Does the concept of punctuality elude you?

Monday morning already? (Yawn.)

Paul and Mike left for Chicago Saturday. Well, they were supposed to leave Saturday via Amtrak – it was much cheaper than flying, and universities are stingy and don't fund grad students well. The train was to pull out at 10:40 p.m., so we picked up Mike at 9:15 and made it to the train station around 10.

Our first mistake was assuming the train would be on time.

At 11:15, the woman behind the ticket cage got on her microphone and said in her tartest, don't-mess-with-me voice, "I know calls have been made and questions have been asked, and you're all wondering where the train is. Well, I don't know. I've been told it's stopped an hour and a half outside Memphis. So when they get the train started again, and I don't know when that will be, it will be an hour and a half after that before the train gets here."

Groan.

So we dragged their luggage back out to the Vue and drove to a mall about a half-mile away. The kitchen was closed at the first place we went, so we ended up at Jillian's for cheeseburgers. But we kept worrying that the woman was wrong and the train would leave without the guys, so we headed back to the train station a little after midnight. I left the station around 1:15 a.m. Paul sent me a text message around 2:30 saying the train had arrived. They made it to Chicago sometime in the early afternoon Sunday. Gah.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: It's hard to sleep when you're used to having someone in bed next to you. I mean, I was exhausted when I got home from the train station, so I slept hard. But last night, I tossed and turned all night. It's going to be a long day.

But tonight (providing I'm not sleepwalking by then), I'll finally get to see Alan Lightman speak in person. I missed my chance in October because I was out of town. Tonight, he's giving a public lecture at UM titled "The Physicist as Novelist." And he'll be doing a signing afterwards! Yay!