Dandelion Day

First, let me say: Dandelion Day today was the lamest festivity I have ever observed.

Dandelion Day, more popularly known simply as "D-Day," or sometimes as "Drinking Day," is the big spring blowout party at U of R, before everyone buckles down for dead week.

I'm sure that the light rain didn't help, but it was a sad, sad scene. A mediocrely sized, apparently unused ferris wheel in the mist. An unattended "beer garden" in a dining hall where you could get a cup of Coors for $2 from an Aramark employee, while three U of R security people breathed down your neck. A karaoke event far sadder than I've witnessed on multiple Baltic ferry crossings; this one attended only by D-Day staff members.

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It was a good day, though, the sad scene on the River Campus not withstanding. I took a group of seven people out to see the grounds of the new co-op--popularly referred to presently as "The Compound"--and it was all very exciting. I met a guy Mike who I hadn't met before, and Bekka came along too. I was particularly interested to meet Jon, known as FarMcKon on the Wiki and proprietor of the http://industrialsomething.org blog.

I don't remember mentioning this, but, standing in the round tower, Bekka asked, "is this where the cuddle pile will go?"

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I think I'm going to Berkeley in about two weeks, it's really thrilling. David K mentioned that he's in Sonoma right now, and every time someone mentions something like that about California (that's right, being there), it's like 10,000 volts. I don't have any plane tickets yet, but I think I'm flying itno SFO, visiting friends in The City before heading into Berkeley, where it's going to be a bee-line for Oscar Wilde House, doubtlessly enjoying all kinds of yumminess en route and upon arrival. Hmm—I should probably make my poster for that conference. Then OAK to SNA--

A year or two—they go by!—ago, Jamie wrote to me about the adventures we'd have when she returned from South America, how we'd choose our destination based on which bus was leaving next, and everything would be ever so spontaneous and bohemian—it was really very sweet. I was really hoping she'd be able to join us for this Mexico trip, but it seems she'll not be free from school yet.

Oh, and I still have to learn Statmech!

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Next summer I am going to quit U of R and go back to Scripps. I am going to work on the R/V Revelle and sail from place to place! After that, I am going to go work in Amsterdam, or, better yet, some other town in Holland—probably Utrecht, I hear it's nice—and eventually retire somewhere in the french countryside, where I will have a rocket ship and secret underground laboratory.