I'm overthinking getting a smartphone. I have a $150 balance on my virgin idiot phone (and keys are starting to stick.) virgin is offering a$50/mo unlimited plan with purchase of an iPhone, with first year of service for $1. Overkill for me, but...this is a nobrainer, right?

I had an eye exam today. Going for progressive lenses. After the doctor put in the dilation drops he handed me a pair of eclipse glasses and suggested I run out and look before the dilation got too far along. It was at about 35% at that point, looking like a cookie with a bite out of it. Very cool. Then it clouded over.

Seems like one, sara, but I don't know how you don't already have a smartphone so clearly I'm biased

I came down to Portland for the weekend--we went to a Thorns game (the women's soccer team, its super popular and it was awesome). And yesterday we went bowling and to a batting cage, which I'd never done before! And today got up early and drove southward. There was surprisingly little traffic! And we sat in a field with a bunch of people and totality was awesome!! Very very neat. The lead up was fun too. And shockingly getting back from there wasn't bad at all. However, our bus home is apparently stuck in traffic getting here so is delayed at least an hour. Sigh.

sarameg, that is kind of what I thought, but there were news orgs and local weather people live streaming and going on about what an amazing experience it was to stand on the sidewalk and stare at the sky.

I admit it. I got caught up in the hype.

It was fascinating to see it get as dark as mid-evening in the middle of the day, and see the cars with headlights on on the freeway.

meara, most of the time, my cell sits on a shelf at home. I still live 90% of my life as if it were 1993, as far as phones go. I have wifi at home and oops, if you can't reach me, I'm unreachable on purpose. I like it that way. But I can still stay that way, but just use the perks when I damnwell feel like it.

...though if I go to Alaska again, will have to swap cards. No service up there.

It didn't get dark in NYC, but a coworker friend brought his telescope with solar filter to work so we all lined up in the parking lot to have a look. Enough people had glasses that we passed them around too. So fun!

I went out on the terrace on our building at 10:15 and for the first few minutes we didn't see anything (it was cloudy all morning), but then the clouds got just a little thinner, and we could see the crescent of the sun through the clouds! So cool, although mostly it just looked like a crescent moon in the sky. But I got a photo.

Then I got a headache and went inside.

Ooof, there were so many people at our event today! Which was crazy, but also awesome! And 96% of an eclipse is so amazing. Gotta do totality next time. (all our observatory/planetarium staff who left for totality this year get to do the next one, I've decided.)

I loved it. We didn't have totality, but at 94%-ish we were close enough that for the first time I understood what all the excitement was about. And a perfect day for it, and an office full of total nerds.