A Road Less Travelled

I have an unusual relationship with the roads in Peoria. The relationship is unusual in that I actually know what the main roads are called and, more or less, where they go. This is unusual for me at least because in Erie I didn’t know many roads even though I’d grown up there. I knew how to get places, but I couldn’t give directions because I didn’t know what any of the roads were named. I knew that you turned left at the gas station and drove until you were supposed to turn right. Y’know, at that place. When I moved to Peoria I actually needed to learn my way around and so I had to learn the names of the roads. And then I figured out the personalities of the roads. They make up an odd, peculiar, very very normal family of roads.

War Memorial is the big, burly brother of the pack. He knows where he’s been and where he going and how important he is. Everything else makes way for him. He would be arrogant if he weren’t so right about himself. War Memorial is the linebacker of the family.

Knoxville is the eldest sister. She’s warm, nurturing and a little flighty. Where she intersects with War Memorial is fraught with turmoil as they bicker and disagree. She is probably as important as War Memorial, but less dependable so she’s not given as much recognition.

University is the next youngest. He’s got a lot of hero worship for War Memorial and tries to be like him. He’s a lot more clever than his big brother, though. Less muscle, more brains. University has a lot of good things going for him, but he’s too caught up in not being like his brother than he often overlooks his own good qualities.

Glen and Lake are twins girls. They’re best friends, always together and a little rowdy. They look almost nothing alike, but since they’re together all the time most people get them confused. If you can figure out which is which and then get them interested in something they are very dependable, but all too often people spend all their time getting them confused.

Sheridan is the punk skater of the Road family. He’s small and wiry and often hangs out with a pretty rough crowd. But if you can get him on his own and make him feel comfortable this punk skater has a lot of good things to offer. He gets along real well with the twins Lake and Glen and never gets them confused.

Prospect is the elderly father of the family. He is a dapper, old gentleman, built more like Sheridan than War Memorial. He’s learned to slow down and enjoy where he’s going so often he looks like an eccentric, but this road holds a lot of wisdom. He’s very pleased to be a road and has never wished to be anything else.

Main St. is Prospect’s counterpart, the elegant, finely coiffed battle ax of the family. She looks very elegant and has a lot of history, but she’s hard as nails. She doesn’t cover as much territory as most of her children, but she has a lot of experience with where she is.

Sterling is Father Prospect’s brother, the crazy uncle of the family. He’s a little set apart from the rest of the family and I think they prefer it that way. He begins right outside of a junky used car lot and runs along his merry way until he bumps into War Memorial. There’s great confusion where they meet and by the time they get it all sorted out Sterling has vanished. It’s just the way he is.

There are other roads in Peoria to be sure, but they play lesser roles in the family. Forest Hill, for example, is one of Sheridan’s skater friends. He’s pretty cool, but he’s trying just a little too hard sometimes. Oddly enough I-74 had no place in the family. It’s not even the robot butler. It’s just a road. Pioneer Park, however, is the new family pet. He’s barely housebroken, but still they’re all very fond of him.

I can’t say yet whether knowing the roads’ personalities will help with giving directions or knowing my way around. But at least I know their names and could turn you to turn right on University, left on War Memorial and then right again at, um, well, there’ll be a gas station on your right and a sign that says Famous Footwear. Yeah, turn there.

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For many years now I have been a self professed book nut. I love reading books, I love holding books. I will gladly browse when I have no money to buy and I get excited when I find a really good book even when I already own it. Some of the most restful and pleasant times I’ve had have been surrounded by books.

It was only when I moved to Peoria that I became acquainted with used books stores. Either there aren’t any in Erie or I just never knew about them. I bought all of my books (gasp) new. Shopping at a chain bookstore is very different than browsing at a used books store. When I find a book I wanted at a chain store it’s just what I expected. It was supposed to be there. But when I find that same book in a used book store it’s like I’ve just discovered the Mayan temples deep in the jungle. I would dance around in joy, but then I would probably drop all the books in my arms so I restrain myself. I’m dancing on the inside.

When I first moved here Seth and I stopped in at a used book store called the Book Nook on University. Sadly it was mostly full of bad romance novels and even those weren’t very well organized. I gave the Book Nook up for lost. I was very excited then to hear that someone had bought the Book Nook and was trying to make it someplace worthy of good books. Then I met the new owner, Michael Langley, and decided that he struck me as someone who would run a bookstore well so I decided to give the Book Nook another try.

The Book Nook is obviously run by someone who loves books. I spend two thirds of my time in the store looking through the books and the other third talking about books with Michael. I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a well-known regular at a bookstore. I got a jump start on being well known because we met Michael in a social setting before I went to his store, but even then he remembered the sort of books I read and had a suggestion for me the last time I was in.

The books in the store go from practically new to gently used and he has a good selection in a variety of genres. I have found several books in the store that I haven’t found at any other store. I even found a P. G. Wodehouse. I never see Wodehouse anywhere! The prices are a little more than some used bookstores I’ve been in, but he gives a comparable amount in store credit if you trade in books.

