On the way from Uncle Rodney's wedding, we need food and we see a Subway in a restaurant strip, so we stop in. But I notice also in the strip is a Noble Roman's pizza! So we eat there and I call Anna. We try to get from the interstate to Miami via some "gray roads," which turns out not to be the best idea. It was the shortest route, and certainly the fastest if you knew what you were doing, but so often the road would simply fork with no signs at all! We did our best to approximate the curvature of Rand McNally's approximation, but we were so uncertain, plus it was getting darker by the minute. We decide to stop and as a lady who was out playing with her son. She said to keep going the way we were, and directed us on how to get to the next "major" road. Though more gray roads would have been more direct, we decide to stay on the state or county highway that gets to Oxford. Finally we get there and we call Anna as we're driving into town.
Anna directs us to her studio. We park nearby and she comes out, then gives us a tour of the place. We also meet Ryan, a fellow classmate. Then we drive as she and Ryan walk to her place, since our car is totally stuffed. I drive real slow, creeping up next to them with the lights off as a gag. Then we just go on ahead and they arrive shortly. We see Anna's place, a nice house for many girls that doubles as a campus ministry. The campus minister's office is downstairs by the kitchen. The upstairs is pretty darn hot (though not as hot as the third floor room, which is vacant right now), but fortunately Anna has an AC unit for her room. We walk around campustown and I decide I want to order pizza. Anna gets ice cream, then we come back and I order Papa John's. We sit on the porch, waiting for it to arrive. Anna comments on the number of men who walk past. She is right and I am amazed. It turns out that there is a sportsbar on the corner, pretty much next door. The pizza comes and we go inside. I eat as we talk, and boy do we talk. We talk about, Nikki, Nikki's interesting recent situation with Monty, and Anna spills her feelings that she's not sure she wants to have this major. (She would claim later that all her doubts were because she was on the rag. WHO KNEW!) We come up with a plan for her to investigate changing her major, and don't go to bed until after 5am (EDT). As Christine is getting ready in the bathroom, she comes into Anna's room a little scared asking about a noise. Before she goes back to the bathroom, the noise occurs again, and, yes, it is quite loud and unsettling. But Anna tells us it's just the pipes. Finally we sleep.
Sunday we get up around noon. Anna and I eat the leftover pizza, but we need to get food for Christine, so we drive to Taco Bell. We take a driving tour of campus with stops at the gardens and the enormous rec center (Anna: "Just get up the steps and you're done.") We return to Anna's and plan for the afternoon. The idea of finding an evening church service is scrapped because Anna has lots of work still left to do. So we decide that I'll take a nap and run, and Christine will go to the studio with Anna. As they are about to leave, one of Anna's roommates arrives. We meet her, then go back to the plan. I sleep for a ridiculous 4 hours, getting up finally around 7:30 and go run. Meanwhile, Christine goes to the studio with Anna, where she meets Steve but does not report on the meeting.
I get back from my run and find them on the porch. I shower, we walk around, then we eat at Pedro's, a Mexican place. We sit on the porch for awhile, then Anna goes to get ready for bed. We stay on the porch for a few minutes, and I observe the passersby. We go up to Anna's room and I tell her my estimate that 20 men per hour walk past with no women. If n women walk by in an hour, 20+n men walk by in that time. We do some talking and goofing around in Anna's room, then go to sleep at a very reasonable time, like midnight (which is 11 CDT).
Monday, Anna gets up at 6:30, and we see her off as she is going to visit the Geography department (Urban planning) before class begins. She calls as requested at 8:15, and tells us that the Geography department isn't open! (Some schmuck undergraduate had told her Friday that she could come in at 8.) She plans to stop back there over her lunch hour. We get up and hit the road.
Back to My Journal