Campus at Night

I love CU's campus. I love it in the morning when the air is crisp and clear and the sun is shining red on the flatirons above. I love it in the summer when it is hot and dry and sunny. I love it in the winter when it becomes blanketed in inches or feet of my favorite kind of precpitation. I love it in the middle of the day when the sidewalks are swollen with students migrating from class to class (ok, so I like it a little less when I am trying to weave my way through them to get to class on time). And I love it on beautiful fall nights like tonight.

I was in the library until fairly late tonight. The library has no time though as it is never really darker or lighter in the library unless you are sitting near a window, which I almost never do. I prefer the semi-circle shaped computer lab on the third floor which looks into the big study room. It is always cool and dark in here with the sound of about 50 students feverishly typing away on their various papers and homework and whatnot, some just checking random this and that on the internet. Even at such a big school, I still manage to see people I know in this little computer lab almost every time I'm there.

The clock in the corner of the screen says it's 11:00 pm and my brain starts to quit. I can't work on my paper anymore because I am too distracted by the thought of going home and going to bed. I'm not even tired yet and I feel like I'm on a roll with my paper, but alas early to bed, early to rise... I always thought it was a good mantra. So I save and close my work, pack up my things, put on my coat, and head down the stairs and out the rotating door (luckily the books in my bag didn't set off the alarm today).

It is a clear night and warmer than I was anticipating it to be. It was downright chilly this morning with frost on everything, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon and it lingers still. There are still people sitting, talking, smoking, skateboarding through the sundial plaza behind the library even this late. I walk around Norlin (the library) heading towards the quad lawn and my car. I was lazy this evening and drove to campus, but I don't feel to guilty about it; I usually bike or take the bus, and my car gets good gas mileage anyway, it can't hurt to drive every once in awhile. It has always bothered me that only the east entrance to Norlin is open in the evening, forcing me to walk all the way around the building. I've never liked the east entrance, the one with the sundial. I've always preferred the view of the quad from the west entrance better, plus the west entrance is closer to all the places in the library that I go to most often. (See Campus Map)

As I round the building I arrive at the lawn. The sidewalks are all lit with the streetlamps overhead. The Humanities building is to the right, I kind of miss having class in that building because it was newer and nicer than most others, but it did also lack the personality of my new favorite building, Hale Science on the corner of the quad (which also has my favorite bathrooms on the whole campus). Even at just after 11 at night there are still people walking and biking on campus. One couple, both with long hair and bundled up more than seems necessary, is walking towards humanities. What could they be going there for? Is it even open still? Maybe they are going to the rec center which is in the same direction, yes, that is probably where they are going.

I love how quiet and peaceful the campus is at night. In the distance you can hear an RTD bus roaring up Broadway, but you can hear the wind through the autmn leaves in the trees. I walk past this one tree that is at the corner of the sidwalk that goes between Macky and Hellums and the one that goes diagonally from McKenna towards the UMC. This tree has been my favorite one on campus for the past couple weeks as it's leaves have been changing. It was a beautiful reddish color on the outside with bright yellow underneath. It is beginning to loose its lustre now though as the leaves accumulate beneath it. Macky is as beautifully lit as ever, one of my favorite buildings on campus at night. I walk across the lawn, littered with leaves from the old trees above which have probably seen millions of students and teachers walk below their branches over the years. Norlin looks ominous down towards the end of the lawn with reddish lights adorning the entrance behind those big pillars. I think about how it is unfortunate that CU doesn't have any graduate programs that really appeal to me and how I'll miss being on this campus, but hopefully there are other pretty campuses elsewhere in the world too.

I walk past Old Main and try to imagine what this school must have been like back when it consisted of just this one building which was at the time located on a remote hilltop far from town. Now it is practically the center of town in my mind. I see computers in one of the windows of the old building and wonder if the first students and teachers and administraters to live and study here could have ever imagined how much this place would change. Next is McKenna Languages building where I have Spanish class. I cross the bridge over the pond where some guy is talking about how he has to see the world series tomorrow and some girl hanging on to his every word with this disgusting smile on her face. There are too many of these kinds of people at CU I think. They are sitting on the edge of the bridge and I think about how easy it would be to push them right into the gross pond and I smirk.

At the end of the bridge I walk by Hale, my favorite building. I have two classes here and my mondays, wednesdays and fridays both start and end here. Like most the other buildings I have walked past, it is mostly lit up from inside. Sure, it's wasteful, but it sure looks regal. With the light from the buildings and the sidewalk lamps above, it is neither dark nor light out, but somewhere strangely in between those.

Well, I'm at my car now. I haven't received any parking tickets, I guess I read the parking meter right that it is free to park there after 5. I hop in my car and head home, but I'll be back tomorrow.