Origin of the Universe

I haven't had time to post about Sunday until now.

We left the survival birthday party about noon and drove to Texas A&M University in College Station for a Physics festival. We arrived at the campus by 2:00, but had a terrible time getting into the parking garage due to it also being Parent's Weekend. I was in full panic mode by the time I finally got the car parked. It was 2:27 and our main reason for coming was to attend a lecture at 2:30 by Stephen Hawking on the origin of the universe. David, KJ, and I got out of the car, made a note of what level we were on, and moved as fast as we could to the auditorium. David and KJ were both a little shocked to see me elbowing people out of the way, passing slower-moving people, and going around the lines of people waiting to show their tickets to the ushers and receive seating directions. Hey, I showed it to the first usher on the bottom floor. I didn't figure I needed to show it to the ones on the upper floors also. I was NOT going to miss this chance to hear Hawking. I had gotten some of the last few tickets before the event sold out, so we were waaaay up in the upper balcony. We were all sweating and out-of-breath by the time we found our seats. 2:31...we made it. The ended up starting late anyway to give everybody else, who also had trouble parking, to find their seats too.

The lecture was wonderful! Some of what he said went right over my head, but it was just so neat to hear him speak in person. KJ loved it and has been talking about Stephen Hawking ever since. He even started A Briefer History of Time yesterday, and keeps reading parts aloud to me.