The Demisemiseptcentennial

 

Yesterday was such a good day. The grad student who plays in the protest band came in to defend her thesis, and look how she did!

These speech bubbles were painted by grad students last summer, and we were supposed to write things in them, like where we would visit that summer. I put Peoria and Goofy Ridge. When we had our cleaning day some weeks ago, my coworker tried to clean these speech bubbles, but the only one she got clean was the one with terrible puns my easygoing coworker and I had written. Bummer! My visit to Goofy Ridge is eternally enshrined on the wall.

It was raining, so I walked on the third floor under the overhang, just like a few Wednesdays ago when I had that mystical experience, but I just saw this... French dog?

I heard some emergency vehicles, and they pulled up in front of the Killer Building, and the cops, firemen, and EMTs went inside. I never heard anything more about it.

There was a big party on the Union Terrace for the Demisemiseptcentennial, or 175th birthday of the University. My colleague asked if I wanted to go, then Hardingfele asked if I wanted to go, and my colleague said sure, she could come. We went to the ice cream truck, and the Chancellor handed us free ice cream, then we sat on the Union Terrace, and Hardingfele and my colleague were instant friends. They knew people in common and have kids the same age. They headed back to their offices together while I went to meet the Chair of the Central Committee (I'm the Vice-Chair). As I waited for him, I saw our department's newest Ph.D. partying with some faculty, and the Vice President of the Union (I'm the Secretary), and a guy from two jobs ago who went to our wedding but I haven't seen much since. I saw him last year at the free ice cream day, and he said he was moving back to France. When I saw him yesterday, he confirmed that he had, in fact, moved back to France, but they were in town to visit his mother-in-law, so he was meeting former coworkers at the Union. I kind of felt like, if I stood there long enough, I'd see everyone I'd ever known!

The Chair and I went to the exclusive, swanky soiree in the Great Hall of the Union. People kept bringing around delicious hors d'oeuvres like smoked salmon tarts and warm peach tarts, and the free signature cocktail was basically a fancy cranberry juice with vodka. We mingled a bit, then there was a presentation with the President of the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Chancellor. Another woman joined us, and the three of us were having a lively discussion about ageism on campus when Travalon arrived. He and I went down to the Terrace and caught a bit of the Fifth Quarter with the band playing, then we found a table and had pizza and refreshments; Travalon accidentally got a one-person pizza instead of the big one we'd gotten last week, but I was pretty full of hors d'oeuvres and didn't eat that much. There was also free popcorn. Wednesday is always Open Mic Night down at the Terrace in the summers, and some of the singers were really good! Some... not so much. The US women's soccer team was playing the Netherlands, and the game was on in the Rathskeller, so every time I had to powder my nose, I checked out the game. Tons of people were watching, which I like to see. The fireworks for the party were supposed to start at 9:30, so at 9:15 I went in to use the bathroom, and as I was heading back out, I saw the soccer team score a goal to tie the game up! But the fireworks had already started! So was my timing good or bad?? I did see most of the fireworks show, and it was very cool. Here are a couple of pictures of the parties. First, the balloon 175 at the swanky soiree.

They projected 175 onto the Union at the Terrace.

By the time we got home, it was too late to blog. Then I thought about how, even though God is infinitely greater than I am, we are co-conspirators in Operation Illumination, and I pictured us like two little children giggling as we put a May Day basket on a neighbor's front porch. Is this a weird way to picture God? It just seemed so delightful. He may be incomprehensibly great, but He stoops down to love us.

Today I was looking forward to a quiet day, but I had to take a check across campus in this hot weather. I tried to walk at a relaxed pace, and I caught the free campus bus on part of the trip both ways, but maybe the heat did get to me. I started to feel worse and worse as the day wore on. By the time we got home, I was freezing despite the excessively hot weather, and sure enough, I had a temperature over 100. After Night Prayer I suddenly threw off my blanket and felt better, and sure enough, my fever had gone down. Did my fellow Night Prayer attendees' prayers work that quickly?? I'm relieved, because I really didn't want to go to the emergency room tonight, but earlier it seemed pretty grim. Maybe I did just get overheated or dehydrated on that walk. I also visited Hardingfele to see how she uses a new program I am learning, which is different than how we plan to use it, but might also be valuable for us. Learning this program is honestly a lot more interesting than my regular work. I love to make pretty graphs to show what faculty funds look like.

Famous Hat