The Visit Ends

Well, The Architect leaves today to return to San Fran. Ironically, I think I enjoyed his visit more than The Professor did. It rather complicated things that the visit coincided with The Prof’s first days working full-time at the college.

The Prof was a little displeased last night because the Architect wanted us to meet him one last time before he left tonight. He told us that his plane left around 8:00 p.m., so I was making arrangements to try to duck out of work a little early and be downtown with the professor around 4:30. Upon rechecking his itinerary, though, The Architect discovered that his plane left at 6:00 p.m., and there was absolutely no way I could leave work early enough to be able to do much more than wave him off at the gate. The Professor is done at 1:30 today though, and would have had plenty of time to go downtown and spend a few hours before the plane left, though.

He doesn’t want to go though, and doesn’t know how to say no without hurting his friend’s feelings. Without admitting it in so many words, The Prof is intimidated by going into the city by himself. He fears getting lost, and doesn’t want to drive center city (who can blame him?). He could take the train downtown, but he’s afraid of getting confused, getting on the wrong train, and ending up out of state. It concerns me that he doesn’t have the confidence to try going downtown on his own, but I have to remind myself that he has only been out here for a year. Were I in his place, I’d probably have reservations about heading into the city myself. I just have to encourage him to start doing a little more on his own around here, before he becomes stuck in a rut and housebound, or worse, too dependent on me to make arrangements for him.

The cats are going to miss the Architect, I suspect. Well, Clueless Wonder and his young companion, El Destructo, will miss him anyhow. The Warrior Princess probably won’t deign to notice his absence, any more than she noticed his presence. The Architect gave both CW and the kitten some major quality time, and even let George have the foot of his bed (a very gracious move, since The Architect is a TALL guy, and didn’t have much room left over for my little obeast). I hope El Destructo doesn’t expect *me* to play fetch with her for an hour or more.