Sweetie -- You LOVE This Place

So yesterday brought absurdly beautiful weather -- mid 70s, lovely breeze blowing. Wifey and I enjoy going to the Beaux Arts Festival at UM -- we try to visit each year -- and she suggested maybe we take it in followed by the weekly visit to my ancient suegra.

I drove over to campus, and admitted I was a bit lost. I knew the place intimately, but they've put up new parking lots near where my old apartment was. I finally figured one out -- next to what used to be the Health Center, and we found a space.

The construction there is heavy. They're building a new state of the art housing complex on the lake. Apparently no one uses "dorms" anymore. It makes sense -- it now costs nearly $70K per year to attend UM, and that demographic isn't accepting the cell-like rooms of my generation. The new complex is all single rooms, with yoga studios, and meeting areas and gardens to grow your own organic food...

We walked to the festival. The sun beamed. The grass was very green. I smiled. Wifey noted how much I truly love being there -- she was right. There was a line of folks waiting to take a picture by the metal "U" sculpture. They were classy...

No festival is complete without festival food, and I found an arepa -- joking that we needed to honor our future son in law Jonathan's Venezuelan heritage. Then we went to the Greek stand, and got some delicious chicken pitas.

I led Wifey to the law school quadrangle, where we sat in the shade and ate. The area used to be called "the slab," since it was just a slab of chatahoochee pavement, but now it has a fountain and landscaping. I never enjoyed the academics of law school, but socially it was great. I toasted the ghosts of Mike, Jeff, and Norman's younger selves...

Then came the art. We ran into some people we know. We caught up. We were invited into the UM Ceramics booth -- they were selling the creations of the students. I struck up a conversation with a professor -- nice older lady. I asked if the mugs could indeed be used for drinking. She said they could. So I bought a green one.

Wifey and I are on a strict no clutter rule, which Wifey routinely violates. But the thought is we already have so much crap, we aren't buying any more. But an exception is coffee mugs. And I added to our collection.

We strolled around, and then headed to the car. We bought some Girl Scout cookies for the suegra. She still loves sweets. I remembered buying a box of them in college, and coming back to my apartment and eating the whole box, with a tall glass of whole milk. Those days are long gone...

I drove us to the Palace, and secured my spot in the gazebo. Wifey wheeled Rachel out. She was talkative -- as usual -- but particularly repetitive -- she asked when D2 was getting married no fewer than 10 times. Wifey laid down on the bench, and fell asleep. Rachel found this highly insulting. I found it highly hilarious, and snapped a photo to send to the Ds. Wifey struggled to stay awake, but it was tough -- it was absolutely gorgeous weather, and her mother's droning on acted like a sleeping pill.

I let my suegra talk at me for about half an hour -- smiling and nodding. Occasionally I would write out a response on the phone and show her. After an hour, Wifey wheeled her back to the lobby -- dinner was coming soon.

Today we have plans to see Barry and his family -- brunch in the Grove. Scott is headed back to Maryland for his final college semester. As Willie sang -- ain't it funny how time slips away...

I remember the farewell breakfast at LOL. Four years in the past?  Amazing.

I hope Scott gets similar feelings when he strolls around College Park. If you're lucky, college is really a sacred place in time.

I never tire of going back there.