This week has been a transition week. Brian is taking a job right across the street from our house, starting next Monday. Which meant, of course, that I had to drive down to Orange County (where he’s working now) and help him pack up his office. Too much stuff for the train. He had it mostly done when I arrived. So we packed everything in the car and went to dinner at Taco Adobe, my favorite place in the world.
Taco Adobe is a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place sandwiched on a back street between two dumpy car repair yards. There’s a derelict burger joint across the street. But you can sit in the bright restaurant or under the blooming bougainvillea on their patio and have the tastiest meal. They’re the first place that taught me I actually DO like enchiladas; it’s red sauce I don’t like. They have amazing rice and tasty black beans, and their salsa is unrivaled. Taco Adobe is one of the things I miss most about Chapman. The other things being Leatherby Library (and it’s interlibrary loan amazingness), the way they used to pipe Christmas music through the campus speakers during break, and all of the awesome history professors.
It’s definitely the close of a huge chapter in our lives now that Brian will be gone. There was a time when I spent more hours at Chapman (by far) than I ever did at home, between dropping Brian off at work in the mornings and staying late for ASL club meetings at night. The campus is different now, with the Musco Center all finished, the DMAC up and running, and a new museum and all. But it still feels the same. It still feels like home, I realized last night as we walked to the car in the dark with the buildings shining around us.
My guess is that it probably will always feel that way. And it definitely won’t be our last time on campus. If nothing else we’ll see everyone at the Animation Show of Shows, and maybe at other screenings, and things like homecoming. But with Brian leaving, it feels like more the end of an era than my graduation day did.
I’m excited for the future, though. I feel like I’ve gotten the best present in the world in the form of more Brian around the house. He has gained back 4 hours a day in commuting time, and I think it’s going to change his life in ways he can’t even imagine yet. There are Masters Degrees in the cards, and lots of Redlands goodness to explore. Things are looking up.
Casey E. Hamilton 