a quality day

so yeah, it was a good one.

re: the last entry, scott's a gimp because he backed out last minute on our trip to the gardens... otherwise everything was as planned or better.

we left campus around 1pm, and it took 2.5 hours to drive to these gardens (30-45 minutes west of philly), so we got there finally around 3:30... we did a lot of walking right off... meadow walk, forest walk, italian water gardens, etc... waterfall gardens and a bell tower... a kids garden, a sensory garden (plants you can touch, smell, etc.)... and then around 6 the carillon show started... in the waterfall garden there was a huge belltower, and someone gave a concert at 6... we meandered back over there by 6:15 and sat in the hill garden and listened for a bit -- it was really nice

about then, we decided we should get some dinner before the rest of the evening... so we did... then at 7:30 we got tickets for the chester county symphony playing in the outdoor theater... they played "from the movies", so like part of the nutcracker, a song from fantasia, a bit from carmen, a few others, and finally ended on the theme from star wars -- it was fantastic!... other than the part where the older man in front of me moved his chair, and landed with one leg of the chair right on my foot and sat again before i could stop him... i was wincing in pain for most of the next to last piece... but to make up for it i caught a lightning bug in my hands during the star wars theme (the last song) and was thrilled no end :-)

as soon as that concert was done, we raced over to see the fountain display -- tons of fountains lit up and set to music (kinda like a combination of the lights show at niagara falls at night or the show at the centennial park olympic fountain in atlanta, only fancier in the "we're in a really nice garden" kind of way)... most of the music they did it to was gershwin, and i looooove gershwin, so absolutely fantastic!

finally, we wandered through the indoor conservatory, and ben and i stopped for awhile in the courtyard (since it blocked out lights from around) and spotted tons of constellations -- it was great!!!

in the end, we left 5 minutes before the gardens closed, drove the 2.5 hours back home, and now here 1am, i'm back... what a day :-)

the drive home was especially entertaining because like... dude, how often is it that you're out with math people where the guys are outnumbered by the girls... it was only a group of 3 of us, but it was exceedingly abnormal and amusing dynamics... we spent the drive home with ben asking questions like "so why on earth do most girls... (fill in blank)?" and other such fun, which made for lots of amusement the whole way back

yeah, basically, it was a quality day.

now to worry about my talk tomorrow :-P

later dudes.