No, Really. I'm Done.

I know I've said this twice before, but my stint really is at an end in Admissions. Now in the final days of my second summer in this office, I don't have my camera around to take cute pictures of toilet paper holders and the Director of Admissions. I don't have any puns left up my sleeve. In fact, I haven't got much to say at all. In two days, training begins for Orientation Leaders (like me) and on Sunday, New Students arrive. This is the lull before the semester starts and it is eerie.

After work today, I'm heading down to the Turtle Creek Bookstore to take advantage of being one of the first on campus and nabbing the used books on the stacks. I know this makes me sound like an economical, motivated student, but the truth about the rest of my afternoon paints me a little bit lazy. Ready?

I'm supposed to have read the common reading for New Student Days by now. This book was sent to all OLs and New Students at the beginning of the summer with instructions to have it read cover to cover before setting foot on campus. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is a book that's been on my own personal reading list since last summer. I think I actually slipped up and said "yay" when I heard it was the selection for this year. And yet, somehow, I still have a hundred pages to go.

Historically speaking, I'm not procrastinator, but this first academic assignment after a summer full of 700-word articles on the NY Times website is posing me a bit of a challenge. So, this afternoon I'm buying as many used books as I can find off my list and turning to the one book that's been on my desk all summer. I'm sitting down in the coffee shop on Pleasant Street and I'm not getting up until I'm done.

It's time to put away my summer brain and get to work. Wishing you all the best in doing the same.

Au cinéma!

Coming from the wilds of Vermont, I don't have a lot of celebrity sightings to my name. I won't lead you on: this post isn't about Britney Spears crashing Beloit, although this isn't a bad story either.

Last year at this time, I spent a weekend in Chicago with my friend Karen '10 (a Chi native & Midwestern enthusiast). After dinner downtown, we got a little turned around and wandered onto a deserted street. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday and the road was littered with broken glass and trucks with shot out windows. After a couple minutes, we started seeing trailers and food carts. Walking through the scene was even fun once we realized the bazooka-sized holes in the cop cars were just part of the movie magic. We had no idea what was being filmed at the time and I've been on the look-out ever since. Fortunately, Karen and I took a snapped a couple photos on our adventure. The most memorable was this semi:

Reads: "Slaughter is the best medicine."

Those of you who have recently seen "The Dark Knight" will recognize this as the vehicle Heath Ledger's Joker takes during the street chase. Yes, Karen and I wandered onto the Batman set.

I don't go to the movies all that often, but when Shelley '09 called on Sunday night, I decided it would be worth $8 to see the late Mr. Ledger totter around in candy striper outfit. When the temperature stays above 75 (F) after sunset, there are few places I would rather be than a cool, dark movie theater. As for our choice of film, I'm glad I saw it up on the big screen. The Joker did not disappoint and I finally ID-ed the set from last summer.

In current events, Sports Camps has arrived and campus is infested with children. Professors are showing up en masse. New Student Days are drawing near. By next week, this blog will be turned back over to academic goals and big plans. It's that time again...

Trailing Off & Sufyawning

Summer is flying by, but my reading list is still rather long. I'm trying to get myself into the literary groove by treating myself to such francophile trash as Stephen Clarke's Merde Happens and alternately forcing myself to pick up Light in August (because I'm in that Faulkner/Oprah's Book Club kind of mood).

This weekend was calm. I spent Saturday night down in Glen Ellyn, IL visiting a friend from the running team. It was the first reunion since her semester in Greece and my stint in France. We had a delicious brunch and her dogs filled my affection quota for the week-- it was just what I needed.

Returning to Beloit on Sunday, I went for a long run out in the Turtle Creek flood plain. In the summer months and during the off-season in general, I take off my watch for long runs. I love picking a route by distance and going the miles at a pace that just plain feels good. Down on the trails, Beloit is green and with my weekend schedule wide-open, I can afford to go any extra twenty-minutes if I've got the energy to spare.

[Above: one of the trails by Turtle Creek.]

After my run Sunday evening, I stumbled back to campus pretty exhausted. It was only seven o'clock, so I cleaned up, made my favorite spinach/raspberry/feta salad, and settled in to do something I hadn't done in a long time: I sat in my room to listen to music and enjoy the air conditioning.

