Morning

Lizy’s parents met us at the hotel in the morning and we had breakfast together at the hotel. Andy and I went to get the rental car together. We had gotten a mini van.

We picked the others up back at the hotel. At the room Elizabeth convinced me to throw out the leftover pizza, but I kept the sandwiches. I still believed there’d be a good time to eat them in the future.

The drive south to Urbana-Champaign was uneventful. It was windy as usual. We stopped a couple of times so Theodore could stretch his legs. He couldn’t sit in the car seat for too long. On one of the stops Andy and I ate sandwiches. Now there were only two sandwiches left. I felt the sandwich perfectly suited the quick stop. Healthier than any of the fast food I might buy. The cheese was hard and salty. The tomato was becoming softer after sitting for a day. Andy enjoyed his sandwich as well.

Meeting Serenity’s Family for Ice Cream

We met Lizy’s friend Serenity and her two daughters for ice cream in Champaign. The daughters were shy. The ice cream shop had some family games for patrons that I tried to play with the kids to get them out of their shells. I played a few games of Tic Tac Toe with the older one until she remembered she was afraid of me. Then I pulled out a Jenga set and sorted setting it up to play with the younger girl. The older one got jealous and started to steal our pieces so she could build a house. She had to steal more and more pieces to build her increasingly elaborate house. We had to wait till she had finished and I had admired the house before the younger girl and I played one round of Jenga.

Harriet’s Retirement Party

Lizy’s, Theodore, and I split off with her parents to attend Lizy’s advisor, Harriet’s retirement party. The farewell party was being held at professor Gasyna’s house. They lived in a nice looking house in in front of what looked like a scenic public park.

After we said our hellos and chit-chatted for a bit Theodore started to get antsy, so I took him for a walk in the park, so Lizy could enjoy the party. That’s when I discovered the catch of the house. The park was beside a major highway. The street noise especially from the large semi trucks overwhelmed the park. It was the fatal flaw of the house. I suddenly understood why the party wasn’t overflowing into the back patio.

Years ago I watched the movie The Love Guru. The basic premise of the movie is that if you kill yourself you go to a world that is just like the real world, but in small ways it’s a little worse. The big flaw of the world is that everyone frowns. This park reminded me of that movie. The park was a lovely park. It just had this flaw that made it worse than a regular scenic park.

Later I found out that Gasyna had bought the house during the beginning of the pandemic. At the time there had been almost no street noise. As the pandemic petered out the noise became worse and worse. But by that time they were settled in to the house. They still liked the house. It was probably the sort of thing you get used to after a while, like the sound of cicadas.

Harriet had mostly moved to Chicago; she was just back in town for the party and to figure out how to dispose of her late husband’s books. Lizy was visibly upset by how she was so casual about getting rid of the books. Lizy had known Hariet’s late husband, so she asked Hariet where his grave was located in the local cemetery, so we could visit it on our way out of town. Harriet didn’t remember exactly where it was, but she said she could email her.

Another one of Lizy’s professor mentors, Brett, had gotten Theodore a onesie. It looked really cute.

I talked to a younger female professor for a little bit about parenthood. I only remember that her son was embarrassed any time she tried to brag about him.