The Other Indiana University

Over the years I have heard tell of the "other" Indiana University located in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and after Utica that was our next stop on the tour. Pennsylvania is a really hit or miss state for me in terms of the towns, and well Indiana is really a miss. Admittedly I did not get to walk around the campus because of our schedule, but my experience at the "mall" was more than enough. We got into Indiana the night before our performance so I had that night and next day free. According to the city sheet that management provides, there was a mall located less than a mile from our hotel. Naturally I was excited because, while I love a good mall, I did actually need to buy a couple of things. As soon as I saw the mall my excitement died away (any mall with Kmart as an anchor cannot be good), but I decided to give it a shot anyway. While walking through, I was tempted by the aroma of Auntie Anne's and succumbed to the temptation. As I was standing in the line, a rather large outdoorsman sort of guy was standing right by the register adding several packets of sugar to his coffee. The closer that I got to this guy the worse the air quality became. He stank on a level that rivaled my high school band director. This was a stink that caused pain, but sadly that was not his worst trait. He was also having a conversation with the cashier which went a little something like this: "I don't care about the environment. Until they can figure out how to cap off a volcano, it doesn't matter anyway." Now this was one of those moments where part of me wanted to tell this guy why he is an idiot (or at least ask where the local volcano was), but my nonconfrontational side prevailed. Plus the smell was making me sick. I decided to get my pretzel and run as far away as possible. That should be the end of my story, but alas it is not. I walked to the other end of the mall to enjoy my pretzel in a stink free zone, but as I was eating I could literally smell this guy walking towards me. Even worse was the fact that I was facing the other direction! This is quite a feat given my allergy ravaged nose and sense of smell! It was at that moment that I decided Indiana, PA was not the place for me.

For the rest of my time on Wizard you will be seeing many nighttime pictures because of all of the onenighters. If we have a bus trip to the theatre, it is hard for me to get there in the daylight since I cannot walk over early.

The fact that the theatre at the "other" Indiana University looked like a high school auditorium did not help boost my morale!

To further aggravate matters, we had a fire drill during Act I and had to evacuate the theatre. I'm glad that I had the presence of mind to grab my camera.