decidedlyodd

I’m back in Berkeley after my bizarre reverse red-eye flight. Actually, both planes were late, but only by about 20 minutes. Monday afternoon I got around to meeting up with the new landlord and signing the lease (mission accomplished!). However, I had some time to kill in between checking out of my hotel at 11 and meeting with the guy at 12:30, so I ended up driving around. I got on Jones Ferry rode and just sorta kept going, driving through rural parts of Orange and Chatham counties.

After signing the lease, I decided I’d go into Chapel Hill, buy some postcards and drop by Sitterson. I parked out in a Park and Ride lot and took the CW into town. Monday wasn’t as hot as say Friday, but it was still at least about 80F and humid. I bought the postcards, sent one to my parents and one to Kerstin at MPI. I went over to Sitterson and although Janet Jones wasn’t there, I did talk to Sandry Neely about my travel situation with Eurographics. I need to send her an email and she says she’ll run it by the appropriate chairman, Prof. Quigg. So, we’ll see if I can get some travel funding for Eurographics still.

At this point, I decided I’d walk back to the Jones Ferry Park and Ride lot instead of taking the bus, thinking that I was in no hurry and I was curious about how the walk from campus out to Carrboro is. It was only like I said 80F or so, but it was humid. The interesting problem with this is that it wasn’t really any cooler in the shade than in the sun. You couldn’t just stand in the shade for a moment and cool down, because the air was hot. Additionally, the sweat wouldn’t really evaporate very well. I ducked into a Wendy’s (which seem to be everywhere out there) to grab a soda, which did help cool me down a little.

After a while, I was out of town and more out in the residential neighborhoods of Carrboro. Then a very innocent, small town thing happened while I was walking by this one house. There was this kid (I dunno, maybe 8-10) who was selling lemonade. He asked me if I wanted to buy a glass. Unfortunately, I just finished my soda and was still eating the ice, so I had to decline. But the concept of a kid running a lemonade stand is so quaint somehow. I can’t imagine that happening in Berkeley, at least not in any part of town a student can afford to live in.