Things I'll miss about Bloomington

• All my dear friends. I had Elevensies with Suz and Brad yesterday. There were some brief remarks about how at a certain level of familiarity with friends, there's no problem with taking a forkful of someone else's Eggs Benedict even though you have syrup on your fork, or with drinking someone else's coffee, or dipping your home fry in their hollandaise sauce. In this category I would also put entering someone's house with just a knock and not having to wait for someone to open the door, borrowing cherished books or DVDs, inviting oneself to dinner, that sort of thing. I'm not looking forward to having to start all over in a new place, and it also seems like the older I get the longer it takes to establish this familiarity with people.
• My quiet and jungle-like neighborhood. No where else have I walked past butterfly bushes or day lilies taller than me.
• Working in a castle on a beautiful campus with so much green space.
• The comparatively long growing season and comparatively mild winter.
• Certain aspects of my job, mostly my co-workers. I'll miss debating with Margaret about whether co-workers should be hyphenated or not. (I would say yes because otherwise the word looks like it could be pronounced "cow-orkers," and who knows what a cow orker is?)
• The really high-quality undergraduates who are grateful for the advantages they've had in life and don't expect to get anything except through their own effort and hard work.
• Bloomington has a sort of quirky feel to it that I'm not sure exists many other places. Also, lots of bluegrass.