The Finite

Andy offered to take me on a visit to Purdue. The day started out bright and early at 7:00. Forty minutes later, after setting up the power inverter and squid, GPS navigation unit, and musical capability, we pulled out of his driveway and started south on the I-90 obeying the Garmin Streetpilot c320. This led to Andy getting off somewhere in south Chicago *screeching violins* when he was supposed to stay on. We ended up driving under Kennedy/King college, which is more of an overpass than a college, before remerging.

Then two and a half boring hours of filler. We did see a big billboard that proclaimed, “HELL IS REAL”. Obviously a tourist-luring ploy by the notoriously named town. But wait, Hell is in Michigan. Oh! It’s the other Hell. Oh, those wacky theologists and their billboards.

It wasn’t until we passed some really rustic architecture and a large river that we were approaching campus. Thus began the interminable search for parking.

I’ll be honest and say that I don’t think the Boilermaker is a very cool mascot. All I knew initially is that it was either a factory worker or an alcoholic beverage. Mrs. Schmitz explained to me that it was a beer with a shot of whiskey or vodka. She then requested that I not drink any Boilermakers on the trip. O-kay. Since I’m blogging this right now, I’m pretty sure that I’m the kind of person that couldn’t get beer if I tried.

When we were parking, I noticed the car in front of us had a sticker recommending, “Lick it”. Andy pointed out that it probably had said “Click it or ticket” at one point. I certainly hope someone points that little confusion out to the owner. I can’t think of anything scarier than coming back to one’s car at night to find some drunken frat boy licking the hood ornament.

The tour was the expected: here’s a slideshow, here’s a video, here’s a tour guide, here’s a food court, here’s a library, here’s a belltower. We saw a dorm in Wiley Hall. Sort of a poor example to lead a tour group through. It had a 32″ LCD hooked up to a Wii, as well as a Ferrari of a triple-headed SLI rig complementing three LCD monitors. If I were that lucky geek, I would be a little concerned about my baby. I ditched the tour early to meet with Keith at the Engineering fountain. He showed Andy and me a realistic dorm room. Instead of the sturdy aluminum-framed bunkbeds and futon of the Wiley dorm, Cary had unsanded plywood-framed bunks and enough room for only a small CRT and Xbox 360. Plus a bottle of Herbal Essences which Keith repeatedly claimed was his roommate’s.

We parted ways in the shadow of a building named after some astronaut. Keith was to continue his 23 hours of Tuesday sleep. We were to make it home just in time for rush hour traffic.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Day-to-Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.