Today I worked on campus, then the shuttle back to the lot where my car was parked was really late so Travalon picked me up in order to get to the East Side Club on time for their Social. It was an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, which was the last thing I needed after having pasta yesterday, but it was not very expensive. We ran into some really bad traffic downtown because we forgot about the Madison Night Market, but we did manage to get to the East Side Club just in time. We paid, got in line, and loaded up our plates with pasta.... and then a guy got up and announced that you could see the comet from the park next door. Several of us left our plates of pasta to go see the comet, because while pasta is wonderful, a comet is really far more exciting. We saw some contrails that my companions kept thinking were the comet, and a little girl who'd been playing in the park said she saw something, but I couldn't see it. We all went back in to our pasta, which somehow was still warm, and after we'd eaten and chatted a bit, I popped outside again, thinking maybe I could see the comet better in the dark. The club director was out there smoking, and she led me to the spot where you could see the comet and said, "Right above that big tree. See it?" I did not see it, but I tried taking a photo... and my camera saw it!
The club director showed me a really great sunset photo she had taken the night of the spectacular Northern Lights, and she mentioned that when she was a cruise ship director she had seen lots of cool things up in the night sky at sea. I asked her if she had ever seen a (fata morgana) only describing it, not using the term, and she said she had seen one in Norway and it was intensely awesome. I have always wanted to see one! It's an optical illusion that makes things that are far away look like they are floating in the sky right over the horizon, like sometimes people in Michigan can see the skyline of Chicago that is really sixty miles away, but they see it hovering just over the horizon. A fata morgana can only happen over a vast body of water (Lake Mendota doesn't count), so that's why I wondered if someone working on a ship would be more likely to see one. Apparently yes!
When I went back in and talked to our dinner companions, who had been unknown to us before this, we all began comparing stories about the Northern Lights and other cool things we'd seen. Travalon saw amazing Northern Lights the summer he worked at Glacier National Park, as you can well imagine. Once the other ladies at our table left, we did too, and I took another photo of the comet.
At that point I thought I could see a slight fuzz in the sky with my bare eyes, so we tried looking through the binoculars, but that was no help whatsoever. However, in the other direction there was a glorious full moon, and looking through the binoculars at that was well worth it! We could see lots of craters.
My quest for a good headshot remains elusive. I took some selfies last night that were marginally better, and then today I asked another coworker, and those photos were just as bad. I'd say that I am terribly unphotogenic, but sometimes Travalon can take good photos of me. Maybe I should get him to take a headshot of me. It doesn't help that I desperately need a haircut.
Famous Hat
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