Busy and just not into writing

I know I havent blogged in a while. I have been really busy for the past several days. Today is the first evening in almost a week when I have been able to simply come home from work and have the time as my own. I have been doing fun stuff though.

Another Wedding:


On Saturday I went to wedding #2 for my cousin Anthony and his wife Melissa. It was at the Russian Orthodox church. When I was invited to it, I thought it was just going to be a small casual church thing with just a few people. NOT!!! There was basically another wedding with a ton of guests and a catered reception and everything. I was rather hung over from the night before which was odd because I didnt really drink that much. Still, I was hung over enough that even when faced with an open bar, I couldnt bring myself to order anything other than just plain old pop.

Hanging With My Homies


I spent Sunday with my friends Andee and Luanne who are just amazing. I always love talking to them. First Andee and I did the whole Costco shopping thing which is always something I like to do even though I am prone to buying a whole lot of stuff I dont need. I was very good on this trip though. Then we met Luanne at the movie theater. We went to see The Weather Man which was way better than I expected it to be. All three of us were sobbing hard enough to require tissues. I guess you could say it passes the cry test for being a chick movie. But it was really funny too.


Anyways, I havent been writing much here but that is ok.

We Are Holding Our Own

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. A tragedy made especially famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest shipwreck songs ever written. It has long been a favorite among my friends and we are known to start singing it loudly and badly when we are drinking (and sometimes when we are not drinking). It is odd that such a song about such a tragedy can become such symbol of close bonding but it just goes to show you that sometimes good can come of bad sometimes.

And yet, even though I have mostly good associations with Lightfoot’s song, I never forget about the event that inspired it. The sinking of a good ship and the loss of 29 lives. Sometimes I don’t think that people who have never been to the Great Lakes don’t understand the significance of the event. They don’t really realize that lake freighters aren’t small little boats. They are behemoths and giants. They are typically much larger than their ocean going sisters and the Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest and best of them all. Lightfoot wasn’t exaggerating when he called her “The pride of the American Side” It takes a lot to sink a boat like that.

I used to live in Sault Ste Marie which is on the far eastern edge of Whitefish Bay. Because I was always intrigued by the song, I decided to drive up to Whitefish point one November morning when the forecast was for a storm. I remember standing there on the beach looking westward over Lake Superior. The waves were crashing and the wind was picking up. The sky was the most beautiful shade of dark grey and it reminded me of the color of a pair of eyes belonging to a man I loved. Snow flurries were being whipped around with the wind like little swirling mini-tornados. They looked like ghosts or spirits. It was cold with the kind of cold that grabs you by the bones and shakes you until you can hardly breathe. And the wind roars and the lake churns and it is then, just then, when one really gets what is meant by “Superior sings in the rooms of her icewater mansion”

I could barely stand it to be on that beach looking at the awesome beauty of Lake Superior gripped in the fury of a November storm. It was uncomfortable and brutal. It was then that I thought of the sailors out on the lake that day. Of how I might be uncomfortable but I was safe and had firm land under my feet and a warm house to go back to. I found myself sitting home later with my radio on and Gordon Lightfoot’s voice in the air. I was glad to be there.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down,
of the big lake they call Gitchigumi
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore, 26,000 tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side,
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most,
with a crew and good captain well-seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left, fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang,
could it be the north wind they'd been feeling?

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound,
and a wave tumbled over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
'twas the Witch of November come stealing
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait,
when the gales of November came slashing

When afternoon came, it was freezing rain,
in the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck,
saying, "Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya"
At seven p.m., the main hatchway caved in, he said,
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"
The captain wired in he had water coming in,
and the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night, when its lights went out of sight,
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized,
they may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her icewater mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
the isles and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go, as the mariners all know,
with the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed
at the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang 29 times,
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down,
of the big lake they call Gitchigumi

Fashion Faux Pas

I woke up late this morning sort of. Actually, I woke up at my usual time but the dogs were all still asleep and not demanding to be let out so I just laid back and enjoyed listening to their snores instead of getting up and getting ready like I should have been doing.

When I finally just had to get up, I was late enough that I really just had to run downstairs and grab the first thing that was clean. I grabbed: purple plaid capris, a turquoise shirt that says "Hawaii" and a Teal Patagonia fleece pullover (with purple trim so it kind of matches the pants). The t-shirt is really long and the pullover is a little on the short side. I naturally didnt tuck in my shirt or anything.

