ismo

Reader, I will not keep you in suspense. There was an eclipse, and we saw it in its magnificent totality! In the breakfast room at the hotel, a man who had come from Reno, Nevada, to see it said that there was a nice field out back of the parking lot, and he was just going to go there and lie in the grass with his eclipse glasses. He did not wish to be accompanied by crowds or theme music. That's a point of view, certainly, and one for which I have some sympathy. (I hope he didn't get ticks, or chiggers, which are even worse.) We, however, wended our way down to Carbondale as planned. Thousands converged on the campus. In theory, they sold tickets for campus parking, and we had bought some. I think they simply became overwhelmed and just waved people on to park wherever they could. We were lucky enough to find a spot, and then some charming young women from SIU helpfully gave us a ride on their little golf cart to the stadium. The Diva was chatting with them and learned that the one who was driving said she'd never done this before. Fortunately, I didn't know that until later. The sky was perfectly, surpassingly clear and blue.

The pre-show included the launches of two weather balloons, a demonstration of how eclipses work, starring three giant inflatable balls, part of the Lady Saluki track team and the team mascots, who look like giant furries dressed as salukis, and the SIU marching band vigorously beating their drums and blowing their horns to repel moon-devouring monsters. When the time came, we saw EVERYTHING, with color commentary from someone from NASA. We saw Venus and Jupiter in the sky, and the prominences, and the diamond ring, and the shimmering ghostly corona. Oh my goodness. It was amazing. We were so happy. We noodled around looking for good t-shirts while waiting for the crowds to clear out, but we didn't find any. We walked on a little woodsy path around campus, but we got hot and tired. The Diva skillfully guided us to Sal's Bistro, where we got some delicious sandwiches put together by Sal himself, and some grapefruit Jarritos. The Diva ducked into a liquor store and got their last split of Prosecco for us to drink a toast with when we got home. We were so tired. We had our toasts, and celebratory Oreos, and played a couple of games of Bananagrams, none of which were won by me. As an Eclipse Day, it was completely satisfying and significant. I have so many feelings about this . . . and today, as well. But today must wait until tomorrow to be described, because I am tired out. Suffice it to say that we parted company with the Diva this morning. She drove back to Nashville to fly home, and we drove north and are now safely stashed in the Super 8 in Jerseyville--perhaps a wee step down from the Holiday Inn in Sparta. . . .