Little 500 kicks in to high gear

Little 500 weekend is coming up, and many students will have the honor to host a slew of guests at their houses, in the dorms or at their apartments. But along with that comes a frazzled state of mind on how to accommodate them. Having guests can be quite an overwhelming thought, but some careful last minute planning could help ease the stress of having Little 500 squatters at your house. \nThere are essentially three main components that guests are going to need from their hosts: food, a place to sleep and entertainment. Let's start with eats. House guests are certainly going to be hungry, and hosts are going to have to come up with something to cook or a place to take them out to eat somewhere around Bloomington. \nThere are many fine dining establishments around Bloomington including the Irish Lion, the Trojan Horse and Scotty's Brewhouse, as well as many fast food restaurants and pizza joints to check out. But with the nice weather, grilling out might be a better option. Senior Lisa Silvestri, who hosted a very large house party last year for the Little 500 weekend, decided to have all the food at her place. \n"We barbecued most of the weekend ... it was BYOM (bring your own meat), so people got theirs from different groceries all over Bloomington," Silvestri says. \nSenior Hashim Hathaway plans on having a fairly small gathering at his apartment at the University Commons. Somewhere between one and four of his friends will be coming down from Fort Wayne for the race weekend. Hathaway would like to grill food outside, but he is uncertain that this will actually be the case. \n"While it would be ideal to have cookouts, I am fairly positive that we will all be drunk for the majority of the weekend, so I imagine that we will be getting food from fast food joints and if not that we will be eating at the bars," Hathaway says. \nHe and his friends also might stop by Hathaway's fraternity to eat at one of the house's gatherings throughout the weekend. \nOut-of-town visitors are going to need a place to sleep, one way or another. And Hathaway plans on having some of his guest stay at his place for the weekend. \n"Yeah, probably a combination of my couch and the floor," he says. "Some of my friends will opt to get a hotel room, which I am sure will present its own problems being that so many people will be in town for the weekend."\nHotel rooms will surely be hard to come by since Little 500 is a pretty big event. Silvestri's guests, who were from around Indiana and a few of them from as far as New York, ended up crashing at her place last year and she plans on doing the same for this year's race.\nBut if there isn't enough room to accommodate everyone in your house, apartment or dorm room, hosts always have the option of renting tents and sleeping bags from the Indiana Memorial Union's Outdoor Adventures services. Leisure programs coordinator for the IMU, David Calvin, says they have tons of people rent tents and sleeping bags for the Little 500 weekend. \n"In the past, IUOA has rented out all the sleeping bags and tents we have for Little 500," Calvin says. \nTents come in three sizes: fitting one, three and five people and cost $8.40, $9.80 and $11.20 per night respectively for students. A sleeping bag will run you $5.60 per night, or you could have your guests bring extra blankets and pillows.\n"IUOA accepts equipment reservations up to 48 hours prior to the event," he says.\nDue to the nature of the weekend, and all it is known for, guests might expect a little extra entertainment over the weekend, in addition to watching the race. The Little 500 weekend is known more for drinking and festivities, rather than watching a bike race for some people. Hathaway plans on attending the race, but his friends do not. \n"Bars and parties for the most part," Hathaway says about what they will be doing this weekend. "I don't expect my friends to actually attend the race, despite the fact that I will be in attendance, so I imagine that they will keep busy drinking and visiting the various parties that I am certain will be taking place in and around campus."\nSilvestri entertained several guests at her place last year, which turned out to be a rather interesting experience for all who attended. \n"Lots of music on the stereo, the race (of course) and there was a drunken "Fight Club" scenario that broke out in the basement," she says. "It was all fun though, no actual malice between fighters."\nIf guests like music, take them to see a concert at local Rhino's All Age Music Club, or if they're into art, take them to the IU Art Museum on campus. Bloomington is filled with cultural things to do, so there will be something for everyone to do this weekend.\nEven though there are several duties as a host for the Little 500 weekend, don't forget to have fun yourself. Having guests can sometimes be quite a chore, and cleanup afterwards is never a fun thing. But with a little planning, and maybe a little help from friends and roommates, things should run smoothly and guests will want to come back next year for another fun Little 500 weekend. If you'll have them.\n"Little 500 is always a fun weekend," Silvestri says. "Certainly it is about the bike race, but it also becomes a celebratory weekend in general ... a final push into the last week of classes. It brings an air of euphoria to Bloomington."\nSo as the Little 500 weekend takes off and the school year winds down, have fun this weekend with whatever you may do.