Shortly after I arrived at work this morning, I went into the bathroom with the full length mirror and I had to gasp. I looked ridiculous! But hey, I punched in on time and it isnt like I have a reputation for being a snappy dresser anyways so I dont have to worry about ruining that. I had to laugh though. My hair was all over the place because I didnt brush it this morning and my t-shirt was enough longer than the pullover to make me look quite weird. It occurred to me that if I added some lime green leg warmers and then a mask that was just a plain black rectangle, I could have a Halloween costume as one of those "What NOT to wear" features in magazines.

I forgot about how silly I looked and decided to run up to the gas station at lunch. As I was waiting in line to pay, I noticed the woman behind me was looking at me in a seriously funny way. All of her body language screamed: THE HORROR!!! I thought that if this woman is a blogger, I might stumble across one of those “you should have seen the big fat woman wearing purple Capri pants in November” posts. Usually such posts end with “What was she thinking when she got dressed this morning”

The truth is I know perfectly well that I look silly. I knew it as I was getting dressed. But sometimes looking silly is worth 15 minutes of peace where one can lie back and be contented just to listen to a dog snore. Really. I guess that is one of the nice things about getting older…one’s priorities change. And one becomes freer in a way. Free enough to wear a red hat with a purple dress (ala Jenny Joseph’s famous poem) and free enough to wear purple plaid Capri pants in November.

Election Day

Last Sunday, I read an interesting article in The New York Times Magazine about voting and about incentives to vote. Click here for a link. It was written by STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT who are the authors of the popular book Freakonomics. Basically they point out something I have discussed with Econ professors in school before. What are the incentives to vote? As Levitt and Dubner point out, there is little individual incentive other than responding to social pressures. People vote more because they feel they should than because they can actually matter to the outcome of the election with their one vote.

However, one thing that Levitt doesnt get into is how groups can gain political power by voting. And while on an individual level, it might be pressure from the group that gets one into the voting booth, there is no way to deny that groups that are able to get their members out to vote have quite a lot of power *as groups* in the political arena. I can think of several cohesive groups that are able to get their people to the polls and those votes do change things.

And if I were a politician, I have to admit that when making policy I might consider the wants of the mega-church which can get its members to the polls over the wants of Economists who apparently as a group dont go to the polls ;) I'm just sayin..

Speaking of politics and how groups can change things: well...I think all of those churches who make up the religious right and who are so good at getting their folks to the polls certainly have something to celebrate in Alito. The guy is way to conservative for my tastes. So...if you are like me and want to show that you just dont want the guy, feel free to visit my friend Trace's blog (http://traceminerals.blogspot.com/ for a lot of useful suggestions about what a person can do. And while you're at it, take a look at her anti-Alito cafepress store. http://www.cafepress.com/no2alito. It is all kinds of fun, I promise.

My Cousin's Wedding

I got that dress in time for yesterday’s wedding but when I took it out of the box, I realized that the jacket was covered in glitter. I generally don’t like to wear sparkles but I didnt have time to get something else and, otherwise, I liked the outfit a lot. It worked though, my grandmother liked it a lot so it accomplished what it was supposed to.

The wedding was very nice. It was at one of those “mega churches” that I have read articles about but have never actually seen. The ceremony was a multi-media presentation with music, both live and recorded, and a slide show with baby pictures of the couple. Since I love looking at pictures, I enjoyed that part of the ceremony a lot. I often get mailings from this church and was a little bit curious about it. It is quite a large thing. It was more of a church complex than what I would consider a church. I imagine it becomes quite the social hub on Sundays.

I didnt feel terribly comfortable there although there was definately something welcoming about the people. I got the feeling that the pastor was a genuinely nice man. And yet, I found myself actually cringing at the vows which were a sort of modern equivalent of having the women promise to “love, honor and *obey*” I noticed several women around me crying at that part of the ceremony and while I doubt they were crying about the inequality of the vows, I got a little bit of amusement imagining that they were.

The Bride was very beautiful and my cousin looked pretty spiffy in his tux. I loved all the autumn colors they had. The flowers were potted mums and the church was decorated with fall leaves. The bridesmaids wore gowns in a brownish maroon that I thought was a particularly lovely color. All in all, it was a very nice, well put together, wedding.

