Saturday, November 01, 2003
*note: I wrote most of this last night, but one thing and another conspired to keep me from posting it. So here it is. And it's kind of a long blog. Sorry.*
Yup. It's Halloween. I have to say that this was one of the most random, inexplicable, and slightly surreal Halloweens that I've ever experienced. But good! Fun! Fun! Good! Strange.
The day was spent as it normally is, that is to say, in class. I barely made it to chemistry on time because I slept in a bit. So when I got out of the shower it was 8:55. My class is at nine. Well, I got there around 9:15, which was fine, because he had literally just started on the first slide at that point. To go from coming, sopping wet, out of the shower, to being fairly presentable and in my seat 20 minutes later must be some kind of record for me.
Got out of chem at 10, went up North because my next lecture was at 11, so it wasn't really worth it to trudge all the way back to the dorm just to trudge back out to the busstop. I had delicious coffeeness from Pierpont Commons (that being on North Campus), then I sat and read in the comfy couches in the A&A building. And I chatted with Emily, who left lecture early because she's staying with her boyfriend at State this weekend. Good luck with the crazies out there, Em. We'd better beat them tomorrow (technically today, I suppose).
Anywho, I got back to the dorm, had lunch, Brynn's family arrived, which was a wee bit awkward, and I'm not 100% keen on her sister sleeping in our room (I mean, it's small enough with two people living in it), but at least it's better than random guys sleeping over. *I have already said too much*
Around 3:30ish Pam and I departed for our day of insanity. The ultimate plan was to go watch her old high school's football game, since they were apparently doing better this year than they ever had before, and got to some variety of playoffs, and it was a Big Deal. But the game wasn't until 7, so we had a while to do whatsoever we pleased.
We got hungry. Because we are insane, and because, for some utterly unfathomable reason, it seemed like a perfectly normal idea at the time, we decided to go into downtown Detroit for dinner. Specifically, Mexicantown, which is, as the name would suggest, the predominantly Mexican section of Detroit. Apparently today was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead... sorry if I butchered the spelling, I've never taken a spanish class in my life). So before we went out to dinner we went to a Mexican bakery and got some dead bread.
By now the oddness and randomness of our evening was beginning to set in, but we shrugged, said 'whatever', and went to dinner at this Mexican restaurant which was actually quite good. For those back home, it was somewhere between Cilantro and Acapulco's in levels of fanciness. The food was delish. I had some form of quesedilla/chimichanga cheeseness which I highly enjoyed.
Then we got a wee titchy bit lost trying to get out of Detroit. Mexicantown is right on the side of Detroit that's nearest to the border into Canada. You can see the Ambassador bridge all purty and lighted-up and such from there. In any event, we nearly ended up going into Canada, because we somehow got stuck on the road that went to the bridge. We ended up being about 25 feet away from the border in a state of FreakOutingness. We had to turn off onto some sort of service road in order to get out of the stream of traffic.
I imagine it would have been fun trying to get back into the US. "No sir, we don't have our birth certificates on us, we're really sorry sir, we really didn't mean to go into Canada, we sort of got in by accident, we're very sorry, we just need to get back to our school, please." That would've gone over real well, I'm sure.
So, after spending much of our evening in Mexicantown, Detroit, we headed out to Pam's hometown of Carleton (again, unsure of the spelling). For those Michiganders, it's near something called Monroe or Munroe or something like that which I am told is a town most people would have heard of. It is, how shall we say, quite... rural.
Pam's actual neighborhood is really, really, really pretty. Everyone on her street has a really big bit of land, but the houses are at a reasonable distance from one another. There are cornfields nearby. Also (and this is what I loved), no streetlights. Yeah, it means that driving is an adventure, especially when the roads turn from pavement to dirt, but it also means that you can see so many stars. 'Cause you're nowhere near any sort of city, so there's no ambient light, and no streetlights. Very quiet and absolutely gorgeous.
So we drove around her neighborhood, and went to her high school (Aiport high school... the Jets). Then we made our slow and circituous way down to the football game, which was in the somewhat neighboring town of Trenton. The game was utterly packed, as it was a big stadium, and it was a really important game. The opposing team had the unfortunate name of the Trojans, which was compounded by the fact that their mascot was very plainly phallic-looking. Sort of an oval head and body, topped by a slightly larger rounded helmet.
A lot of Pam's friends had come back for the game, so I got to meet some of them. None of them went to UofM, but some were from Wayne State (I think that's what it's called... it's right in Detroit), some were from Eastern Michigan, and there were a couple slackjawed yokels from Michigan State, who were a bit cool to us. As we were to them. Ah well, it's a time of great stress between Staters and Michiganers. 'Tis to be expected.
Some of them seemed like pretty normal kids... other than the midwestern accents and the slight hint of ruralness which permeated the entire area, of course. There were some, however, who definitely reminded me that I was in a very white, Christian, farmy, Big Boy and White Castle sort of place. There were a number of beefy-necked kids with red faces and bad teeth. A vast majority of the people seemed to have bad teeth, actually.
Anywho, the Jets won, so there was much rejoicing and such. We hung around her town for a while after the game ended just generally enjoying the victory and mooching about with the football players. Then we drove back to Ann Arbor. It being a longish drive, we got to talking about certain things of a most fascinating nature. It was good times.
We got back to the dorm sometime between 12:30 and 1 in the am. There were hoardes of people out and about on campus. You could tell who was in a sorority because they travelled in packs and all had the same costume on. For instance, we would drive by a large group of schoolgirls in plaid skirts and knee socks. Then we would pass a contingent of naughty nurses (obviously from Brynn's dear sisterhood of KKG).
Brynn, her sister, and her friend Arielle came in around 1:15, drunk off their behinds. I have seen my dearest roommate come in drunk before, but never at this level of inebriation. We're talking about weaving all over the hall, tottering about on her high heels, vomiting copiously (in the bathroom, thank cats), hiccuping as she tried to talk, falling out of her nurse outfit from both ends, and saying "I'm so drunk, I'm so drunk, I'm so drunk, I'm so drunk," over and over again.
I have pictures. But I somehow don't think I should post them online.
So the drunken foibles of roommate et. al. amused both me and Pam until around 2, when Arielle went back to her dorm, leaving Brynn and sis to spoon up and pass out on the bed. They had to get up at 9:30 this morning. Ah, the hilarity.
Currently I am watching the Michigan/Michigan State game. It's halftime, and we are a-winning. This is a very, very, very good thing.
I finished my CFC project recently, after massive contributions of candy wrappers from my hall. I get the impression that they rather liked helping out with this particular art project. Anyways, it came out OK, nothing spectacular, but at least it worked. Here, you see.
image was here, but photohost died, sorry
There is a new, fright-filled Weebl and Bob up, which you probably ought to go see.
OK, this thing has been long enough. Go Blue!
12:42 PM
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