This Side of Lost

Stage 1 of the move to Indiana is complete. After a whirlwind 48 hours of moving (thanks to Tom and Sam) and cleaning (many, many thanks to Gillian) I have vacated my much-beloved apartment in NW Edina as of July 31st and now reside at my parents' house in Stillwater. Almost everything I own is sitting in the polebarn under a tarp. How lovely.

Speaking of my parents' polebarn, this Friday and Saturday, it will be host to a garage sale, in which we will attempt to sell some or all of the larger furniture items I own, in order to expedite Stage 2 of the move. So if you're interested, stop on out to 13519 May Avenue and check out our wares. 9-4 on Friday and 9-12 on Saturday. You will note, however, that I will not be present on Saturday, as I will be making my way to Madison to visit Jen Sarafin and partake in my first Dave Matthews Band concert experience on Sunday.

May I also mention that this would be a great week to head to the Metrodome and see our Minnesota Twins in action. They are atop the AL Central by 5 games and swinging some hot bats. Tues-Thurs they are playing the Anaheim Angels and Fri-Sun they are playing the Oakland Athletics. All guaranteed to be great games. I'd love to go any night except for Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks for checking in. Peace.

The weekend jaunt to Madison was mostly a success. My friend Jen is fabulous, as per usual. Dave was right when he said "Not where you are but who you're with that really matters." The show was... an experience. I learned that mostly drunken frat boys and drunken blonde girls listen to DMB, apparently. Also, Dave Matthews himself has some sort of psionic connection with his guitar - he only becomes awesome when he's playing it. Otherwise, he's a complete moron. I had difficulty actually laying eyes on the musicians (not a huge deal for DMB, but pretty disappointing for Guster, who was opening) because the place was so huge, but the sound was good and the weather was beautiful.

Stage 2 of the move to Indiana is rapidly approaching. Friday we get the trailer and I leave Saturday morning. Sunday I will arrive at my new abode -- a limestone house I am renting with three other graduate students whom I've never met. (!!!) Yes, this shall be interesting... The e-mails between myself and my future roommates (Dustin, Ramsey and Chris) are flying, trying to figure out utilities and furniture and move-in times. Crazy. I will be there in a week. This hasn't sunk in yet. So much to do before then...

I will be chilling with Joseph on Thursday, around 7:45-8:00. Give him or me a call if you're interested in joining us. This is my last hurrah...

Enjoy the cool weather. Peace.

A Minnesotan says goodbye to his native state for at least 1 1/2 years, and travels to a strange land where people vote Republican, they rally behind a mascot that isn't actually an animal (Hoosier) and daylight savings time doesn't exist...

Tomorrow morning, the caravan departs for Peru, IL, our halfway stop in between Stillwater and Bloomington, IN. Amazingly, everything fit in the 5x8 U-Haul trailer that we procured (through much trial and tribulation). Barry (my '92 Honda Accord) will be mostly empty on our trek, save for myself, a few precious items and Storyhill, of course. My mom is piloting the family SUV and trailer -- brave soul that she be.

Barring major catastrophes, Sunday I arrive at the Limestone Manor. (This is my preliminary nickname for the house I'll be living in. Yes, it is made partially out of limestone, as is much of Bloomington.) Tune in soon for first impressions of my new roomies and the process of arranging a house. Who will claim which rooms? Will Ramsey show up with a pool table as he threatened to? Will we find a dining room table? Will we get cable?! All this, and more...

I'll be back for New Year's and the first week of January. Until then -- peace.

I have been in Bloomington for approximately two full days now and things are awesome. Let me rank the following items regarding being in Bloomington as to their awesomeness:

My House: Severely Awesome. Set back from the road and behind some trees, it is in a prime location, if a little ways from campus (no matter, the bus stop is a short walk away and campus itself is a good 1/2 hour walk on a nice day). It is an older house, but our landlord is busy busy busy cleaning and adding things. I live on the porch, which is a window-heavy, very spacious and open-feeling room. The fact that it is not naturally a bedroom has been remedied by the addition of a wardrobe and many blinds on the windows. My roommates are three: Dustin, Ramsey and Chris.

Dustin: Moderately Awesome. He is another first year grad student, but in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). His girlfriend Jenn has also moved to Bloomington, but can't move into her place until Friday, so he's been spending most of his time with her. He is friendly and straight-forward, but a little grumpy right now. Perhaps this will ease in time.

Ramsey: Quite Awesome. A second-year SPEA student, he has a social life here already, of which I've been a small part of. He is intelligent and well-spoken and interesting to make conversation with -- but still very much a black man from Virginia -- listens to hip-hop, dresses the part, etc. I'm excited to spend more time with him.

Chris: Curiously Awesome. A Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Science, he hails from South Africa. (!!!) Besides the obvious accent, he is a walking psychology experiment. The last time he has spent any significant time in the USA was when he was 11. Watching his reactions to things here is endlessly fascinating. He as well is quite smart (near as I can tell, at any rate) and will be awesome to spend time with.

