Champaign-Urbana II: Saturday
Oct. 3rd, 2003 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipjig3I love birds, except when I hate them.
Something I had forgotten about Champaign-Urbana is that birds tend to congregate by the thousands, usually while on their way to somewhere else. All throughout October you can find trees swarming with starlings, chattering madly for days at a time, loud enough to wake the dead as well as the living. Unfortunately, the trees of choice on this particular Saturday belonged to Jodi's neighbors, and for them, the fun started at daybreak. After a metric not-enough of sleep, we were up and (more or less) moving.
Jodi fried up some scrumptious homemade donuts while we planned out our day. This was Out and About Day, the day I was both looking forward to and dreading. Out and About Day was my chance to explore Campustown, to see just how radically the place has changed. Now, I didn't have any illusions about whether this would be the same CU that I left a decade ago; I'd been steeling myself to the shock of the new for quite some time, through reports from those still here about what was gone and what remained. Just as long as some things remained, as long as the spirit remained, then...well, then I could consider moving back without shattering my heart too badly.
But I had to see it with my own eyes. Just to see.
We parked near the technical and engineering section of campus to the north, which as a liberal crunchy-granola English Lit major I'd never hung around much. But my memories of the area were sharp, centered around a few new, modernly sterile edifices like Beckman, with a knot of ugly 1950's brick closer to Green Street. Which is why I almost fell over to see...empty space. With grass on it. And an enormous alumni-sponsored abstract sculpture smack in the middle of it. All of this where a depressing brick building was supposed to be. Now, I know that this is a vast improvement, and given the old view and the new view, I certainly know which one I'd rather look at. But the change was so radical, that...that... I mean, even Boneyard Creek looked like a real body of water. I reminisced about that foot-wide concrete girder that passed for a bridge, which we'd shimmy across when heading to CERL for late-night Plato-gaming. Now there's...a bridge.
It wasn't until later that I nearly broke down and gave up on the town altogether. Nearly wadded up my dreams and tossed them away.
We cut through the Quad for a bit but didn't linger, since I'd seen it on Friday. Instead, we zipped across to Johnstown Center, where I tried not to mourn the shell that used to hold the Daily Grind, and the Panini that once was home to Coslow's blessed Irish nachos. It's not the individual stores and restaurants, I thought, it's the whole gestalt, the, I dunno, the Chambananess of it all. So we turned down Sixth Street to head to Green, the main drag. And there I saw...nothing.
Nothing. TIS Bookstore was open, but everything else, almost right down to the corner, was empty storefronts. I mean, even the fast-food joints were gone. How can a college that size not support fast food just a block from classes? And this is where my faulty assumptions became clear. See, I was fully expecting a lot, even most, of my favorite places to be gone, because that's the nature of college towns: old nifty places go away, new nifty places pop up in their place. What I hadn't counted on was the nifty places going away, but nothing coming in to fill in the holes.
When I was a student, nobody had cars (I think the only one who did was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
odhierre), so you either had to hop the bus (which was very campus-centric) or walk. So all of the good stuff, the movie theatres, the restaurants, the coffeehouses, all clustered right in that same area. But now the students all drive, and they're heading out to that nauseating sprawl north on Champaign that has grown like kudzu. So now, the amount of things worth seeing on Green Street range from slim to none, and the things that are there are just shadows of past glory. I walked into Record Service to find no customers, and CD racks only a quarter full with stock, barely hanging on. I very nearly wept. I very nearly went home.
So we didn't stay there long. Instead we beelined for downtown Champaign, which is just beginning to turn into what I'd always loved about Campustown, with cool shops and restaurants, and (glory be!) actual atmosphere. It didn't take long for my mood to take a turn for the better; I could already feel my dreams taking shape again, only about a mile away from where they used to be planted. We made a pilgrimage to Dragon's Hoard Jewelers, so that I could fulfill my Quest for a silver ring (more on that another day), then had wicked-hot pad Thai with the always-magnificent, never-changing, haven't-seen-in-eons Theo, who seemed very pleasantly flabbergasted to be having lunch with us. If I've accomplished anything on this trip, it's that I've gotten folks to remember all of the other folks who never escaped Champaign either, and to wonder what they're doing for dinner this week.