The store has been in a bit of disorder for a while because Michael recently expanded into the store next door. He just about doubled his space and still has more books than could easily fit in the store. If you ask, and even if you don’t, he’ll tell you that the best books are most likely in the stacks around the store. I’m not sure I’d say the best books, but I have found some good books in the stacks.

There are three used bookstores in the Peoria area that I have visited. The Book Nook is my favorite. If you like books and have an hour or more to spend in a store you should definitely check it out. And hey, maybe I’ll see you there.

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Yesterday Raquel and I took a self-guided tour of Peoria Heights. That is to say we bopped into our favorite stores and spent money. We had been planning this outing for a week or more and it was as much fun as I’d hoped. But before we got to Peoria Heights we ate lunch at a new restaurant called Zim’s.

I can’t say how long Zim’s has been open because I don’t really notice that sort of thing, but Seth and Crystal went there for the first time on Tuesday for coffee and a sticky bun and said we should try it out. It’s in Campus Town on the corner of Main Street and University right across the street from One World. It’s like a combination greasy spoon diner and nifty cafe.

I liked the décor. The walls were a light, light orange and all the furniture was black. There’s a bar just like I would want in a diner except it’s jet black and looks wooden. I thought about asking to sit at the bar, but I didn’t think of it in time so we sat at a table. It’s small area so if you’re looking for someplace to have a private talk I wouldn’t recommend Zim’s, but for a simple lunch it was good.

The food was fairly standard diner fare. It wasn’t great, but it was good and the prices are resonable. We ordered a spinach dip and chips appetizer and then split a 1/3 pound cheeseburger with an extra side. So I ended up with some spinach dip and chips, half a cheeseburger, and an order of fries. It was the perfect amount of food for right then. The cheeseburger was cooked to order, the fries were yummy and the spinach dip was hot and creamy. And all in all we spent about fourteen dollars.

I was very impressed with service. Our waitress was friendly and fun, though she obviously had a lot of customers at the moment so some things were a little slow. There was a man who I’m guessing was the manager or the owner who would just circulate around the room lending a hand here, answering a question there or helping clear a table. What impressed me most about the service, though, had almost nothing to do with food or eating. There was an older couple sitting at a table across the aisle from us who were down from Chicago. They needed to get from Zim’s to somewhere else and were a little lost. They asked the manager or owner or whoever he was for directions, but had trouble following his directions. He left their table and came back with MapQuest directions of how to get from there to where they needed to go complete with a map and then walked it through with them. I was quite impressed.

Seth and Crystal went to Zim’s this morning for breakfast. We agreed that on a four star scale we would give Zim’s a two and a half. It’s not great, but it is a solid good. I can easily see myself walking down there with one of the children and having a special lunch or breakfast. We’d probably sit at the bar. To quote a phrase we’ve been using around here lately Zim’s doesn’t bring the awesome, but it does bring the quite good. So, if you happen to be in the neighborhood you should stop in and try it out. Maybe I’ll see you there.

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Yesterday evening we went to our first ever neighborhood cook-out. I got to chat with some neighbors I knew and meet some neighbors I didn’t. It was very buggy out and we were given very short notice so I was surprised at how many people showed up. I talked with a lady who lives across the street from us who says she used to sit on her porch and watch the work being done on our house. We talked about arches and hardwood floors and now hopefully I won’t mangle her name the next time I see her. I ended up leaving early with Justice because I was fed up with being eaten and he, who hadn’t napped, was done being okay with all the people. Even so I had a fine time. Thank you, Anne and Tom, for making it happen!

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I wandered out onto the front porch after dinner tonight and had a pleasant conversation with our neighbor Dorothy. We talked about books her grandchildren read, the work she has planned to do around her house and calling the police on noisy neighbors. I told her that even with all the crime and difficulties that come with living in this area I enjoy living in a neighborhood. In fact, I enjoy living in this neighborhood.

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Raquel and I take a walk most every weekday. We have established our usual route mostly by accident. It’s just the places to walk that work the best. Sometimes we go crazy and walk a different way, but we try to keep those times special.

Our usual route takes us past the corner of Bestor and Armstrong. Down a bit from the street corner is a tree. It is not a very special looking tree, but it is noteworthy because under this tree is usually the oddest bits of food. I’ve seen bread, a half-eaten sandwich, melon without the rind, puffy Cheetos, fries, Pop Tarts, and macaroni and cheese. Whenever we walk past I check to see what odd food I might find there that day. It always manages to surprise me. At first I though someone just happened to drop food there once or twice. Now I think maybe someone is trying to feed the birds. I wonder if the birds like macaroni and cheese.

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Yesterday Raquel and I Went Out. This is a momentous enough occasion to deserve capital letters.

First we met at Seth’s work for some nifty van switching. Then we stopped at Naturally Yours to buy enough water to tide the Ben-Ezra family over until I can get out today. And then the Outing truly started.

We ate dinner at Fedora’s which is a little restaurant on the corner of University and McClure. Raquel had gone there for lunch with the Lansberrys and she suggested maybe we get our food to go because Fedora’s doesn’t really have very good ambiance. We eventually decided that we would just end up eating in the van if we didn’t eat there and neither of us felt like that so we got the whole Fedora’s experience.

