One Foot in the Door

Life is a folly. Beloit's delicious spring weather has met an untimely end in a cold snap that brought another couple inches of snow to campus on Friday and has yet to leave. Many students refuse to face the reality of the momentarily winter-like visage of Wisconsin and walk around in scanty clothing and play frisbee in the slush. While I long to wear flip flops and short skirts again I am not foolish enough to pretend it isn't cold in a futile defiance of the weather. I wore my boots to Madison this weekend and was shocked to see UW students prancing around puddles in sandals and capris. Crazy.

I went home with a college friend to celebrate Easter. While I really longed to go home, Beloit doesn't designate any time off for the holiday so I joined someone else's family temporarily. We left campus on Saturday morning to catch the Van Galder bus to Madison. For $7 we were able to purchase round trip tickets to Madison through Student Activities. No one can beat that price--it is unbelievably low. We arrived in Madison around 2 PM and headed to Middleton, where my friend's family resides. For the uninitiated, Middleton was named the best city in America to live in last year. I have journeyed to Middleton twice and while it is cute and friendly I don't know if it is the best city in America. After all it is only a suburb of Madison, WI. Everything is subjective, however. At the house we began the preparations for Easter dinner--veggie lasagna for the vegetarians which include only my friend and me.

We hit the town and shopped along Monroe Avenue in Madison which I have visited on several occasions. There are a lot of cute stores on that stretch of street and we meandered in and out of several. We enjoyed dinner on State Street at Frida's, a lovely Mexican restaurant named in honor of the painter that features fabulous chips and giant murals of Kahlo's paintings. We went for an evening drive along the back roads of Middleton where farmland still dominates. It was peaceful and beautiful. Dusk was settling along the hills with towering clouds tinged blue and purple. We stopped at a couple old country churches to admire the architecture before heading back to my friend's home. The evening was spent watching a silly movie with my friend's little brother and enjoying ice cream sundaes.

Sunday I awoke early to my friend and her brother peeking into the guest room and urging me to get up and hunt for Easter baskets. In this household the Easter Bunny hides the baskets and everyone must search for theirs. I was still pretty sleepy but I rolled out of bed and trudged up the stairs. The hunt was on. Everyone quickly found their respective baskets and enjoyed the spoils. My friend's parents are especially generous people and included me in this annual chocolate smorgasbord. We ate breakfast quickly and headed to church. The choir sang the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, which I absolutely love. Back at the house, relative began trickling in and introductions were made. Lunch was at 1:00. Our bus didn't leave until 4 so we entertained ourselves with conversation and looking at old Beloit College year books from when my friend's stepdad attended. He graduated in 1987 and it was hilarious to see which professors from today were traipsing around campus in the 80s. Some departments were much smaller back in '87 and the majority of professors were male but other than that, not much has changed at Beloit. Similar student body and attitudes. But what fun it is to unearth the past.

We were back on campus by 6 and I spent my evening catching up with folks back home, comparing festivities and weekend plans. This has been my second weekend in a row to leave campus for fun and relaxation in a neighboring city. Now I am besieged by wanderlust and want nothing more than to explore the area around Beloit. Dangerous times, spring. In only six weeks I will be finishing up my second year at Beloit and while I am nervous about all I must accomplish during this time, I am filled with wordless excitement. Hurray!