After a few more shopping stops, we crashed a bit before undertaking the task that was the stated purpose of my visit. Jodi, you see, had gotten me the plane tickets under the proviso that I cook. (Well, just twist my arm...) We'd decided on Thousand-Year-Sauce Chicken (which I hadn't made in almost as long as I'd been away), Roasted Garlic Green Beans, and Basmati Rice, with apple pie Jodi had made earlier. All simple, straighforward, and quite the yummy. So we cooked, and I watched the clock, and I paced, and I cooked some more, and I wrung my hands.
Because Company was coming.
First came Michael and Beth, still charming as ever, and Jodi's lovely friend Heather. Then it wasianphanes, and Mike and Chris, whom I'd seen exactly twice in eight years, both times at weddings, which I've decided is not nearly enough. Later came (*happy sigh*) Ken and Les, who were such sights for sore eyes I nearly fainted. And with all of them came one of the absolutely best nights I've had in recent memory. I can't even begin to summarize, but here's what I can tell you about the highlights:
* excellent food, if I do say so myself
* much passing about of the Lemmings Encyclopedia and that Gordian knot of a relationship chart
* my attempts at summarizing Lauren for Michael, Beth and Heather, which was more difficult than I'd expected
* a glorious outdoor fire in Jodi's fire pit, complete with marshmallow immolation
* an ongoing battle for couch space, which overlapped with the scramble for cuddling quite nicely
* a backrub to die for from Ken
* some great storytelling (like exactly why Mike had to drive a school bus to a strip club that one time)
* so many hugs I had to pack some in my suitcase for later
Unfortunately, my friends have an excellent memory, and needed no reminding that (a) I'm hideously ticklish; (b) I'm especially susceptible to long-distance psychic tickling; and (c) according to them, I giggle entertainingly when this happens. I think I lost a significant percentage of brain cells that night due to oxygen deprivation...
But everybody, and I mean everybody, had a wonderful time. It was especially nice seeing as how the mingling of tribes (in this case, the folks who knew each other back when and the friends Jodi has made since) can sometimes be awkward. Not in this case: I even got a hug from Michael before we left, which is a good thing indeed.
In this year of transition and doubt, I often felt like I'd forgotten what joy was like in my life, at least for a short while. I just want you all to know that I have no intention of ever forgetting it again. I just needed reminding.
Something I had forgotten about Champaign-Urbana is that birds tend to congregate by the thousands, usually while on their way to somewhere else. All throughout October you can find trees swarming with starlings, chattering madly for days at a time, loud enough to wake the dead as well as the living. Unfortunately, the trees of choice on this particular Saturday belonged to Jodi's neighbors, and for them, the fun started at daybreak. After a metric not-enough of sleep, we were up and (more or less) moving.
Jodi fried up some scrumptious homemade donuts while we planned out our day. This was Out and About Day, the day I was both looking forward to and dreading. Out and About Day was my chance to explore Campustown, to see just how radically the place has changed. Now, I didn't have any illusions about whether this would be the same CU that I left a decade ago; I'd been steeling myself to the shock of the new for quite some time, through reports from those still here about what was gone and what remained. Just as long as some things remained, as long as the spirit remained, then...well, then I could consider moving back without shattering my heart too badly.
But I had to see it with my own eyes. Just to see.
