Hoos For Hoosiers

One of my best friends Chelsey Jones was turning a quarter of a century. In celebration, a collection of the East Coast’s finest decided to organize a surprise birthday visit to Bloomington, Indiana, where Chelsey is currently enrolled as a graduate student. Not wanting anyone to underestimate our collegiate pride (nor our pretention) we swiftly titled the trip Hoos for Hoosiers.

Each participant played an integral role in shaping the trip. Having the prescience to know that Chelsey would be emotionally moved by our surprise, I emailed her Hoosier cohort to put out the flash flood warning.

The Brains of the Operation: Me, I mean, I didn’t get the name Brain Garvon for nothing.

The Decoy: Everyone knows that in the execution of every great surprise, there exists a decoy. Our friend Hang stepped into this role and planned her trip with Chelsey to ensure that the weekend was wide open.

The Plan: Hang and Chelsey were planning on dining at Chelsey’s favorite Thai restaurant…Noodles and Company. Little did Chelsey know that dinner would transform Hang from a one-woman wolf pack into a full-fledged wolf pack.

The Surprise: I can’t be certain on this, but if tears are a good proxy for level of surprise, then Bloomington had a certifiable peppa twister.

After our fine cuisine at Noodles and Company, we spent the rest of the weekend doing what young professionals do best, wining and dining, yes, in that order. The two days were filled with memories, pictures, and one-liners that Mrs. Grundys would find objectionable.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect of Bloomington, Indiana. I like to consider myself fairly well traveled, though officially, I’ve only been to twenty of the fifty states, mostly along the east and west coast, cutting out the greater part of real America. Well, I enjoyed my wayfaring; almost feeling a bit compunctious of my longstanding landlocked prejudice. Officially, this surprise weekend to Indiana University was my first visit to what I later found out the U.S. Census Bureau calls the East North Central division of the Midwest region. Seriously? With three of four cardinal directions and two directionally neutral word segments, it’s a relief we found the right state. Hoosier Daddy?