Maryland!

It is hotter than fuck here.

Seriously.

If I lived here, I'd be like super skinny because I would sweat five pounds off every day. Even the squirrels here are languid from heat. The move so slowly, as if they have given up and don't care if you catch them. Not that I want to chase a squirrel in this heat. Claire-Adele and I walked around the campus for an hour without a water bottle. Mis.Take. I was parched at the end.

I am further convinced that the Pacific Northwest has the best weather in the continental U.S.. Rainy and cool while at times can be emotionally bleak, it is at least livable. In the fourteen years I've lived in Seattle, I never thought I might to die because of the weather. I can't say the same for the Midwest, with its heat waves, freezing spells, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, etc. I am sure four of the six of my blog readers will agree with me about the Pac Northwest. The other two live in the Midwest.

Anyway, Claire-Adele was excited to show me around. It looks lovely.

Isn't this great? I am sending my cosmopolitan, nose-ringed daughter to a farm school.

Ha ha. Not really. But they do have a little farm in the middle of campus. The colleges we looked at in NYC and Philadelphia didn't have cows, sheep or horses. The campus has a dairy and the student union sells its ice cream. That's kind of cool. You don't see that every day.

The rest of the campus looks like a regular college campus. It has a bit of southern influence, but not that much. Technically, the university is south of the Mason-Dixon line, but there is enough Yankee influence and sensibility here that I can tolerate it. I hope. This college didn't let women attend until 1916 and African Americans in until 1951. Seriously? WTF? Wait. I did some googling and it seems that that was fairly common. And some people don't believe in institutional racism. This institution (like many other universities) was racist, which is the definition of institutional racism.

Tomorrow is new student orientation where Claire-Adele will meet other students and I will learn all sorts of administrivia about the college. Goodnight, University of Maryland. I look forward to meeting you tomorrow.