We parked near the technical and engineering section of campus to the north, which as a liberal crunchy-granola English Lit major I'd never hung around much. But my memories of the area were sharp, centered around a few new, modernly sterile edifices like Beckman, with a knot of ugly 1950's brick closer to Green Street. Which is why I almost fell over to see...empty space. With grass on it. And an enormous alumni-sponsored abstract sculpture smack in the middle of it. All of this where a depressing brick building was supposed to be. Now, I know that this is a vast improvement, and given the old view and the new view, I certainly know which one I'd rather look at. But the change was so radical, that...that... I mean, even Boneyard Creek looked like a real body of water. I reminisced about that foot-wide concrete girder that passed for a bridge, which we'd shimmy across when heading to CERL for late-night Plato-gaming. Now there's...a bridge.
It wasn't until later that I nearly broke down and gave up on the town altogether. Nearly wadded up my dreams and tossed them away.
We cut through the Quad for a bit but didn't linger, since I'd seen it on Friday. Instead, we zipped across to Johnstown Center, where I tried not to mourn the shell that used to hold the Daily Grind, and the Panini that once was home to Coslow's blessed Irish nachos. It's not the individual stores and restaurants, I thought, it's the whole gestalt, the, I dunno, the Chambananess of it all. So we turned down Sixth Street to head to Green, the main drag. And there I saw...nothing.
Nothing. TIS Bookstore was open, but everything else, almost right down to the corner, was empty storefronts. I mean, even the fast-food joints were gone. How can a college that size not support fast food just a block from classes? And this is where my faulty assumptions became clear. See, I was fully expecting a lot, even most, of my favorite places to be gone, because that's the nature of college towns: old nifty places go away, new nifty places pop up in their place. What I hadn't counted on was the nifty places going away, but nothing coming in to fill in the holes.
When I was a student, nobody had cars (I think the only one who did was
odhierre), so you either had to hop the bus (which was very campus-centric) or walk. So all of the good stuff, the movie theatres, the restaurants, the coffeehouses, all clustered right in that same area. But now the students all drive, and they're heading out to that nauseating sprawl north on Champaign that has grown like kudzu. So now, the amount of things worth seeing on Green Street range from slim to none, and the things that are there are just shadows of past glory. I walked into Record Service to find no customers, and CD racks only a quarter full with stock, barely hanging on. I very nearly wept. I very nearly went home.So we didn't stay there long. Instead we beelined for downtown Champaign, which is just beginning to turn into what I'd always loved about Campustown, with cool shops and restaurants, and (glory be!) actual atmosphere. It didn't take long for my mood to take a turn for the better; I could already feel my dreams taking shape again, only about a mile away from where they used to be planted. We made a pilgrimage to Dragon's Hoard Jewelers, so that I could fulfill my Quest for a silver ring (more on that another day), then had wicked-hot pad Thai with the always-magnificent, never-changing, haven't-seen-in-eons Theo, who seemed very pleasantly flabbergasted to be having lunch with us. If I've accomplished anything on this trip, it's that I've gotten folks to remember all of the other folks who never escaped Champaign either, and to wonder what they're doing for dinner this week.
After a few more shopping stops, we crashed a bit before undertaking the task that was the stated purpose of my visit. Jodi, you see, had gotten me the plane tickets under the proviso that I cook. (Well, just twist my arm...) We'd decided on Thousand-Year-Sauce Chicken (which I hadn't made in almost as long as I'd been away), Roasted Garlic Green Beans, and Basmati Rice, with apple pie Jodi had made earlier. All simple, straighforward, and quite the yummy. So we cooked, and I watched the clock, and I paced, and I cooked some more, and I wrung my hands.
Because Company was coming.