That's all I got for now. I'm off to contend with the Financial Aid office and look into health insurance and other basic stuff. Peace.

The largest challenge I've had so far since I've moved to Bloomington is getting to campus. I live far enough away from IU proper that walking is a less-than-attractive option, but it is not so far that I am willing to drive and contend with the hideous parking situation here. This leaves me with a few possibilities.

1. Bike. Oh, wait, I don't own one. Nor do I really have a desire to purchase one. Shoot.
2. Rollerblade. I tried this on Tuesday and was moderately successful. The problem here is that Bloomington is a fairly hilly city. Going uphill isn't much of a problem, just a little more exercise. Downhill is the dangerous part. The route I took to and from campus has more than a couple serious downhill slopes -- and I managed to avoid killing myself only by wearing down my brake more than I should over one day and finding strategic uphill slopes and letting gravity do the work for me. This may be an ongoing project as long as the weather remains amenable.
3. The buses. This has been interesting. My first attempt ended up in me walking all the way to campus. Since then, I've had varying levels of success. It turns out that three bus lines go by 17th and College/Walnut, which is not far from my house. Right now, though, the timing isn't very good -- they all go by in between :45-:00 of the hour. So if it's, say, 12:02 and I want to catch the bus, I'm out of luck until 12:45. Hopefully this will change once the semester starts and they go back to their "school is in session" schedules.

In other news, we have a land-line in the house now (drop me a note if you want the number), our internet connection is on the way, Jenn is moving to her apartment today, and Ramsey and Chris have now both seen Transformers: The Movie. :) Things are proceeding well. And it's the weekend! I may venture into town and see some local music... or at least catch a movie.

Right now, it's time to find lunch. Peace.

It is good to be back on a college campus. There are several reasons for this (one of which I mentioned to the bigsteer alias in my TMGTW selection this week), but one of them is the atmosphere of a high-class, academic environment. Where else can I be exploring a building, and come upon a large, well-furnished room called The South Lounge, where there is a fireplace burning. Admittedly, it's a gas fireplace, but still. Nearby is a plaque, proclaiming the hearth as The Fire of Hospitality, lit in 1939 and has burned continually since, representing the hospitality of Indiana University. Awesome.

Things are seriously swinging into high gear in this town. Classes begin on Monday, and the whole town looks like St. Olaf during Week One on steriods. The campus dorms are already hopping, and on the way to campus this morning, I was seeing people moving in and U-Hauls all over the place. To say this is a college town is an understatement -- here, leases start when the school year does, the bus system changes their schedule at the beginning of September, and the police post billboards stating that DUI enforcement beefs up on August 27th.

Better run -- looks like it's going to rain and I don't have my umbrella.

In the midst of all the excitement moving to a new state and starting school and all, I've missed a few important dates...

Aug 24: Jen's birthday. Happy belated, friend. Was it really two years ago I made that mix CD? Glad you're still enjoying it.
Aug 23: My mom's birthday. Shoot. I knew I would forget this. The card's in the mail, Mom. Sorry!
Aug 22. Sigh. What do I call this day? The day my heart broke? The last day I knew true happiness? The day my life ended? Whatever. Anyway, it's been three years and you'd think I'd be over it. You'd think that, wouldn't you. You'd also have another think coming. It's a good sign that I didn't remember it until last night, I guess. Well, we'll keep hoping and see what this year brings...

That's all for now. I finally have orientation today, so it's off to make new friends. First day of school! I couldn't sleep last night, as usual. :) I love it.

School has officially begun at IU. And the undergrads are out in droves. The people here are beautiful. I'll make the comparison again -- it's like St. Olaf, only multiplied by 10. It's kind of creepy, really... where are all the not-so-gorgeous people? The weather's been nice, so everyone's enjoying the campus to its fullest extent so far.

I had my first class yesterday -- L524, Information Sources and Services. Which I'll just call Reference from now on. Prof. Pnina Shachaf is Israeli and appears to really know her stuff, if I can get used to the somewhat broken English she speaks.

Have I mentioned the gender ratio in SLIS? Yeah, it's definitely in my favor. I would estimate that in Reference alone, there's about three or four girls for every guy in the class. The people in SLIS are rather varied though -- for the most part, they do not look like the rest of the student population (i.e., tall, blonde and gorgeous). Which is... I don't know. More real? Anyway -- my roommates are very amused by this line of talk. Ramsey busted a gut laughing when I said (with tongue firmly in cheek) that "basically, all the ladies are mine." Yeah, right -- maybe I'll actually work up the courage to talk to some of them.

Callbacks for choir auditions are posted today. Maybe I can finally get my schedule nailed down now. Any guesses on whether they'll let me sing in one of the good choirs even with a huge Monday afternoon conflict? If I make callbacks, that means I have to skip the first session of a History and Philosophy of Science class I'm thinking about adding. :( It's a strange place to be... I think I'll actually be fine with whatever outcome presents itself. I just want to be settled...

Well, I'd better start reading. I figured I should turn over a new leaf now that I'm in grad school and do my reading. We'll see how long this lasts. Peace.