The food was veryvery good excellent. We got a Reuben sandwich and a Spicy Italian sandwich and split them between us. I didn’t eat either pickle that came with the sandwiches because I decided pickles would be an unwise use of my stomach space when there was such yummy food that could be eaten. The Reuben was a little heavy on the mustard, but the Spicy Italian was perfect. And I was beating Raquel at 500 Rummy at the time so I was having a good time.

The food was tasty, but when Raquel says Fedoras doesn’t have much ambiance she means it’s six wobbly tables, styro-foam plates, dirty ceiling fans and fluorescent lights. The only redeeming feature the restaurant has is the nifty posters it has on the walls. There’s one of all different kinds of olive oil, a poster of tomatoes, a poster of European breads and some others I can’t recall at the moment. Next time I think I’ll have my food to go.

After dinner we went to the Nova theater which is behind the Walmart on University and saw Spiderman 3. The theater was a better price than any other theater in the area, but it smelled funny. And the bathrooms were too hot.

The movie was very good, but kinda hard to watch. I pretty much know how the story ends and it isn’t pretty. Raquel was upset about something that happened in the movie so when it was over she made a break for the great outdoors so she could pace. The only trouble was we couldn’t find the exit. There was wall where an exit should be and the doors we came in were locked. When we finally found the exit everybody there probably thought we were either dumb or crazy. Raquel and I paced for a little bit in the parking lot until all of our upset and agitation had evaporated and then we came home. And a lovely time was had by both.

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I am a Crystal Wanna-Be. She started using henna in her hair and then I started using henna in my hair. I like using henna, but I never think to do it until Crystal is doing it. I feel like such a follower.

Yesterday Crystal was trying out her indigo sample. I wandered into the kitchen and thought “Natural goop to put in one’s hair and turn it funny colors? That looks like fun!” So I got out our new box of henna, mixed the henna up and walked away for a few hours like you’re supposed to.

Now, I’ve tried henna before with mixed results. My hair is so dark it is easy for the henna to get lost among the darkness. Sometimes the henna dyed my hair nicely, though never as obviously as I wanted; sometimes it just kinda sat there and didn’t seem to do anything at all. The other times I tried henna, though, I mixed it with spices to adjust the natural color. This time I just used straight henna and I am so very pleased with the results. The color should change a little over this week, but for right now it looks like I have bright red highlights. That makes me happy. However, when I put the henna in my hair I didn’t use gloves so it also stained my hands orange. That makes me amused.

We bought this henna from the local International Food Market on Main Street. It is very high quality henna and I would reccomend it to anyone who wants bright red hair and/or orange hands.

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Tuesday Seth and the kids made a documentary of our house. This project did double duty as homeschool movie-making project and a way to give a tour of our new house to the folks who don’t live here. You will find the links here. Enjoy!

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 I have dragged, pushed and carried an odd assortment of things down our street. The oddest that comes to mind was a rolling hamper full of dirty clothes. A few hours later I rolled that same hamper now full of clean clothes up the street. I’ve seen people walking stoves down the street and, when we moved, Sanford and Sons walked our stove, refrigerator and freezer down the street. But today I felt ridiculous.

We still have some things at the old house. We have two picnic tables, a jungle gym and we used to have a plastic playhouse. Today I was feeling young and full of energy so I went to the old house prepared to carry the playhouse back with me. Well, it turns out that the playhouse is actually much heavier than I thought it was. And the playhouse didn’t seem to want to come apart at the seams like it should have. Okay, I thought, I’ll just lug it down as it is. This was a good plan except that the playhouse wouldn’t fit through the gate. I pushed, I pulled, I even bent a gate post out a bit, but still the playhouse refused to fit through the gate. Finally, I managed to flip the playhouse up and over the gate. It landed with a crash and I was all ready to haul it away.

It is hard to feel dignified when one is pulling a plastic, pastel playhouse down the street. The pastel colors seem to lack a certain something and when the house catches on every bump and hillock one’s motions lack smoothness and grace. Thankfully, there were very few people out and about. I only saw two neighbors and a couple complete strangers. I got the playhouse all the way down the street, across the street, up the driveway and right to the gate before I noticed a disquieting fact. Our new gate is the same width as our old gate. The playhouse wouldn’t fit through the fence. And since our fence is about six feet tall there was no way I was going to be able to flip the playhouse over it by myself.

Not to fear!, I said to myself. There are plenty of children about. In fact, there were three children out in the back yard. Arianna, Samuel and Noah were very happy to see their playhouse, but not very confident in my plan to get it over the fence. I had just made Noah sit down at the kid’s picnic table to keep him out of the danger zone and had arranged Arianna and Samuel on one side of the playhouse when I heard a shout from the street. The man who had lived across the street from us before we moved had noticed my plight and come to help. He and I flipped the playhouse over the fence with no problems and then chatted about our house. He used to live in our house when it had been three apartments. After he left the kids and I put the playhouse together and they were very excited. It really makes our backyard look like ours. 

As I’m writing this a thought occurs to me. We still have two picnic tables and a jungle gym left at the little house. There is no way I’ll be able to get them here by myself. I have decided I’m not even going to try. 

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