what do you listen to at work?

I work in a charming historic house situated between two student residences. 

About an hour ago I started hearing the sweet sounds of the marching band coming from somewhere outside and very nearby. 

I assumed that they were making their way down Campus Drive, just on the other side of the house next door. It is the week of the Big Game, after all.

Ran outside with my coworkers to see them and, turns out, they are practicing ON THE ROOF OF THE FRAT HOUSE next door.

How fabulous is that?

They're still playing. And making me feel all cheerful and nostalgic.

I love this place.

on the road in the midwest

A few photographic highlights on and near the road between Chicago and Cleveland. All photos taken Tuesday 24 June.


Tobacco Town/gas station, next to the State Line Fireworks shop. Looks like a dangerous combination to me. Looking north along US 131, between Middlebury, Indiana and White Pigeon, Michigan. (The small blue sign near the center of the horizon marks the state line.)


Sure, you could buy one of those other newspapers, but wouldn't you rather have The Truth? At the Tobacco Town gas station.



Classic American midwest. Isn't it beautiful?


Guilt & Furniture Auction? Why would they auction... oh. That says Quilt. I was lookin' at it quick.


Ohmygosh that street is SO overlook. Really, that's what we both said when we saw the sign. Just east of Cleveland Clinic.


Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the best road sign. Okay, second best. I already mentioned the greatest sign that we spotted on the trip. Driving through Indiana we saw several road signs reading "Co Rd," which we quickly determined stood for "county road." The letters "Co Rd" would be followed by a number and a letter indicating a cardinal direction, something like 300 E or 450 S. So we're driving along and we see a sign that reads:

Co Rd 5OON

What does that look like to you? County Road SOON! Hey dummy, don't miss your exit, 'cause it's comin' up SOON! Whoops, there it went. Gee, thanks for the warning. Anyway when I looked at the sign a second time I realized that the S was in fact a 5. But I wasn't quick enough with the camera. I guess you gotta be ready when the sign says 5OON.

have a seat

I enter the grad student office, a brand new, very large room with plenty of desk space and comfortable chairs, and where do I choose to sit? On the windowsill. One wall of the room is lined with huge recessed windows, twelve of them. I picked the one at the end, in the corner of the room, partially hidden by a filing cabinet. Is anyone surprised?

The one feature of my old apartment that I loved most was the huge picture window in the living room with its long, cushioned windowseat. I spent many a sunny afternoon napping there, and sometimes I sat there with a bowl of cereal as I surveyed the morning school-day traffic below. I could often be found there late at night working on a paper, and not a few times I fell asleep there and would wake up in an hour or so and drag myself to bed. One night, I was just so comfortable there that I fell asleep in the windowseat and did not wake up until well into the morning. Claire had been up all night working on an assignment and left the house early to run an errand on campus. As she was going out the door, she saw me there, asleep and facing the window, which was not covered by its blinds. I guess she considered waking me but just thought it was sort of funny and decided to let me sleep anyway. She told me later that as she was walking to campus she looked up at our window and there I was for the whole world to see, with my face practically pressed up against the glass, my mouth wide open. And when she returned, I had hardly moved a muscle. Do you have any idea how many people walk by that window on their way to school in the morning? Neither do I, but it is a lot. Being on the second floor, we did not normally get people gazing in through our window, but I hope that a good number of them just happened to look up that morning. Because it was sort of funny.

My new apartment was furnished, but I am a little confused. Although we seem to have excess furniture in the areas of clothes dressers and writing desks, the bedrooms are bereft of chairs. maybe they just figured we could sit on the dresser, in the closet, since that is the only place it seems to fit? Oh well, at least I have a windowseat.