Nebraska Notes #2 First Impressions

It's warm, but dry and breezy out here in the prairie plains. I sit in my dorm room looking out the window watching young men play soccer on lush green fields--the Vine Street Fields--as the setting sun casts long shadows. I am literally back in school which appears much improved since I last time I had a dorm room from fall of 1965 through spring 1967. It's a shared suite, not a shared room. It's carpeted with a living room, full kitchen, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and two wash stands. I'll have two other suite mates by Sunday night. It's the poor man's version of the Embassy Suites--tidy, clean with pleasant front desk folks, but rooms are sans the TV, radio, hangers, hair dryer, kitchen dishes and cute bath and shower samples. A monk would consider it quite acceptable and so do I as I wanted to be somewhere with few distractions. (You all who know me can get up off the floor after fainting!)

To get to this cornhusker place of learning (University of Nebraska), I flew into Omaha then took a transport van to Lincoln. There's 50 miles of rolling hills and farms between the two cities. The van driver, a retired high school teacher from this area, explained that although they did not get the floods like Iowa did this last week, they did get a raft of tornadoes, some of which came right down interstate route 80 (the road we were on). That helped me remember why I left the mid-west.

The van arrived too late for me to catch dinner at the commissary (I'm on a dirt cheap meal plan) so I donned my sneaks and walked the six blocks to down town for something to eat. It's amazing how many bars can fit in a couple of city blocks. Guess the no alcohol on campus rule has something to do with it. My choice was a bar that served a thousand kinds of beer and quite passable pizza. My white "Northern" with onion and sausage was thin crusted and crisp, but not burnt. The sausage did resemble "small bite" dog food pellets, but was fennel seasoned just the way I like it. Two slices and my summer cocktail of vodka and tonic soothed my growling tummy.

It's time to settle in for the night. I've got my iPod and iMotion station, Internet NPR set up for morning, and my Timex stop watch for an alarm clock. Just need to plug in my cell phone to get it charged up and turn off the lap top. AHHHHH, nothing like bare bones living!