Taking a slow evening of old Sufjan Stevens, trashy reading from the public library, and catching up with family on the phone feels a lot like a good tooth brushing: healthy. So, with August and the fall semester fast upon us, I'm milking the merde of the end of July. Hope you all have a very relaxing week, wherever you may be.

Port-A-John Stamos

This weekend was Beloit's annual Riverfest down on the banks of the Rock River. While I had a great weekend and caught up with some of my favorite Beloise passing through town, the highlight of the weekend was Sunday night at Riverfest. Shelley '09 drove down to accompany me to the Beach Boys concert. We met up with Sophie'09, Ben '09, Alicia '09 & Zach before the show and tried to get excited about the concert. It's funny to think that there are only one or two members of the original gang left on the circuit, but it takes no stretch of the imagination to see how all the Beach Boys classics could be decently performed by pretty much anybody.
Now, to the title: Riverfest ("The Ultimate Rock Festival") is always a little, how shall we say... unusual. It's a true cultural experience. This year, that experience was enhanced by the guest performance of John Stamos on percussion for the Beach Boys. We got a great look at the Port-A-Johns, Uncle Jesse was too far away to see in any detail. Happy to report that even from a distance, he still seems to maintain a great head of hair.

I'll confess that I didn't go into Riverfest last year. It's right down the hill from Campus and you can get the gist of things just hanging out on Aldrich Field. I'm a firm believer in paying for live music and I can't say the Beach Boys disappointed. And as a closeted Full House fan, you know I was just livin the dream.

In Pursuit of the Fifth Season*

To make the most of the three-day weekend, I drove to Iowa to visit some friends from the Cross Country team. Karen '10 is doing an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) in Cedar Rapids and Stutz '10 is measuring Echinacea up in Western Minnesota, but we all managed to make our way in for the Fourth.

Eastern Iowa isn’t flat. Yes, contrary to all my mental images of the most industrial state in the nation, the land rolls. The goal of the visit was to see some runners, run around somewhere new, and maybe make it over to Des Moines for the 80/35 Festival to see The Roots and Yonder Mountian String Band. Happy to report we were successful on all fronts.

Since we were able-bodied and in town, it seemed as though we ought to pitch in on the flood relief work. Cedar Rapids seems like it must be a vibrant community with a good sense of humor, but as you should have heard by now, the place is devastated.

We spent Saturday gutting a couple houses with crowbars and hammers. The second house wasn’t as badly damaged as the first and it was off the main street in a more residential area. The owner is a single woman and the water line is six feet high on the wall. Her wedding dress and a yearbook were the only signs leftover from her old life— needless to say, the city is eerie and the amount of work left to be done is overwhelming. The experience has me thinking back to two events from my first year at Beloit:

1. Matt Tedesco's FYI discussions about our responsibility to aid distant persons in the face of disaster. My seminar was entitled "Natural Disasters: Questions of Faith, Morality & Science" and we spent a lot of time discussing situations much like this one.

2. Down on the level of muscle memory, tearing down soft walls of sheet rock brought my mind back to the walls I cut and put up with the Beloit chapter of Habitat for Humanity during that spring semester two years ago.

Draw your own conclusions from that list. I'm too wiped out to fill in the blanks for you. But here, I'll tie this up: played cribbage, caught up, and returned to Beloit exhausted. And as for the fireworks? Not bad.

(*If you don't understand this title, it's not your fault. It just means you're not from Iowa. Click this link and check out the city motto: it reeks of Iowa and I'm not talking about cows.)

I'm a Winner!

A big theme for my life this summer is "change of plans." Last week, this meant foregoing LeAnn Rimes & Gnarls Barkley for MiniGolf & Go-Carts. I change my plans a lot, but this post isn't about indecisiveness or how stormy it was all weekend, because there is something more pressing to discuss. That's right, I won a game of Mini Golf for the first time ever. I putted two under par at Volcano Falls in Rockford, IL running on only the power of tuna fish and Triscuits. I know, I know. I'm massively impressive. We were initially a little concerned about getting everyone in considering the 58" minimum height requirement, but on our tip-toes, both Ashley and I made it over the bar.
Above: Hazel '11 starts off the round at the first hole. Behind her, JuliaBeloit, Bridget '08, and CaitlinBeloit.
After 18 holes, we settled back on the track for some automotive harassment by Ashley. She's the one in the pink car. If I had any nagging concerns about her abilities behind the wheel before putting her in a Go-Cart, last Thursday only served to confirmed them. Just goes to show you can take a girl out of Massachusetts, but you can never teach her how to drive responsibly.

