It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Oct. 28th, 2002 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lawnrrdI wait all year for the weather to get like this. The air is chilly but not yet bitter, the sun warms you without making you hot, and the ground is covered with leaves that are the color of fire.
It's still the wrong time and place for perfection. Perfection is in the hills of New England in mid-to-late November on a day that is overcast but dry, with a good breeze. The trees are nearly bare, and the air doesn't smell like snow yet, but someone's using a fireplace, and the cool autumn air and the smoke remind you what snow smells like. You have to walk to stay warm, but if you do, you keep warm enough that you don't mind being outside. The bare trees and gentle hills make you lonely in a way that comforts the soul. You walk, and look, and smell the air, and think.
I can get lost in a day like that.
I am not in the hills of New England today, though. Instead, I am in State College, Pennsylvania, home of the Pennsylvania State University, my wife's alma mater. She is now on the board of directors of the undergraduate honors college, and we have driven here from New York so she can fulfill some of her directorial duties. I have followed her to some of the events but not others. As I am typing this, she is having lunch with the dean. When she finishes, we will take care of a few errands then drive back to New York.
Penn State is beautiful, as was most of the drive here. Interstate 80 runs almost due west from New York City across Pennsylvania, and State College is right in the center of Pennsylvania.
(Or rather, Pennsyl-tucky. If you aren't familiar with Pennsylvania, the best way to think of it is that you have Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle. But I digress.)
Once you get out of the New York metropolitan area, which happens surprisingly soon, you find yourself first in some gentle hills, and then the Pocono mountains. I spent twelve summers at camp in the Poconos, and it's where I went skiing last winter and broke my hand. Then again, I misplaced my virginity somewhere in those green mountains, so maybe they're not all bad.
Our timing was perfect, though, for a spectacular view, as the trees are just in the middle of changing. Lush, green trees alternate with bright gold ones. Penn State's campus sprawls, but has trees everywhere, and maybe less traffic than you'd think. The squirrels around here are surprisingly tame; they will come right up to you and expect to be fed.
There's really not much to say about the details of our visit. We stayed at a hotel that the University runs and uses to train students in the hotel school. Yesterday, my wife spoke to a group of earnest undergraduates about living and working in New York, then went to the college newspaper (where she had been an editor), and spoke to another group of equally earnest undergraduates about the same thing. We had dinner last night at the home of one of her favorite professors, who recently retired. Another meeting today, then some errands, then back home. Which means four-and-a-half more hours of driving past bright red, green, and yellow trees.
This is my favorite time of year.
It's still the wrong time and place for perfection. Perfection is in the hills of New England in mid-to-late November on a day that is overcast but dry, with a good breeze. The trees are nearly bare, and the air doesn't smell like snow yet, but someone's using a fireplace, and the cool autumn air and the smoke remind you what snow smells like. You have to walk to stay warm, but if you do, you keep warm enough that you don't mind being outside. The bare trees and gentle hills make you lonely in a way that comforts the soul. You walk, and look, and smell the air, and think.
I can get lost in a day like that.
I am not in the hills of New England today, though. Instead, I am in State College, Pennsylvania, home of the Pennsylvania State University, my wife's alma mater. She is now on the board of directors of the undergraduate honors college, and we have driven here from New York so she can fulfill some of her directorial duties. I have followed her to some of the events but not others. As I am typing this, she is having lunch with the dean. When she finishes, we will take care of a few errands then drive back to New York.
Penn State is beautiful, as was most of the drive here. Interstate 80 runs almost due west from New York City across Pennsylvania, and State College is right in the center of Pennsylvania.
(Or rather, Pennsyl-tucky. If you aren't familiar with Pennsylvania, the best way to think of it is that you have Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle. But I digress.)
Once you get out of the New York metropolitan area, which happens surprisingly soon, you find yourself first in some gentle hills, and then the Pocono mountains. I spent twelve summers at camp in the Poconos, and it's where I went skiing last winter and broke my hand. Then again, I misplaced my virginity somewhere in those green mountains, so maybe they're not all bad.
Our timing was perfect, though, for a spectacular view, as the trees are just in the middle of changing. Lush, green trees alternate with bright gold ones. Penn State's campus sprawls, but has trees everywhere, and maybe less traffic than you'd think. The squirrels around here are surprisingly tame; they will come right up to you and expect to be fed.
There's really not much to say about the details of our visit. We stayed at a hotel that the University runs and uses to train students in the hotel school. Yesterday, my wife spoke to a group of earnest undergraduates about living and working in New York, then went to the college newspaper (where she had been an editor), and spoke to another group of equally earnest undergraduates about the same thing. We had dinner last night at the home of one of her favorite professors, who recently retired. Another meeting today, then some errands, then back home. Which means four-and-a-half more hours of driving past bright red, green, and yellow trees.
This is my favorite time of year.
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no subject
Date: 2002-10-29 07:40 am (UTC)He pulled me out there one weekend to do some contract work for him.
I think PSU is ok, if not a bit chilly.... (then again, this was in March).
Otherwise.... I have to say that I really really really like the ice cream.... it pretty much redeemed my trip out there.