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Yesterday I met up with my dad for the second time during his week-long visit to the D.C. area. Last Sunday night we were only able to have a late dinner and then crash in his hotel room, but yesterday we had the luxury of spending an entire afternoon hanging out downtown. I looked up showtimes for the Bourne Ultimatum, finding one late enough that my dad wouldn't have to rush from his meetings, and early enough that he would still make it to the airport on time. After the movie we walked through the National Portrait Gallery to work up an appetite for dinner. Although reluctant to follow my recommendation at first, my dad left the museum with a greater appreciation of the value of portraits as a medium for conveying historical perspective.
For dinner we ate at a restaurant in Chinatown. We were seated near the window with a good view of a street vendor advertising his paintings. The artist packed up and moved on during our meal, but as we exited the restaurant we noticed him attracting customers in a new location.
At the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station, we waited together on the platform for our respective trains. The southbound train to the airport came first, so I said goodbye and remained on the platform for the next Green Line train. I rode only as far as West Hyattsville, taking advantage of the remaining daylight to enjoy a leisurely walk back to campus. I stopped briefly at the public library to drop off a book that I had just finished.
A number of tasks were now forced to fit into the half-day between my return from D.C. and the farewell party for Dave Bourne today at 11:00. Chalking the sidewalks to advertise the Maryland Food Co-op would have to wait for daylight. The bucket of sidewalk chalk, however, would either need to come home with me, or at least be transferred from its temporary home in the CSS building to a more convenient place. In the meantime, my bike still remained locked at the Greenbelt Metro station, and I wasn't sure how safe it would be to leave it there overnight. I decided to move the sidewalk chalk to a new temporary home in the math building, leaving in its company my backpack and other items of which I would rather not be robbed as I walked back to Fox Street.
Starting my day early with hardly enough sleep, I fetched my bike from the Metro station and then rode to the math building to pick up the sidewalk chalk and other articles left behind overnight. I walked around McKeldin Mall and South Campus to find suitable locations for a co-op advertising campaign. Returning students and their parents sometimes paused to read the chalk messages, but for the most part I attracted little attention from the trickle of pedestrians who passed by. When I thought the advertisements looked adequately distributed, I brought back the bucket of chalk to the co-op and biked to the Paint Branch Community Park, where preparations for Dave Bourne's farewell party were already underway.
Apparently if you want to hold a barbecue lunch in the Paint Branch Community Park during the summer, you ought to get there at the crack of dawn to claim a space for your group. The organizers of this little math party made sure to arrive early, but not in time to grab one of the most popular barbecue spots. Without the shade provided by dense trees and a sprawling tent, we tried as best we could to stay cool on one of the hottest days this summer. Everyone contributed so much food that we had to fill two cars with leftovers at the end of our half-day in the park. Unfortunately we lacked enough water to keep ourselves hydrated during the meal, so one of the drivers volunteered to buy some gallons of water from the nearest convenience store. Even that additional water didn't seem to be enough, as we exhausted ourselves playing tennis and volleyball in the blazing heat of mid-day.
Too tired and too stuffed even to consider biking back to Fox Street, I got a ride home with Dave. I took a shower to wash off the sweat and sand from the exercise in the park. Lastly, an hour-long nap starting at 16:00 helped offset the sleep debt I had accumulated over the past two days. Although it was still light out when I woke up from the nap, I decided to postpone until tomorrow the long walk to the park to pick up my bike.