Things I Would Miss

Okay, so this title and list idea is completely and entirely lifted from Otterbutt. My equal apologies and thanks. With the advent of her taking leave of my fine state and fine city, she has posted those things she would most miss about Grand Rapids. Well, I will miss her terribly.

Here is my list if I were to be leaving, which, at some point, seems a likely eventuality:

1. My family
2. Logan's Alley on Michigan Street
3. US131, which is always navigable, even when it's down to one lane
4. Meijer
5. Recognizing 60% of the people I see and trying to remember how it is I know them
6. Looking out the window of my apartment
7. Rollerblading down Kent Trails
8. Vertigo, the greatest music shop ever, on Division
9. Going to Little Mexico Cafe with Texas friends who approve of the food
10. Proximity to a Nordstrom's Rack where I go for therapy on some very stressful weekdays
11. Proximity to the beach
12. Proximity to Chicago and Detroit
13. Pleasant Michigan summers
14. Lakes-a-plenty
15. The fact that it only gets better every single day
16. The fact that it is constantly in a growing state
17. The fact that I can drive down the street and frequently find a new bar or little shop that just opened
18. The fact that the Domino's on my street takes an absurd amount of pride in the quality of their pizza as though they were a gourmet pizza place
19. The fact that Grand Rapids will always be here for me
20. The fact that I will always have come from it

Peep Show for a Little Post-Easter Fun

The Washington Post has fun with Peep Dioramas. Go here and enjoy the fun:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/070402/GAL-07Apr02-69859/index.html

Who knew Marilyn Monroe could be Peep-ified?

Wait Ache

I feel like a rubber band that's been pulled taut for months. Soon, the weather will improve. Soon, the sun will be out frequently. Soon, I won't have to worry about how much heat I am using in my apartment. It all feels like it should be happening now, that the thermometer's inching skyward is happening far too slowly. We are at 46 and always holding. I want the fifties, then the sixties, then the seventies before my rubber band self snaps.

This is what I hate about living in Michigan. When the sun and the warmth finally do return, I feel guilty with every moment that is not spent sucking it up with every availiable stripped, exposed, unclothed pore of my body. It makes working and writing very difficult. But I know - a part of me always knows - that the sun will go away again and it will be gone a long time. My body knows it and it inflicts me this overwhelming sense of obligation to get out. To go rollerblading, to go biking, to go running, to go walking, to move move move move. Be in the sun, it demands. And this would be a good thing if it wasn't coupled with a crippling knowledge of its temporariness. It makes the whole thing a little unliveable. It really is time for a new state.

Hey Jude Baby

I totally stole this from Cindy, but I have to say, I'm totally going to have babies this awesome, only likely not Asian:

Gah! Students!

More on more, I realize the fundamental difference between me and students is they want more black and white. I want more gray.