytic part which says I am prohibiting myself from being happy where I am. Uh oh. Time to get a better paid psychoanalyst. But there are certain joys to being in Boston. Dirty water (literally, last week). Red Sox (don't get me started). Friends, cats, cars, no constant sound of sirens outside my window.

Of course most of my friends have...you know...things to do. Like school stuff or work. I, on the other hand, do not. And it's really freaking weird. I have nothing I really need to do right now. I got a haircut, I needed to do that. But I can't go back tomorrow and do it again. Particularly after the abuse that was finals and the constant grind of school, I feel quite unproductive. I need a project. Maybe I'll write a book report on "The Giver." Or make a diorama of "General Sherman Burning Atlanta and Torturing Innocents during the War of Northern Aggression." (Maybe I've been below the Mason-Dixon line too long.)
In an effort to begin a routine (also, I can't buy toothpaste at CVS everyday, that would end poorly) I biked to the gym and back today, while stopping to work out a little. Google Maps tells me it is 6 miles each way. Sounds intense? It wasn't too bad actually, though I never thought I would actually make it the entire way. I brought my cell phone in case I had to call a cab. Or someone needed to call my house to make funeral arrangements because I had either been hit by a car or I collapsed due to strain. Well, now my butt hurts from the bike seat (yes, there are easy jokes to make...but let's move beyond them) and it hurts my legs to walk down stairs. I'd call that a success for the day. I'm going to try to keep this up. If my knee doesn't explode this summer I will be surprised.

Jonah just reminded me: the Nationals are doing well! Who would have seen that coming? I may well look back on this in September and laugh and laugh.

I am trying to understand this Goldman-Sachs thing. And one major question I have: What is a derivative?? Everyone talks and writes about them, but no one cares to explain. We weren't all econ majors and business school grades. It's not helpful to tell me they are a financial instrument. A trombone for sale is a financial instrument. What exactly is a derivative? Will some reporter or someone please summarize what is going on in terms that a person who is not in finance can understand?