Happenings

Last Monday was my friend Robin's 21st birthday, so a bunch of us surprised her with dinner in her apartment, followed by some sharing of favorite memories and some playing of Take-Two (which other people call Speed Scrabble.) It was great fun, and particularly pleasant because Tuesday was Faculty Development Day and so there were no classes to prepare for.


On Faculty Development Day, Robin and Susanna and I took the train into Chicago and walked to the Art Institute where we met up with Erin, who is studying in Chicago this semester. Chicago's art museums and Shedd Aquarium are free in February. We saw the Thorne Minature Rooms - tiny reproductions of European and American house interiors from past centuries to the 1930s. We wandered through a small folk art exhibit and then saw the impressionists and the modern wing. We were a bit pressed for time, wanting to visit with Erin over lunch before she had to head back uptown, so I didn't see as much as I might have. More for later.

Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884

Susanna, Erin, and Robin

Erin is one of the first friends I made at Wheaton - we had Dr. Ryken's 17th-20th c. British lit course fall semester freshman year together. When I finished my classes for the day, I used to often run up from my dorm room in Fischer 2 West to her room on 4W to see if she wanted to join me for tea or a walk.