So we left on our vacation yesterday.
Today was a Driving Day; get from northern Indiana to Louisville, with a stop in Bloomington along the way. I haven’t been in Bloomington for years, so it was great to get back into town. Also, we got to explain what “college” is to the boy. We only really had time to eat lunch and tour the southwestern part of campus, but that’s where most of the fun stuff is so it worked out.
Wright Quad! The window to the left of the door there was my dorm room the only year that living in the dorms mattered. I considered trying to swing by my apartment my junior and senior year and then realized I probably couldn’t find it without thinking hard.
Some things never change; there are still shoes dangling from damn near every overhead power line. Don’t ask.
Some things do change: The Von Lee used to be a movie theater. The building is still there, and it’s still the Von Lee, but it’s apparently a Noodles now? Which I feel may be a bit of a demotion.
Sample Gates, the unofficial doorway to campus. My favorite Sample Gates story has nothing to do with me: my brother was going to propose to his fiancee (now wife) there, but had to rapidly abort and find another location when someone else was already proposing when they got there.
Most of the buildings on campus are made from southern Indiana limestone. I always enjoyed this quote, especially the odd hyphen in “master-spirit.”
My wife, a journalism major, poses with Ernie Pyle, an IU grad. The boy appears less certain about him.
The Student Building. It’s not called that for any clear reason that I was ever aware of, but I’ve always loved the clock tower. 
Herman B. Wells and his Missing Cane. This statue and the flowers around it are new since I was there. The pained look on the boy’s face is because that’s a bronze bench and it was hot outside; to his credit, he allowed us to photograph him before remarking that he was partially on fire. 
Immediately behind where the last picture was. 
The mighty Jordan River! Shut up it is mighty.
I am aware, intellectually, that I have the sky and clouds at home, and that the sky at home is the same sky that I look at when I’m in Bloomington, but I swear the skies are prettier down here anyway. God, I miss this town.
We swung by my mom’s childhood house in Bedford at her request and I managed to stealth a couple of pictures of the house without the current homeowners noticing. I remember this hill being a lot steeper and taller, but that’s what 30-year-old memories will do for you:
I played on this rock a lot as a little kid. Couldn’t resist having the boy take a picture there. 
WOO KENTUCKY.
Today, I shall pet a giraffe.
So as goofy and simplistic as they are these actually kind of represent some progress; I’m starting to draw original pictures rather than copying something that’s in front of me, and at the suggestion of drawabox.com I’ve switched to working with pens rather than pencils because they force me to stop and think before making a mark on a piece of paper. Sooner or later I will start doing little cartoon dudes with, like, bodies and shit, but I’m not quite there yet. Just faces for right now.
I got nothing– and what with Black Friday being tomorrow and having to spend the next million hours at work, I’m not about to get any more talkative. So you get to look at this for a while. Happy Thanksgiving! Iä!
