A Day of Remembrance

Today was a mediocre day. And as far as the week has been going, that's great. The best part, though, is that I'll be home in less than 24 hours celebrating Easter with my family, and then it won't matter anymore! Er, at least not until Monday.

The memorial for the three City of Pittsburgh police officers who were killed on Saturday 4 April was held today. Chancellor Nordenberg volunteered to host it at the Petersen Events Center, which certainly had ample seating capacity. Fifth and Forbes Avenues were closed for almost the entire day. Thousands upon thousands of police cars from all over the area (and even some from farther) used most of the roadway as a triple-parked parking lot. Walking down the street, there was quite a sense of melancholy, even just from the silence of not having cars whizzing by. The many people lined up along the street with American flags waiting for the procession only added to the poignancy.

Although, from a logistics standpoint, I was a bit surprised by the University's decision to continue operating normally. (Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought this, too.) Practically all of the major thoroughfares on campus were shut down for much of the day, public transit was spotty at best... I'm surprised they didn't cancel classes, although I'm sure they carefully weighed their options before deciding. Perhaps the fact that we're only a week and a half from finals had something to do with it, too.

After classes, I had quite a nice time talking outside with Will for about an hour, something I haven't done in a while. It really brought a smile to my face, and was one of the more enjoyable parts of my day. It certainly helped that the weather was beautiful and that everything was so quiet and peaceful.

I'm sort of realizing why I like the idea of blogging every day, or at least blogging often. In the past, I've only blogged about "important" things that happened in my life. And too often, the things that "affect" me the most are negative, by their very nature. It's really refreshing to take note of the positive things that are happening nearly every day, to reflect upon them, and to be thankful for them. I feel that that's something I haven't been doing as often as I could have recently.