This weekend rocked, sometimes literally.
The most important reason for this was the fact that it was Parents' Weekend, which meant (duh) that my parents were in town. On my way to class Friday morning I encountered them in the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (obviously not the real name of the building. Whoever comes up with the real one gets a gold star). That was pretty cool in and of itself. After my classes were done we met and went to dinner at the Todd'sBar of the east and thence to Across the Universe (my treat, as was ice cream afterwards, which made be feel like a real person). It was a good movie, with great cameos by the likes of Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard, Bono, and Selma Hayek. The treatment of the Beatles songs was great, I thought, but then again I'm sort of a fly by night Beatles fan.
I went from there to a quick game of charades with the crew at one of the literary magazines I'm working on and then back to a restful night at the parents' hotel. (One of many over-air-conditioned and sterile conference centers in the area).
The next day we ate a reminiscent brunch in the dining hall where a) I eat every day b) my parents met. Then we headed up to New York to, hopefully, see a show of some sort. We settled on Gone Missing, a production put together by the Civilians ensemble and based on interviews they conducted with New Yorkers. The theme of the play was, obviously, lost things: lost love, lost car keys, lost shoes, lost wits, etc. It was off-Broadway (in Greenwich Village) and awesome. We ate dinner beforehand at an Italian restaurant which was playing Frank Sinatra as we walked in. I kept looking over my shoulder for Tony Soprano.
Today we had a leisurely meal at the local bakery (after much harping on the length of last week's bike ride on my part) and took a drive in the country (which took a while to find, making my parents feel old). We nearly got lost (well, we did get lost, but it was very nearly permanent, seeing as we only had 1/8 of a tank of gas and we were driving on the last unpaved road in New Jersey).
It was hard to say goodbye, but I was comforted by the fact that now I could do my homework and unpack my three new pairs of earrings (from the excellent store Nova Ice).
Hopefully it'll be a good week.
For many, and not just me.