It's been nearly a month since I was able to come up with a creative thought to post here. Not sure the reason for the 'blogger's block', but I guess it has something to do with the transition from ski season to summer, or what most call spring. We don't seem to have spring in VT anymore – winter stretches through April, and then, as it happened last weekend, one day you wake up and the skies have cleared and it is suddenly 80 degrees. Those final couple of weeks of winter are cold, rainy and do not offer much opportunity to get outside the house. Skiing is over, but it's often too dismal for running or biking. Tough to get motivated and tough to think creatively, I guess.
That said, the sun came out last weekend in a big way. Lauren and I spent the weekend in Boston visiting old friends, enjoying the great weather and basking in the glory of the Red Sox sweeping the Yankees at home for the first time since 1990. I've said many times that Boston has the greatest buzz when the Sox are playing well, and when you couple that with playing well against the Bombers, it reaches a fever pitch. We all know you can't win a championship in April, but it's still a lot of fun.
We were in Boston to spend some time with a good friend who has decided to leave town, and needed a good send-off. This meant late nights on Friday and Saturday, and then, since the Sox played late on Sunday evening, my third straight visit with the wrong side of midnight. Seeing old friends and staying out much later than my life as a parent usually permits made me remember some of the best advice I got in college. I remember watching one of my younger professors walk slowly into class on the Friday morning leading up to Alumni Weekend. Without even trying to cover up the fact that he'd been out much too late on a school night, he fessed up to partying with friends the night before and warned us that someday we'd find ourselves a little bit older and with the same decision to make. He warned, “you can't get it back... forty is a much different age than twenty”. Good advice. And while I didn't exactly revisit my collegiate lifestyle this weekend, I was thinking about Mark's advice as I struggled to keep my eyes open through most of Monday afternoon.
Looking out my window it is nice to finally see the sun and to see Ty and Ally outside enjoying the weather. Today and tomorrow look pretty nice (although not as warm as last weekend), but I suspect we may be trapped indoors by April Showers this weekend. Today reminds me of another good day and some sage advice I received during my senior year in college. Perhaps the best class I ever took was on professional writing and presentations. It was taught by a professor who'd been at Clarkson forever, and it was a class that very few students ever missed. I suspect few students would ever think to miss any of Dr. Broughton's classes. But this was a beautiful day, and while attendance was good, it was clear that anyone would prefer to be outside enjoying the day. Sensing this, Dr. Broughton gave us updates on coursework for about 10 minutes and then stopped and declared, 'spring has sprung – go outside and catch it'. End of class.
I always think about Dr. Broughton and that fine day at least once each spring. Here's hoping I can make time to follow that good advice once again this afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment