![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Joyce and I spent the weekend in Champaign, Illinois. It was a great time, it was fun seeing everyone, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
filkertom was great, and it was fun going back to Champaign. I went to school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, way back in what's increasingly seeming like the mists of time. I liked the place. I don't visit very often (it's 250 miles/ 400km away from Milwaukee) but it's always fun to wander around the campus a bit. It's always different. New buildings everywhere. There is a bell tower at the south end of campus now. A bell tower. Someone with a lot of money wanted something tall with his name on it. And I guess the south end of campus needed it's own bell tower, to match the tower with chimes that's been toward the north for the last hundred years. I'm telling you, if I ever end up with a fortune to donate, I am going to endow the Beige Fund For Routine Maintenance And Dull But Important Minor Renovation. At first, no one will notice. After twenty years, every single thing on campus will have a tiny little (beige) plaque saying something like "Roof repair paid for by Beige Fund For Routine Maintenance" or "New floor paid for by..." or "working toilet paid for by..." or "office renovated such that both a desk and a chair will fit at the same time paid for by..." and so on.
Back in the day, I made the drive between Chicago and Champaign many times. It's fun to do it again, and pass by all the tiny towns I've never actually been in with the familiar names on the signs on the Interstate exits. Central Illinois is flat. It is what Ostfriesland reminds me of, for those of you who know that part of the world. I joke about the highway overpasses being high ground from which you can see a great distance, but in fact it is true. It's pretty in a way that maybe you only appreciate if you spend some years there. I love southeastern Wisconsin, the big lake, the glacial hills to ski on, but I really did like central Illinois. (And, indeed, can't get over how oddly like 'home' Ostfriesland feels.)
filkertom was great, and it was fun going back to Champaign. I went to school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, way back in what's increasingly seeming like the mists of time. I liked the place. I don't visit very often (it's 250 miles/ 400km away from Milwaukee) but it's always fun to wander around the campus a bit. It's always different. New buildings everywhere. There is a bell tower at the south end of campus now. A bell tower. Someone with a lot of money wanted something tall with his name on it. And I guess the south end of campus needed it's own bell tower, to match the tower with chimes that's been toward the north for the last hundred years. I'm telling you, if I ever end up with a fortune to donate, I am going to endow the Beige Fund For Routine Maintenance And Dull But Important Minor Renovation. At first, no one will notice. After twenty years, every single thing on campus will have a tiny little (beige) plaque saying something like "Roof repair paid for by Beige Fund For Routine Maintenance" or "New floor paid for by..." or "working toilet paid for by..." or "office renovated such that both a desk and a chair will fit at the same time paid for by..." and so on. Back in the day, I made the drive between Chicago and Champaign many times. It's fun to do it again, and pass by all the tiny towns I've never actually been in with the familiar names on the signs on the Interstate exits. Central Illinois is flat. It is what Ostfriesland reminds me of, for those of you who know that part of the world. I joke about the highway overpasses being high ground from which you can see a great distance, but in fact it is true. It's pretty in a way that maybe you only appreciate if you spend some years there. I love southeastern Wisconsin, the big lake, the glacial hills to ski on, but I really did like central Illinois. (And, indeed, can't get over how oddly like 'home' Ostfriesland feels.)
