free breakfast from free dinner

How lovely to have
a free meal this morn!
Chicken marsala,
roasted potatoes with crispy chips,
and a soft and flaky dinner roll,
alongside my cup of coffee...
and Elvis,
of course.

I dined on the same foods -
minus the coffee -
last night at the 70th Anniversary of the
Student Veterans of America celebration.
My dinner guest was this lovely red beta -
so charming and polite and thrilled to be with me!
He even sang "One" to me - bet you didn't know those fish could sing!
()smile

I really did not mind having a table to myself.
I think of it as
my keeping company
with the spirit of the MIA/POW person
at the empty table.
Both of us had our thoughts
to entertain us through the meal.
Very nice, actually.

The guest speaker, Jared Lyons, was the only other former sailor in the room.
In this Army-dominated town that was no surprise.
He regaled us with the history of the organization, then discussed the recent six-year study that found military students, whether active duty or veteran, are only out-performed by international students.
That was no surprise to me.
As I told him, I have seen this for more than twenty years with my students.

What did surprise me was seeing Linda Bleicken jumping out of an airplane!
Phil Gore, host for this event, showed us a videoclip of her performing a tandem jump.
She truly is so amazing!

Now, pardon me, but I have class to attend...
Later!