A Spring Day at Penn State

Rain was expected sometime in the day, so I carried my umbrella. But it turned out that I never needed it, for rain never began until well after nightfall. I had a morning meeting downtown followed by lunch at the Corner Room with a dear girlfriend. In between, I had a few minutes to snag a couple of photos on the lower end of campus.

I discovered the first turtle on the duck pond. And he (or she?) looked pretty darn pleased with himself: "Welcome to my crib!" the turtle seemed to be saying. And I enjoyed watching some pretty tiny ducklings carrying on and running roughshod over the land with much less supervision than they should have had, while Mama Mallard napped nearby.

The sun had actually come out by that point, which surprised the heck out of me, as I hadn't expected to get any good light for my photos. So I was delighted to get the opportunity to photograph some of my favorite scenes in sunshine.

Last fall, I discovered a photographic "sweet spot" in front of Electrical Engineering East. If you stand in front of the building looking toward Old Main (that brick building on the left), you get a lovely view of that portion of campus. You can see the obelisk just a bit to the right of center. And look - a photographer is pointing his or her camera at that pretty pink bush or tree to the left.

When I am walking on campus, there is almost always a soundtrack running through my mind. I often wear my little pink iPod shuffle, and on this day, it contained my classic 80s soundtrack. I couldn't believe how happy and uplifted I felt, just because of the pretty day and the sunshine, and I couldn't resist: I managed a few kicks and dance moves myself - hey, who cares what anybody thinks? - as I sauntered down the mall.

This was the song I was dancing to: Irene Cara, with What a Feeling, from Flashdance. And it was a pretty darn good feeling indeed!