The semester is well under way, and I wonder if you're getting bored yet. I wonder if you cringe at the thought of another Thursday night foray into the dungeon-like environs of the social dorms; if you'd rather pour salt in your eyes than go see a Campus Center-sponsored regurgitation of fish. I'm curious to know how many more bad movies you're going to be able to stomach at the Hampshire Mall; how many times you have attempted to assuage your boredom by telling yourself, "Self, isn't it grand and glorious that I have the resources of five colleges right at my fingertips?"

You get the idea.

Just imagine, then, being stuck here for the summer. Marooned in Amherst, gleaning occasional, quiet amusement from a cigarette and a glass of wine on the roof of the Octagon, discovering 99-cent slushees at Cumberland Farms and putting yourself to sleep at night with the droning lullaby of 24-hour CourtTV singing you sweetly into unconsciousness for a few hours before you have to get up at 7:30 a.m. to make it to your morning shift shelving books in Frost. Three months of that-now that's boredom.

As a discerning whimsy-seeker, I'll tell you, I wasn't doing so well. I attempted to visit other campuses. I pushed myself to go to late shows in Northampton; I even went to a few good concerts here and there. But as the summer dragged on and my financial situation wouldn't support impulse buying and constant trips across the bridge, I knew it was time for something special. Something strange.

Recalling a conversation that I had earlier in the year with a friend of mine who is equally prone to fascination with the more unconventional, fanciful sides of the world (natural and otherwise), I journeyed to neighboring South Deerfield to pay a visit to the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.

Open year round, Magic Wings is home to a plethora of domestic and exotic species of butterfly, quirky and endearing creatures who are allowed to traverse the airspace of about 4,000 square feet in a huge glass terrarium of sorts. "I'll never kill another bug again," I professed as a butterfly landed on my hand (I was afforded the "rare delight" of a visit from one of the Magic Wings inhabitants, something that the web site, www.magicwings.net, vehemently suggests that it can't, in fact, guarantee). So, okay, I broke my vow in the parking lot on the way home, but that's another matter entirely. It was inspiring enough while it lasted, anyway.

A veritable oasis in an otherwise bleak desert (there's only so many times you can go into Yankee Candle without feeling like you must surely be getting brain damage, and the same can be said of the Whately Diner, for other reasons), Magic Wings has spared no expense in turning its facility into a flight of fancy and fun for all ages.

Though the space is rather small, particularly if you catch it on a crowded day, it has plenty of places where you can sit and ponder the meaning of life or absolutely nothing at all while hundreds of butterflies flit about in speechless, brightly-colored droves, taking a moment here and there to alight upon various colorful nectar dispensers or any of the various fountains and "fairies" located throughout the covered grounds.

A haven for butterflies and quiet reflection alike, you'll surely enjoy the benches and the serene pagoda-like nooks-within-a-nook throughout the Magic Wings facility, all drenched in a backdrop of trickling brooks and splashing (albeit disturbingly large) goldfish. At no extra charge comes the added benefit of a hilariously Enya-esque score. Even the most practiced cynics will find themselves doing ballet through the aisles in no time. I can almost guarantee it.

Strange as it may seem, as bizarre and desperate as the idea might sound, Magic Wings is quite the rare delight, indeed.

Magic Wings is located at 281 Greenfield Road in South Deerfield.