Check out my Boston MenuPages interview in which I dish about the best Harvard Square eats and my favorite Boston-area restaurants, including Peach Farm (for mother-approved Cantonese), Temple Bar (my recommended date spot), Blue Fin (my favorite sushi), Berry Line (my daily sugar fix), and more.

Also, if you’re in need of hot, original tees, the $10 Threadless holiday sale is still going on and smaller sizes are beginning to sell out, so grab your desired design via my link. Mine are arriving this week and I’m psyched!

The Cocktail Party on a Tuesday Night Outfit

At Tara and Tiff’s after a cocktail party, originally uploaded by lenachen.

Home from a cocktail party, originally uploaded by lenachen.

Rebecca Taylor Tea Dress in Black
Naturalizer Sequin Net Pumps in Gold
Casual Corner Blazer in White
Kate Spade Wellesley Quinn Shopper in Brown

“In Retrospect” will be a semi-regular series of previously written, unpublished blog musings. I’m starting with this one from a year ago today, which discusses what is probably still my favorite article written about the website:

“I was sitting in my dorm room on Saturday night when all logic, reason, and prior history suggested that I should have been flying out the door in a miniskirt and stilettos. I instead spent the night reading an article in The Yale Herald about the Ivy League blog trend. I was one of the subjects, and I am still trying to process the words used to describe my blog. For the first time since I started this website, I feel like an outsider gets it.

Cally writes:

No college experience is diametrically opposed to any other in its difficulty, isolation, community, laziness, or degree of personal fulfillment. After all, contrary to the sensationalist mantras on the seat of so many sweatpants across the Northeast, the opposite of Yale is not Harvard. Students at elite academic institutions are not only products of their rarified environments; in other words, Princetonian ‘masters of the universe,’ like college students everywhere, bring to New Jersey cultural, social, and economic baggage that four years of even the swankiest dorm-living cannot completely unpack…

She understands in a way that I don’t think most people do. It is almost uncanny how spot-on she is in her interpretation of my position (read the rest of the article). I can’t speak for IvyGate or IvyLeak, for whom self-deprecation and snark is the point. The former say, ‘The last thing people want to read is a sincere blog about the Ivy League.’ But for me at least, if there’s anything I want to accomplish with this blog, it’s sincerity. This was never about self-promotion, never about being outrageous for its own sake.”

– October 18, 2006

Lately, I’ve done so much work on this website and so very little work on academics! Some blurb updates follow (the picture, by the way, is of me and my blockmate Sue getting ready to go out):

* Readers can now subscribe via email to be notified when new entries are posted. If you’re already a registered users, you’re automatically subscribed. Not interested? Opt out through the subscription page under “About”.

* The Daily Pennsylvanian sums it up well: “She uses [her blog] to chronicle her sexual encounters, mental-health issues and drug use.” In other words, I am a bipolar coke whore. A literary one, but still.

* I’m going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. Already have the green dress and wings, so all that’s left is a wand! I hope I can pull her off with my black hair or else I might just look like a random fairy. Not going blond though, lest I appear as if I’m channeling a Ganguro chick.

* Still have no idea what you want to be for Halloween? Check out the selection at Pierre Silber which has fully embraced the “slap on a hat, put on a short dress, and call it a costume” concept. Last year, I was a Mile High Captain. If you buy something through my link (or any of the ads on this page), your questionable Halloween outfit will also sponsor my tuition.

* If you’ve ever wondered what might happen if PostSecret and Lolcats had a love child, then my friend Ryan has got the answer. His project Lolsecretz is a hilarious and spot-on satire of the two memes. Check it out for kittens and scandal.

* Had an interesting dining hall concoction for lunch today and I feel inclined to share with the Harvard readers. Recipe: Assemble a sandwich with cinnamon raisin bread, pepper jack cheese, chicken strips, tomato slices, and barbecue sauce. Toast in the panini grill until cheese is melted. Bon appetit!

* Apparently, the Pennypacker freshmen are doing the dirty dirty.

* “Savage Love” columnist Dan Savage is coming to Boston College this Thursday. The event is sponsored by BC’s GLTBQ Leadership Council and all the details are online. A longtime reader myself, I might just trek it out there to catch the guy speak.

* Added a Contact page with all my various contact info and social network affiliations. Just joined Twitter, by the way, and my status updates will appear on my sidebar. A FAQ will be coming soon for answers to important questions like “When did you lose your virginity?” Just kidding — it’ll be an endless gallery of shoes. Or a link-swap policy. Whichev.

By the way, Sex and the Ivy is now running on Wordpress 2.3. Yes, I upgraded all on my own. If you recently found the site down in the middle of the night, that’s probably because I was in the middle of a serious tech boo-boo. Been staying up over the past week (often in a sustained state of panic) to do web-related fixes in order to minimize downtime in the day. Can someone please give me an award for “Blogger Most Likely To Crash Her Own Website Who Miraculously Hasn’t”?

The lack of blogging can be attributed to year-end madness. Harvard is smack in the middle of Reading Period, a ten-day period in which we cram, write, and study our hearts out … that is, if we’re conscientious students. Unfortunately, Reading Period is also House Formal Season and I’ve been hitting up a different formal nearly every night. Not the best way to wake up refreshed and ready to work. Definitely not the best way to get over writer’s block. Anyhow, here are quick updates in lieu of a proper entry:

* For the locals out there, pick up a copy of this weekend’s paper. My piece, “Meet the Roommates”, is running in the Coupling column on the back page of The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine.

* Summer plans are being hammered out. Looks like I’ll be in New York from June 1st until August 15th. Then I’m home for a few days before departing for a two-week trip through China (Beijing, Shanghai, & Hong Kong). Quite excited!

* Haven’t done any interviews for the past few weeks but there’s a blurb about me in the Spring issue of 02138 Magazine. Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to view it online, but I read the thing in the newsstand.

* Keep your eyes out for next week’s issue of New York Magazine. There should be a letter to the editor from yours truly. Commenting on what? The Sex & Love issue, of course.

* Speaking of, expect published sex diaries from my dear friends in the next couple days. I am in the process of compiling the titillating collection.

* Recently purchased the domain name LenaChen.com, which now redirects to this website. This is obviously the next step in my conquest of the worldwide web.

* Crashed the Eliot Fete last night and crashed Lowell Bacchanalia tonight. Had a fabulous time at both Houses but the best part was sneaking in. While at the former, I re-met this charming chick duo who are fans of the blog. Facebook me, girls!

If you’re a SIRIUS radio subscriber, then give me a listen on Playboy Radio this Wednesday at 3pm EST. I’m going to be a guest on the Afternoon Advice show with Tiffany Granath. Unlike my previous radio gigs, this one will be on satellite which means anything goes. Thank goodness I don’t have to self-censor. At the rate I’m going, I’m definitely going to land myself on the FCC’s Most Wanted List!

I already get the feeling that this will be one of my more memorable interviews. In addition to discussing all the vitals of Sex and the Ivy, I’m also going to be giving advice to callers. If you’re a fan interested in asking a question or a friend who wants to embarass me, call the show hotline at 877.205.9796 when I’m on.

The Details:

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
SIRIUS Channel 198
Afternoon Advice Show
3pm EST (12pm PST for those on the West Coast)