adventures in Connecticut

Well, it’s halftime.  SU is playing Wake Forest, and it is one ugly game.  I mean, fouls are absolutely rampant and part of that is the refs not letting them play, but part is just that it’s getting physical.  Probably because everyone is totally missing shots and it makes everyone feel frustrated.

I’ve had hiccups like four times today.  I’m thinking of it now because I have hiccups now and it’s very irritating.  I will try to blog through the annoyance.

So anyway, besides the basketball that is sort of on right now, today was a pretty good day.

We did indeed drive to UConn to see Andy speak.  At the time of departure, only Kate, Denise, and I wanted to go.  We thought it was an interesting development, but it’s very easy to fit three comfortably in a car, so no one pushed the issue.

After group meeting, we headed out and hopped into Kate’s car, which we drove to my parking lot and picked up my car.  Kate’s car is old and has about 300,000 miles on it, and it’s on its last legs.  The check engine light is on, and it has some worrying idiosyncrasies, so I told her I’d drive when she told me that she was worried about taking her car on long drives and would I maybe consider taking us?

We left my parking lot around 3:15 pm and Andy was scheduled to speak at 4:30.  The drive to UConn was about an hour, and the day was sunny enough that I pulled my sunglasses from the compartment on the car ceiling.  We played pop songs on the radio and the day was dry, if cold.  Traffic moved smoothly.

The highways were crowded, but efficient, and we sailed along, warm air on our feet.  We sang to the songs we knew, but we sang in that way that seems sort of calm and also bares some self-consciousness, where we sing quietly and the only way you can tell that the people sharing your space are singing is that the consonant sounds don’t match up exactly.  They sound a little staggered, a little separate from the movie.

Denise paid my parking in the garage (a whopping $2 for two hours… seriously, Yale should do something like that somewhere), and we headed off down the sidewalk toward the chemistry building.  We knew it was the chemistry building because it said CHEMISTRY on it.  It had a really nice café basically at the entrance, and we remarked that we would like to have one of those.

It was easy to find the auditorium, and we sat ourselves toward the back.  Andy was introduced, and then he began his talk.  During his introduction, he caught sight of us and he just couldn’t help himself.  “And I see some of my co-workers back there – it’s nice that they came to see me.”

He gave his talk, and it was interesting to see how our science fit together in his eyes, because in our little-picture windows we often only see ourselves as disjointed entities, operating mainly by running around in circles and flailing our arms.  When he finished his talk and his acknowledgments, he gave us another call-out: “And to my co-workers back there, you’re also brave people – thanks for coming, it’s always nice to have you in the audience.”

We left when the talk was over, feeling awkward about trying to touch base with him, and as we drove back to New Haven, Kate got a text from Andy, indicating that he didn’t feel great about the way the talk had gone and he was thirsty and also getting sick.  This was kind of cute and also it was funny that he sent a text to Kate.

Dropped Denise off and then went for sushi with Kate.  All-in-all, a good night.

Addendum: SU won, so an even better night.  Also, my back feels much better.