Virtually Home

Jacob and Jessie on NYE 2018 was kind of a whirlwind. There were a lot of highs and lows, but mostly highs. I had some wonderful adventures this year. Here are some highlights. January Oberst with Taylor Hollingsworth of MVB We kicked off the New Year in the best way possible: by seeing a Conor Oberst concert in a California. Jacob and I flew out to Los Angeles and met up with friends from all over the country to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band play their first show in years. We caught up in line all day in the gloriously warm (by comparison with Minnesota) weather. We ate amazing Mexican food. And the show was brilliant -- the new venue in Silverlake was really cool and made custom cockatils for the show. Miwi La Lupa played a fabulous solo acoustic set to open. At midnight, the band played "Auld Lang Syne". The New Year couldn't have begun in a better way. That day turned out to be the last time I hung out with my friend Christina outside a ...

It's funny how impending change makes me take a harder look at my surroundings. I've been appreciating a lot of things I've taken for granted, lately. Just yesterday I walked into Richards Hall, which is one of two Zoology buildings on campus, and noticed some stonework invertebrates carved above the door. A beetle, a crayfish, a horseshoe crab. A grasshopper, I think. I should really have paid more attention for the last five years. Hell, for the last 22.

Today, I was in the Union looking at pictures of activities on campus in years past. Most of the photos in the Union were taken between the turn of the century and World War II, but they've recently added photos from the modern era. Among them were photos taken 1997 of OU President David Boren and George H.W. Bush at commencement exercises. Except that the photo's caption read "George W. Bush" rather than "George H.W. Bush". This is a pretty big error. As I left the Union, I was wondering who one talks to about campus decor. And lo! For the first time in my 4.5 years at OU, I saw David Boren on campus. He was walking out of the building that houses his office toward a car parked on the North Oval. I approached him, he shook my hand, and I mentioned what I had seen and asked if he might recommend someone I could get in touch with about it. He told me he was glad that I had mentioned it, and that he would much rather be in a photo with George H.W. Bush...

I still have about a month and a half in Bordeaux, but today I felt really ready to go home for the first time. I mean, I'm far from having achieved closure with people, or even with the school, but I just missed things. People. Driving. What the South Oval probably looks like right now. Frog and insect noise, now that it's warm. It was 84 Fahrenheit today, which means it's reached the temperature that I need to keep the windows open for ventilation. While sleeping that's going to be a hassle, since the windows have no screens and the mosquitoes, though nowhere near the droves found in Oklahoma, are beginning to emerge. If the drapes are closed, no air passes. When they're open, my across-the-courtyard neighbors' lights shine right into my room. To say nothing of their windows looking right into my room, I guess. Morning sunlight is a whole separate issue. I think this will be good for putting me back on a diurnal schedule, though. Coming off of the Amsterda...