The reception was held at some swanky country club in Bloomfield Hills with valet parking being the only option. Had I known that, I would have vacuumed the mountain of dog hair out of my nine year old rusting car...and taken the used coffee cup out...and the trash on the floor. But, oh well! I apologized to the kid parking my car. He was very charming and just said, “Hey, don’t worry about us, *we* are regular people”

Well...alllll righty then!

The funny thing is that they are having another wedding next weekend. They had this wedding in her church but they are going to do the whole Russian Orthodox wedding thing next weekend. I guess I'll go to that one too. I dont buy into the theology of the Russian Orthodox church but I think they have the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. They are long though and the pews are hard. Northridge, btw, had deluxe padded pews. Something that if mentioned to the folks in charge the Russian Orthodox church would surely result in a reply of "You are lucky to have pews at all, in Russia, they have no pews and make you stand and kneel on the cold hard marble" ;)

The whole two wedding thing seems kind of interesting to me. My brother is doing it too but for different reasons. He and Katrina actually got married a few weeks ago so they can start the legal process of getting her a green card. As it is, she still wont be able to move to this country for some time after their big Catholic church wedding later this month. That has got to kind of suck...being married but not actually being able to shack up.

Full Service

I got in my car the other day and I noticed that the gas gauge was a lot lower than I would have thought it would be after only driving for a half of a week since filling the tank. The car also seemed to be driving funny and pulling a little to the right. Part of me knew right away what the problem was but the part of me that hates to check my tire pressure resisted the thought. Still, I checked the pressure this morning and it was way low so I had to spend 10 minutes at the gas station putting air in the tires.

Putting air into tires is a chore that I hate. I don’t know why I hate it so much either. I mean, it doesn’t take long. It doesn’t require any physical activity that is beyond me. Ok, I get my hands dirty when I do it but that isn’t a huge big deal since there are a lot of places in the world where one can wash one’s hands. The point is though, that I dread it. I dread it to the point where I have considered taking it into the tire place and asking if they’ll do it.

So I started thinking: wouldn’t it be nice if there were still full service gas stations where the people would check tire pressure and oil levels and then put air and/or oil into the car when needed? I am not a fan of checking the oil either and I have probably done it like 3 times over the life of my now nine year old car. Does anyone know of a full service gas station like that in the Ann Arbor area?

The Morning Commute

I actually left on time this morning for a change so I figured I would take Michigan Ave even though there is construction at Huron.

I saw a woman walking on Michigan Ave who was clearly mentally ill and I was reminded of my years working with the mentally ill in this area. Back then, whenever a group home would try to start up in Ann Arbor there was usually a huge NIMBY outcry against it. That didnt happen too much in Ypsilanti and I have always thought that was one of the really cool things about Ypsilanti. One of the things I have learned is that people who have to struggle with obstacles in their lives such as a mental illness usually end up being very interesting and colorful people. I love it that there are so many such people in the town where I live.

One of the most frustrating things about my morning and afternoon commutes is that stretch of Michigan Ave between downtown and Ellsworth Rd where there is no left turn lane. This morning someone decided to turn left but didnt decide to signal first which sucked because I ended up getting stuck behind them for a couple of minutes. Yeah...it is only a couple of minutes but it can still be frustrating. I wonder what they were thinking when they built that bit of road with no left turn lane?

I almost saw a kid bite it on Ellsworth Road. Guess what people? There is a reason that the law requires traffic to stop in *both* directions when a school bus puts on its red flashing lights. Today a school bus stopped and some kid who was running late ran out of an apartment complex into the road without looking where they were almost hit by a car which was on the opposite side of the street as the bus. Luckily the car saw the kid and managed to stop in time. But seriously folks, kids do dumb stuff all the time. Kids run into the street without looking when they are late for the bus. That is why there are laws about stopping for school busses with flashing red lights. And ok...I admit it, I sometimes curse the bus and the little kids for disturbing my morning commute and I even use the F word as in "I hate those f*cking kids for f*cking slowing me down with their f*cking stupid f*cking god damn school bus" but they cant hear me and I say it from my STOPPED car so I cant kill them and really, isnt that the way it should be?

Lately there has been a lot of traffic on Ellsworth by Stone School and it is weird because it doesnt seem like there is anything different going on. I hope it is because there are more people working in all the office parks around there and is a sign of economic growth in the area.

I got to work 3 minutes late which isnt that bad really.