7 sisters (7 姐妹, 7人の姉妹, 7자매

Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, Vassar, Bernard, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr. Those are the proverbial "Seven Sisters" colleges established to rival the Ivy League and their "male counterparts. I've never been to any of these schools, but in law school a couple of classmates had gone to Bernard, and another one to Vassar- liberal arts colleges, and the alumna from there seemed just very Northeast Liberal arts schooley.... I get the feeling I would not have fit in one of those schools, not just Seven Sisters schools because they are female-only, but just the vibe, the culture, the elitism, the fancy nature of the schools, the intellectualism; I don't consider myself really an intellectual, I identify more with the masses than the high classes, I don't aspire to be a CEO, I'm just trying to make it in this world. University of Illinois was right for me. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to visit all these schools! I don't have cravings for many things (MJ has a LOT of cravings for different food right now) but my craving is to get out in the world and experience new things, anything but sitting at my desk all day and doing the same mundane thing over and over again, staring at a screen. And I crave being on new campuses; every time I go somewhere knew I try to check out the local university, because at least I know there will be some fancy buildings, and I'll feel like I'm in college again, even though I'm not. The best thing about walking through college campuses: it's free to everyone, despite being exorbitantly expensive for some who actually attend the school. Like casinos, like a positive externality for the rest of the world, funded by the students' tuition, except unlike casinos the students who graduate also get something out of it too, so thanks all the students and former students of every college I've ever went to! Sometimes college campuses are the best places to just walk around. MJ and I (don't ask me why!) visited the campus of Old Domininion University, the location of which I would not have known before visiting Old Dominion University (just like the other day on Jeopardy I didn't know where University of Vermont was located- it's Burlington, the largest city) and Voila, they have an excellent art museum with a Barbie/ dolls exhibit, and a centerpiece every art musuem needs: a Dale Chihuly glass piece. Worth whatever price they paid for it, that's what draws me to art museums. (Old Dominion is in Norfolk, VA, by the way, and not the only major university there, next to Norfolk State). Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope. Those are the Seven Sisters aka the Pleiades, a star cluster located in teh constellation Taurus, and a cluster named after Greek mythology, daughters of Atlas (yup, the guy who had to hold up the world on his back). I've never seen the Seven Sisters, never yearned to find them, never looked at a stargazers' map, never took too big of an interest in astronomy until learning trivia facts.......but now I find myself devouring books like "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir about outer space, science fiction, and wondering about the great beyond. MJ got me a free book from the local library here that's doing a Summer Reading Program (an excellent program for kids but even for adults! Adults should read more too during the summer, we just get swept up in going places and summer concerts and being outside that we forget the joy of long days reading outdoors as well).... we each got a free book out of a selection of contemporary popular books and our selections reflected our preferences: she took "Braiding Sweetgrass" about indigenous knowledge and alternative theories to traditional Western scientific technologies, while I chose the fictional book but outer-space related "Project Hail Mary" that I'd heard about for a few years now but never attempted to read based on focusing on actual factual books for trivia study (but you can learn trivia through fiction too!) I loved the Martian, though, and it's one of the last great experiences I've had at a movie theater: totally engrossed in the movie, was engaged from start to finish, and was one of the first movies MJ and I watched together (maybe second after The Good Dinosaur). I would not want to be trapped alone in space, but Andy Weir really likes telling stories about people who do first in the Martian and now in this book, and he probably tapped into something readers didn't know they wanted: the journey of a lifetime, alone, but in extreme circumstances, and using science and know-how to survive. It's like 127 hours or Castaway but in outer space, or a more science-heavy and (maybe more accurate?) version of "Gravity" the Sandra Bullock movie.