Otherwise, my visit to the alma mater went pretty well -- I had a good time talking to five of my six physics profs, and the sixth is retired. They are themselves. They are as they ought to be.
On the drive down -- oh, it's such a familiar drive. The apples-and-funerals place! The motorcycle mural! Emma Crummy's! That Dairy Queen I scolded my grandmother about when I was younger than Roo! That place
I'm not at home on the Gustavus campus any more. I'm not at home in St. Pete any more. But there's a place for me on the second floor of Olin still, in the physics department. It's like going home to my parents' house: I don't live there any more. It's not the same place as it was. But that doesn't mean they aren't there still, and it doesn't mean I can't go and visit and spend time and have it be a good and natural thing. Being a physics alum doesn't have to be the same thing as being a physics student to be a good thing. I won't be dashing down there every other week, but I could go back again, and I don't think it'd be quite such a big deal next time. And some of the things I loved best about that place are still there, and all five of them looked glad to see me.