Hyde Park in the Moonlight

The quadrangles take on a different air when dusk sets in, flowers and trees and freshly paved paths casting streetlit shadows or morphing from green to black with the coming darkness. They tell us it isn't safe, but if you have company, it's beautiful to walk around.

Saturday night I cut through the newly landscaped main quad to return to Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap for a "Last Night of the Summer" beer with the group. It reconfirmed my attitude towards bars: they're loud. So loud that I have to speak up and keep my ears firmly attuned to hear, and this after mastering the art of keeping my voice level all summer! It also reconfirmed my almost-forgotten attitude towards Pilsner Urquell: one of the best beers on the planet. (Old Style, as Marc would say, is just a PBR variation and not a good one at that...sorry Chicago.)

But I go to bars not necessarily for the atmosphere or the beer but for the conversation, and a completely different bunch was there for the second get-together. Peter came by, which was terrific, but I also met Karen, who lives in our building (the only other one so far and who moved in yesterday...not the Karen who resembles Lisa and will run board game night but a short blonde who reminds me physically of Diana Santangelo, BHS Orchestra Concertmaster)...and Bailey, who triple-majored in English, Japanese and Film, once interned for some of the greatest magazines on Earth, and who lights up when you tell her you got to meet Werner Herzog. And there were reacquaintances with Phil the talkative philosopher, Jamie, the gentle giant of a historian who went downtown with Julie and I back in April, and Davis, the cinematic man who loves good music.

And yesterday, after I took a walk to Promentory Point and read the Letter to the Romans in an essential bit of soul-searching which left me with much peace of mind, I had my first MAPH event: the barbecue and picnic. Now, the only problem here was that I had so many people I wanted to have conversations with and so little time (could have kept it going at Jimmy's afterwards, but saving my money and have little inclination for more to drink after a heavy meal). But I WAS able to meet Abigail Zitin, my preceptor, who has absolutely NO stuffiness and is great to talk to, and I re-met all the program heads...Professor Levin now has a beard, but Professor Miller still looks like Gary Sinise...and Lindsey, the big-hearted social services worker...who distinctly remembered our talk from Campus Days as much as I did (and like Danny found me on YouTube). There were more hellos, more spouses and significant others, a great Hitchcock movie (Oh Grace Kelly...), and enough pork, beef, coleslaw, baked beans, and barbecue sauce and cornbread and wine to feed a Napoleonic brigade. We shall definitely be marching on our stomachs today for the first lecture.

So the last thing to ponder as day starts to break over Hyde Park...WHY is my Internet suddenly working better after Peter and I plunk down $80 for a modem and $20 a month for access? Ah, well, better safe than sorry...