After dropping Megan and Carter off at the airport this morning (they are spending the week with Megan's parents in Michigan) I drove over to Princeton, NJ for the day.
Princeton - the town and the university - have a reputation that is steeped in tradition, a history that is apparent everywhere, it has lots of local culture and the campus is aesthetically astonishing. (The movie A Beautiful Mind was filmed on location here. It has the look and feel of Oxford or Cambridge).
I love this place - to visit, at least - but I'm not sure I could live here.
It's a peculiar place, for sure. It seems that everyone is educated, affluent, well-dressed and clean, cosmopolitan, well-informed, cultured. The Upper Crust of American civilization. And everyone here is very attractive.
It seems there are enough overly-educated people walking around in ties and debating Albert Camus' world view while toting books called Classic Collected Poems under their arms...and that's just the sophomores I overheard today. I'm not exaggerating...
i feel really out of place in my jeans and tennis shoes.
But Pricentonians are fascinating people.
I spent part of the day in Chancellor Green Library, a large, round university study lounge on campus that looks like a castle on the outside, but the inside boasts of wing-backed chairs, wooden floors and bookshelves lined with classics and beautiful stained glass windows. It's so inspiring you feel like you could write a best selling novel in this room. It looks like it is straight out of a movie.
Read USAToday and a great book called Jim and Caspar Go to Church: A believer, an atheist and an unlikely friendship... (an absolutely fabulous book...I'll blog about this more later) and started a new book, The Working Poor.
Then, because it was such a beautiful day, I enjoyed walking the campus a bit. I managed to slip into the one hundred year old gigantic and beautiful gothic cathedral on campus just as the organist was practicing. It also looks as if it was straight out of a movie.
Then I hung out, read and checked email at Small World Coffee, a swanky yet bohemian coffee shop that is packed every single time I go inside. In fact, the line was out the door almost all afternoon.
But the main reason I came to Princeton today is to attend the Princeton vs. Yale men's basketball game, a true Ivy League game to be sure. I'm looking forward to it because I love college basketball - but I love it even more because my cousin Jason is plays for Princeton.
He managed to score me a free ticket.
We'll go out for a late dinner after he's showered after the game.
If you've never been to Princeton and you live in the area, you should check this place out.
We're coming back in April to hear a lecture by Brian McLaren, sponsored by Princeton Theological Seminary. Should be good.
Umm... I looked at them online and they are like 20 bucks! I just got three of them from staples for 3 bucks!
Althought they do look cool.
Posted by: Dan | February 26, 2008 at 07:14 PM