First came Michael and Beth, still charming as ever, and Jodi's lovely friend Heather. Then it was
ianphanes, and Mike and Chris, whom I'd seen exactly twice in eight years, both times at weddings, which I've decided is not nearly enough. Later came (*happy sigh*) Ken and Les, who were such sights for sore eyes I nearly fainted. And with all of them came one of the absolutely best nights I've had in recent memory. I can't even begin to summarize, but here's what I can tell you about the highlights:* excellent food, if I do say so myself
* much passing about of the Lemmings Encyclopedia and that Gordian knot of a relationship chart
* my attempts at summarizing Lauren for Michael, Beth and Heather, which was more difficult than I'd expected
* a glorious outdoor fire in Jodi's fire pit, complete with marshmallow immolation
* an ongoing battle for couch space, which overlapped with the scramble for cuddling quite nicely
* a backrub to die for from Ken
* some great storytelling (like exactly why Mike had to drive a school bus to a strip club that one time)
* so many hugs I had to pack some in my suitcase for later
Unfortunately, my friends have an excellent memory, and needed no reminding that (a) I'm hideously ticklish; (b) I'm especially susceptible to long-distance psychic tickling; and (c) according to them, I giggle entertainingly when this happens. I think I lost a significant percentage of brain cells that night due to oxygen deprivation...
But everybody, and I mean everybody, had a wonderful time. It was especially nice seeing as how the mingling of tribes (in this case, the folks who knew each other back when and the friends Jodi has made since) can sometimes be awkward. Not in this case: I even got a hug from Michael before we left, which is a good thing indeed.
In this year of transition and doubt, I often felt like I'd forgotten what joy was like in my life, at least for a short while. I just want you all to know that I have no intention of ever forgetting it again. I just needed reminding.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-03 09:33 pm (UTC)You do much better than giggle entertainingly. You squeak and turn multiple entertaining shades of red. I noticed that you turn more rose than pink.
And it was very good to see you again.
Misbehave yourself!
-
*waves at odhierre*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-05 07:16 pm (UTC)And it was very good to see you again.
Wonderful to see you, too. Hopefully it won't be so long next time.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-04 01:29 am (UTC)Oh, and i'm glad you had a chance to get back in touch with your inspiration. Everyone needs to keep that song in their heart.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-05 07:18 pm (UTC)Hee!
Date: 2003-10-04 10:32 am (UTC)So, exactly why DID Mike have to drive a school bus to a strip club that one time?
Re: Hee!
Date: 2003-10-05 07:19 pm (UTC)The bus thing was simple: a private group had chartered it for a party.
turn, turn, turn
Date: 2003-10-05 11:39 am (UTC)Nothing. TIS Bookstore was open, but everything else, almost right down to the corner, was empty storefronts. I mean, even the fast-food joints were gone. How can a college that size not support fast food just a block from classes?
Partially you are seeing the result of a massive construction project that just finished last month. Sixth from John to Green was closed, and a lot of the businesses went broke. Green was also closed earlier in the year, and this has hurt local stores. Babbitt's (a/k/a Acres Of Books) sold everything off a couple weeks ago -- and since the used bookstore beneath the Y closed a few years ago (you never heard of the used bookstore beneath the Y? neither did anyone else, which may have been the problem), there are no secondhand book places in Campustown. New book stores have survived but cut their stock; the new University store's experiment in Two Floors Of Scholarly Books came to an end last year with a return to the Illini gear they used to sell in the Union.
One of the stranger consequences of everyone having cars is the growth of gated upscale student apartment complexes well away from campus. Several younger students I know live in Melrose (north on Lincoln) and Sterling Fields (north Savoy), which are miles outside of the funky walkable student ghetto. How do you have a real social life if your friends can't wander over and hang out?
Lack of fast food is baffling. Nobody's driving to North Prospect to grab a burger. A lot of the fast food places moved into the Union basement, of course, and local establishments like Zorba's and Za's are still doing fine. It may be that Green Street from Sixth to Wright is too expensive to rent. I don't know.
If you want to feel like nothing has changed, don't walk through campus, walk through near Urbana and apartmentland Champaign. Cheapskate landlords milking money out of decaying old houses will never renovate anything. :-)
Re: turn, turn, turn
Date: 2003-10-05 07:25 pm (UTC)Zorba's' continued existence is heartening, even though I've never eaten there. But what gives with Garcia's on Wright Street being gone? That's...wrong.
And yeah, I noticed that apartment complexes seem to be The Thing around town these days. I guess entrepreneurs finally realized that no one actually leaves town.