Beyond the Bubble

Author: Lisie Mehlman & Claire Nielson

In its original form, the "Beyond the Bubble" column was not even a column at all. Nothing more than a few informational sentences strung together, it alerted the student body to upcoming local events. Then, on one glorious day in 2003, we took over, and the column immediately lost its informational nature, becoming little more than a self-indulgent forum in which we relished the opportunity to share our sometimes mundane, often food-related, rarely actually funny tales of Vermont adventure with a few loyal readers.

Although we failed in our quest to travel to all 251 towns in the state of Vermont (this proved a short-lived pipe dream of Lisie's that Claire, surprisingly, did not support), over the years, our adventures have led us far and wide, into many a quaint Vermont hamlet and too many country stores to name. Somewhere between quilt shopping for our unborn children (or, cats, as the case may be) and sampling countless flavors of fudge, we determined that, in fact, chutney is best when of the mango variety. Granted, we still don't really know what chutney is. Always on the lookout for the perfect diner, we learned that a bowl of chili can cost as little as $1.75 and that the closing of Burdack's Country Kitchen on Route 7 is not one to be mourned for long - unlike the travesty that was the liquidation of Marvin's Carvins, another Route 7 landmark.

Just as memorable as our five (and counting) road trips, and attempts at athletic outings that provided material for each week's (or, every other, other week, as the case may be) article was the writing process. In the beginning, we wrote at red and white checkered tables at Baba's when it was actually called Baba's. For the past few years, however, Lisie's bed has served as our regular home base for column-crafting. On the other hand, things that have not changed include the roll of cookie dough always nearby as Lisie types the offhanded comments that Claire makes and then insists be deleted, Claire's incessant cracks about Lisie's inability to convey humor effectively through writing (or, in any form, as the case may be) and our adoration for each other. Lisie wanted to get something sentimental in. Claire is disgusted (but secretly crying inside).

While emoting, something new for Lisie, we would like to take a moment to thank The Campus for giving us this space to say virtually nothing of importance over the past four years. We would like to depart with a clear conscience, so, for the record, we never played tennis, and Claire's name is not actually Claire. We also must thank Markandbar for all the fodder they provide and their loyal readership. Chris and Priscilla, Claire is sorry that she never told you that we write a column. Last, many thanks to our roomies for never actually reading our articles, thus giving us the opportunity to shamelessly mock them, and to Dan Feinberg for being the first student to tell us he liked our work. And by first, we mean only.

On a serious note (at this point, all Claire wants to say is "It's been great."), we have loved writing this column and sharing the serendipity of countless kooky, inane adventures together. No matter where we ventured, it always comforted us to know we had Middlebury to return to. And although now the same cannot be said, we are glad to have, together, created a collection of written memories that we can look back upon, always.