Back from Virginia Tech. Nick's REU was working on an audio array to see if people can distinguish sound landscapes the way we can visually. I got to try out the testing & I must say I'm not that great at spatial listening, but it was interesting. All the students made posters of the projects they'd worked on & explained them to those in attendance. (It was fun during the poster presentation where they introduced the few parents who were there. I waved when they said "Nick's mom is here," & the guy doing the introducing said "Oh! I thought you were a new graduate student!")
What was REALLY fun, though, & possibly Nick's true mission at V-Tech, was the raft. Yes, just as you imagined: he gathered hundreds of plastic bottles (coke, gatorade, water, ice tea, etc., that his new friends drank. He drank from the drinking fountain in the hall) & bought $20 worth of duct tape. Chloe & Jose (I guess you have to imagine the accent that makes that a 2-syllable Hispanic name) & I helped him tape them all together. On Friday the 13th we had a grand launching--probably going to be on you tube--where various persons, including me, in my dress, & the director of the engineering program or somesuch, paddled around. It was awesome fun, & just the sort of thing Nick does on a regular basis.
He made lots of good new friends there, especially Miss Chloe, guru of origami. She made me the tiniest little rose out of a strip of paper that used to be around her silverware at Bogen's where the REU crew went for dinner. I was invited to tag along.
Great drive back, although there was a portion where some pretty obnoxious trucks were hard to lose. They sped up so much on the downhills & slowed down so much on the uphills that neither going slow nor going fast would get rid of them. I solved the dilemma of a particular truck that kept tailgating by pulling off to get gas. Set it to automatic & washed the windows & when I came back it had clicked off at exactly $30.00.
Blacksburg isn't exactly Asheville, but they do have a way cool art supply store downtown called Mish Mish (I think that's the name...) where I bought a new cute little watercolor set. Even littler & cuter than the one I gave Nick. And these cool brushes that hold water in the handles. I did a couple paintings at a coffee shop today. One is the outline of a human figure with the words you are here & an arrow pointing to the heart. Remember that. You are here. Right in my heart.
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