Louisville, KY: October 6th-7th, 2012 - In Which I Visit My Dear Friend, Clayford

So at the time of this writing, I live in Louisville because I am attending grad school here, but a year ago Louisville was just the place I had accepted and then deferred in favor of working for a living, and at the time, I wasn't really planning on actually following through with that deferment, if I'm honest.  Funny how things work.  Always smart to keep those doors open, if you can.  Write that down everyone.

Still, I thought it might be advantageous to actually visit the campus and get a feel for whether I would ever want to attend in the future, even if at the time my plans did not include anything of the sort.  And as luck would have it, my friend Clay just so happened to be going to school there, and had a nice comfy floor available to me for all my overnight sleep-related needs.  A plane ticket was booked posthaste.

Here is a picture of his apartment.  

And here is a picture of something slightly more photo-worthy (no offense of course)

This style of house is very typical of Old Louisville, the neighborhood south of downtown but north of the University of Louisville campus.  What's especially great is that each house is unique; no one seems to have mass-produced template houses to fill the area, they were just all built with their own unique flair.  It's really something to see.

Clay took me to a lunch place he knew of as soon as I arrived there, which was good, since I hadn't eaten anything other than peanuts since 7:00 that morning.  It was a place called Amici, some Italian-themed sandwich place.  He requested a waitress named Kristina.  I was intrigued.  She came to our table and greeted him like they were old friends.  He introduced me and she greeted me warmly. Apparently Clay and his girlfriend Megan frequent this place and have gotten to know her.  She came back to chat several times during the meal.  After the check came, Clay grabbed my receipt and jotted my phone number down on it, along with some message clearly implying that I hoped she'd call.  She never did.

Clay then gave me the dime tour of the U of L music building and campus, which I ostensibly came to see:

And a nearby statue:

We then went to his boss's apartment to try to use his printer, which turned out to be out of ink and out of order.  Turned out not to be an issue.  I flew out the next morning with no problems.

The neato Raleigh-Durham airport, which I flew in and out of:

All in all a good time, and good to see my friend again, though oddly enough I came away from that trip no more or less inclined to attend this university than before.  That decision came much later.