Drove down to Shampoo-Banana on Thursday evening. I left about two hours later than I had anticipated I would but arrived around 9:30... pretty good time was made despite the cruddy weather. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Urbana (highly recommended) at a GREAT rate thanks to knowing the right people (what's up, Cabaj)!
Decided right away that business travel was never in the cards for me because I do NOT like being alone in a hotel room. As I said at some point during the weekend, me and silence don't really get along. As the best reading material I'd brought with me was Ramona Quimby, Age 8, I hit the sack relatively early.
The first of my two on-campus sections met at the Union. I had a former student of mine who is now a junior at UIUC procure me a day permit for the Block-I meters and had no problem finding a space in Lot D-10 (remember this for later), right in front of the Natural History building (which is directly next door to the Union).
The "classroom" for the 403 session was... HILARIOUS. We basically ended up in what I like to call "Granny's Attic", complete with random ceiling angles and floral upholstery wallpaper. I was quickly reunited with 14.1 friends Nicole, Carolyn, Esme, Ben, Jason, and Rina... so fun to see familiar faces. Familiar voices, however, can be a lot more freaky. When a VERY familar voice asked "Is this 403?", my head whipped around to see our professor, Debra Mitts-Smith, who we had never laid eyes on over the course of the first half of the semester. How weird to be aquainted with someone's voice but not be able to recognized them! It's also funny how I felt like I "knew" some other people because I'd seen their pictures and read their posts and chats. I got a chance to sit with Erica and Lisa - new "familiar" friends... and total crackups.
The seven hour class FLEW by, especially because my afternoon break was SO AWESOME. I met with my former students, Molly & Mike, right in front of the Union for what was supposed to be a brief reunion hug and what turned out to be an hour long trip down memory lane. As I have long since left their elementary school (and they have, too), it was fun to hear what they'd been up to. I complained to them that the undergrad girls of UIUC have let themselves go even FURTHER than when I was here... sweatpants, the aptly named UGGs and messy almost completely to the front ponytails seem to be all the rage - and ladies, you are a HOT MESS. But, maybe that's what they're going for.
At 5pm, I headed back down to my car to give Jason a lift to the Urbana Free Library reception and meet Allison at the HIE... and what awaits me on the windshield of my perfectly legally parked car? Yep. $20 parking ticket. I HAD A PERMIT PEOPLE.
So I took a picture of the permit and the ticket and emailed it off to the NOW CLOSED Parking Department. Stay tuned...
Reunited with my 1 of my Boot Camp BFFs and quickly learned that her unborn child (heretofore referred to as "Baby LEEP" --> Laura [for the other BFF] Elizabeth [for me] Estabrook [for the force that brought us together] Patricia [for the "P"]) wanted Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. I *knew* I loved that kid. Waited for BFF #2 to arrive from the STL area and away we went.
After dinner, we welcomed the Good Doctor (Meredith) to the party that was HIE Room 201... and promptly hit the sack.
This blog is the perfect LEEP scrapbook. :)
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