What a very good couple of days this has been. I'm in Indiana. I love the Midwest, and I don't even really know why. I began a post before I left about the reasons and the whos and whats and all that, but I don't know if any of that one will make sense anymore. I try to get out here in the fall, but I missed last year, so good thing it worked out this time. I'm traveling with a colleague/friend (work trip this time) whose personality is the yin to my yang, so it's worked out well.
We're based in Indianapolis, which is actually a pretty cool city. I was here several years ago and in the between time they've spruced it up a lot. Midwestern cities are clean in general (except for Gary, Indiana. What the hell happened there?), but this one is really really oddly clean. There's a ton of stuff to do in the downtown area, which I don't remember from before, but my head was in a different space then, and I was traveling with three middle-aged women who didn't want to go anywhere and watched me like a hawk the whole time, so I probably settled for less than exciting stuff. I'm over that kind of thing, obviously. There are several neighborhoods with lots of live music (jazz in particular, which is interesting), an awesome Borders downtown, a nice shopping center with a Nordstrom and everything (big news for this part of the world.) This is good, cause I have a wedding on Saturday almost immediately after I get off the plane, so it'll be good to have a dress since I don't think sweats will work. I get to go to a Pacers game tomorrow with the boys from work, and that should be interesting. And in between I'll learn stuff about how to do my job better, which is really a need lately.
We went to Bloomington yesterday to visit Indiana University. It's such a gorgeous campus and meets my vision of the perfect little college town. I could have really felt better about almost failing out of my freshman year of college if I'd done it somewhere like that instead of skulking around College Park binging on sesame bagels. Yesterday was also notable because I introduced my friend to Steak and Shake - a Midwestern institution whose cherry coke and cheeseburger meal is laced with an addictive drug. It had been way too long. We also drove by the "Classy Chassy Go Go Bar," which merits a mention, for a variety of reasons.
Today we drove to Dayton. Dayton. Haha. So many years ago I lived there, and so much water under the bridge and all that, but not much changes there. I was in town for ten hours but it was good for my tired little soul. I got to go to my grad school campus, and then see a friend of mine who just bought a house right up the street from where I used to live for a RIDICULOUSLY low price compared to Maryland standards. Seriously, he paid 200,000 less than this house would go for at home. Crazy. Still, I was so glad to see his new spot, regardless of the fact that I'll be squatting in a cardboard box for that amount of money at home before it's all said and done. Whatever it is.
It turned out that a friend of mine whose company has a base in Dayton was also in town for the day from Maryland, so she met us and we had dinner at Bravo and drinks at Fridays (fine dining for these parts.) It turned into a day of perfect coincidences and good memories, and that was so great and warm and fuzzy and all that shit that's sometimes lacking. I like when different parts of my life intersect in good ways, considering that most of my friends come from different areas of my life and lots of them don't even know each other. It starts to make a little bit more sense when people come together - especially when they seem to like each other or at least don't stare at each other blankly or with looks of disgust.
Anyway, my Dayton story has been told here in bits and pieces so I won't belabor it. Although it's a place I'd love to live in again for the sense of comfort that it brings me now, I know I won't go back. I need to go somewhere, but it won't be there. I like knowing it's out here, though, with its 24-hour groceries that my major metro area remarkably lacks, and comfortable bookstores and easily driveable roads and familiar places I like to go to and people who seem more concerned about who you are than what you - and they - do. I like going back to UD and seeing the changes in the campus and buying stuff I don't need in the bookstore. I like keeping track of where my life has been, so I can either decide where I don't want to ever go again, or remember stuff I wanted to do that I've conveniently forgotten.
And most of all, I love road trips with someone who sings made up lyrics with me to "Chain Hang Low" and "Word Up," which was the funniest shit ever and for that reason alone made this trip worth it.
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