keladry_lupin | Yeshterday (Reply)

The alarm woke me at 7:00 a.m., after about 5 hours sleep. (Okay, that part wasn't very good.) Trudged into the living room and kitchen and started to clean. After a week of doing little but hitting the books when I wasn't at work, my flat has been terribly neglected: junk mail piled everywhere, dirty dishes, library books gathering dust while waiting to be returned, everything else gathering dust, too. At 10:00, my father picked me up for play practice, and I piled everything I'd need for the day into his car, trying to tie my shoes as I went along. (Not a good idea.)

Play practice went well. It's going to be fun, though we aren't as polished as I would like, but performances are next weekend whether we're ready or not. Skivved off the last half hour go to a book signing. Earlene Fowler is one of my mother's favorite authors, and she was in town yesterday. So I bought a copy of her latest book and asked her to sign it for Mom. Then the Dad and I went out to Riverside, about an hour's drive away from where I live, to spend the afternoon with the brotherman and his brood. Celebrating Mother's Day and brother Jimbo's birthday.

It's hard to remember what we all did, really, except that in my family, we just enjoy spending time with each other. I taught Dad how to play SuDoku, did some math homework, ran around in back with the dog, ate dinner, and managed to ditch KP by taking the girls out for a walk. (That last part is always a bonus, when I can pull it off.)

At 5:00 I called Professor Cutie-Pie and got his voicemail -- the observing session was a go! After that point, I was no good for anything. The chances to look through a telescope are few and far between, so when I do have the opportunity, I can think of little else. All through the Mother's Day/Jimbo's birthday gift exchange, I just kept looking at that clock, worrying that clouds were moving in and that by the time we got to Santiago Canyon, we wouldn't be able to see a thing.

But I bundled the Mom into my car shortly before sunset, and off we went. Got there to find about three dozen students and guests, clustered around two telescopes. Professor Cutie-Pie brought a buddy with a telescope, so we wouldn't all be waiting in one line. Saw Saturn (gorgeous; I've never seen it through a telescope before, and I saw the rings!), Mars (too far away to see anything but a tiny orange disk), Jupiter and the four Galilean moons (was able to make out a few belts and zones -- dark and light stripes, so to speak, that run around the planet), M3 (globular cluster in Hunting Dogs constellation), M104 (Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo), and M13 (huge globular cluster in Hercules). Then the clouds moved in, and Mom and I were the only two people left except for Professor Cutie-Pie and his buddy. We reluctantly left around 9:45, after having been there for about an hour.

The astronomy observing session was the best part of the day, but really, everything was very, very good.

(Yes, once in a while I actually write something about myself, instead of pasting meme results!)