Messages to take home: I'm a winner. Go-Carts are winners. Drive safe, Massachusites.

In the Spirit of the 2008 Presidential Campaign Season:

Here are more promises chalked on a blog along with some details that don't make a huge difference in your day-to-day life! (Can you tell the election coverage is starting to get to me?)

I'm pooped. Today was our first Summer Visit Day of three and though the June crowd turns out about half the number of visitors we will see in August, everyone in the office looks like they could use a nap. It's Friday afternoon, but the week is ending on an upbeat: Summer Visit Days are some of my favorite of the summer. Hundreds of people roaming campus, excited about Beloit, wanting to talk about what happens here... it's a nice change of pace from the weekday trickle of guests off I-90.

I mean it. I do. And I know I sound tired, but brace yourself, because here comes some optimism and the future tense:

Next Monday, I, JuliaBeloit, will put up some pictures of last nights Go-Cart/MiniGolfing adventure. I will post my review of Pixar's latest robot love story (WALL-E). And most importantly, I will call my mother. Now that's change I can believe in!

Thanks to all the prospies and their patient parents who dropped by campus today. We had a blast and hope you also enjoyed the mini-pastries!

Milk It

June is Dairy Month in America's Dairyland. The Walworth County Dairy Breakfast has been going on for 33 years. I've attended twice. The drive from Rock County up to Walworth is worth the gas money for the events at the fair grounds. Caitlin and I woke up early on Saturday morning and took a drive for our breakfast.

The main attraction is the food. Arriving at 8:30 AM, we missed the coffee cake, but got our $6 worth of pancakes, OJ, milk, string cheese, eggs, and sausage. (Above: Caitlin looking a little over-excited.)
Also featured: the petting zoo. It's a pretty basic array of ponies, sheep, roosters, and cows.

Favorite attraction: Cow Plop Bingo. (Chalk a grid in a pen. Keep feeding the Cow. Bet and wait.)

The main draw to this event is the company. I love watching the milk chugging contest and listening to the awards for dairy production in the county. It's nice to eat breakfast at a table full of families or to be a part of the crowd cheering on the Dairy Princess in her epic battle at the udder against the local State Representative.

I spent the rest of my day at the Farmer's Market back in Beloit, reading out in the sun. Went up to Kettle Moraine on Sunday morning to run trails with a few teammates. Barbequed in Waukesha and did an 11 PM grocery run to get set for the week. Spent Monday feeling wiped out, but I guess that's a sign of time well spent.

Good weather all weekend? Yeah, we milked it.

First Day of Summer: Friday Files

This week has been quiet. The Snapper's played away and the weather was erie and calm after last weeks light show. Today is the first day of summer and there's still not much to blog about. Here's what I'm waiting on:

• The Rock River to crest. The college is safe up here on the hill, but everyone down on the floodplane is still holding their breath.
• The Walworth County Dairy Breakfast tomorrow morning.
• Post-pancakes, catching the train into Chicago to visit with some Beloise and some Francais.
• SummerFest up in Milwaukee-- although I'm not headed up until next Thursday.
• Summer Visit Day #1-- next Friday.
• Tonight, when I will finish off my latest stab at homemade salad dressing over dinner.

Pictures captioned with exciting recountings of these events to come. Hope you're all on dry land!

Fast Forward

Six months later, I'm back in Admissions for the summer shift.

Let's bring the blog up to speed: France was lovely, thanks for asking. Yes, I'm psyched for autumn to arrive and seeing all the Beloise together again. Reintroduced myself to fast food and stick shift and drove 1300 miles last week to get here. Caught a little bit of Blues Fest in Chicago on my way through. That's about it.

At the risk of overgeneralizing, things are good. Sure, sure the Midwest is flooding, but my fridge is full of lettuce and the air conditioning is bliss. As my friends roll back through town on the road between semesters abroad and summer internships, I've had some great lunch dates, but between catching up and unpacking, I haven't got much in the way of blog-worthy news.

Ducking out (as it is a Friday afternoon), but leaving you with the promise of a beefier post next week. Cowabunga!