Milwaukee Wind and Laser Pointers

Although Milwaukee is an hour and a half from the "Windy City," we have been enjoying our fair share of the blusters the past week. And while this sensation causes some inconvenience - it was very difficult to cram in a few, precious last minutes of studying on the way to my Politics quiz as the wind battled it out with the perforated line in my 3-subject notebook - it is generally a pleasant feeling and almost comforting to allow oneself to physically be pushed along by a force more powerful than one's own resistance. As I was walking to rehearsal a few evenings ago after an unusually good day, I was walking through the tunnel-like passage between Gesu and Marquette Hall as someone who had a walking disability came walking through as well, facing me. The wind whipped at my back, pushing me along, and I began giggling uncontrollably, my arms extended in a "King of the World!" position to get the full effect of the wind, as the stranger and I shared a grin of child-like glee and kept on traveling along our respective paths. I continued giggling.

Mother Nature, bringing people together.

Tonight, while failing to accomplish any homework and snuggling with my roommates on our futon clicking through StumbleUpon, we noticed a dot of green light flitting around our room. We pointed it out to each other and followed it with our eyes for a moment until we decided to look out the window for its source. Straight ahead and to the left, we saw the green glow from a white car stopped at a red light on Wisconsin Avenue. It clicked off, then on again, and we waved at the car until the light changed. Now, perhaps this person was just being a creeper, or perhaps he saw our giant poster of Snow White on the window and was pointing it out to the fellow passengers, but I like to think he or she was simply trying to play with random strangers and we indulged him by playing back.

These two experiences are connected in their ability to enkindle the simple, unanticipated joy a person can get just from random human interaction. I wonder what delightful new experiences I will undergo this week. :-)