Sunday, April 24, 2005

Remembering Ann Arbor

I hope the soil there was fertile, or whatever. Besides that, it's hard to even imagine why a wagon train would stop in Ann Arbor as it's final destination. Maybe it was charming 100 years ago. Maybe before the U of Michigan took over the place.

Maybe I should stop making excuses. As a Seattlite, I know what earthquake-safe looks like, and I can tell you right now that the university's central library would crumble in any quake 4 and above. Sometimes, that thought would bring me comfort.

Other times, the tornado watch symbol would come on the tv, and I would fantasize about Ann Arbor being flattened in an intensity 5 twister, and I would have to find my way back to Seattle as a refugee.

At certain times in the afternoon, used to wish that some michigan militia maniac would park a moving truck full of fertilizer under the bell tower. Who cares that it was the third largest musical instrument in the world? Seriously, it's OUT OF TUNE.

I remember one dude lying down on a park bench, blissing out over an out of tune and improperly damped "Send in the Clowns."

J used to scold us for "wasting our energy" on hating Ann Arbor, but she might as well have tried to talk someone out of having a rash.

As much as I hated it there, I think it would have been more tolerable, even enjoyable, if they had payed us more. Seriously, $1200 a quarter is not dignified. I had to beg my dad for money every quarter. It was humiliating.

One positive, I guess, is that it made tax time real easy.

4 comments:

Delia Christina said...

tax time? what tax time?

taxes did not exist for me during that period. nope.

i remember the trees the most; the heavy, wet green trees. and grilling food on your front porch; and getting together to write our final papers while we pull all nighters and hallucinate while wearing emergency underwear. and akomay's hair. the pocohontas hair. and demonstrating how much liquid a tampon holds in your office. heh. laughing my ass off almost every day.

oh, and being the only person in my basement during one of those effing tornado warnings.

db said...

I remember the lush, green foliage and the hot, humid summer. I loved watching the tornado sign on tv

db said...

I remember the lush green foliage and the hot, humid summer. The rain, the rain, the rain! The first time I saw the tornado warning sign on the corner of my tv, i couldn't stop laughing. And I hated that bell tower too. Remember our offices were barely 10 ft away from it? laughing and crying almost every day.

oh, and the fudge from Frankenmuth served by women as large as the windows themselves.

Delia Christina said...

oh, frankenmuth. the town that time forgot and that nature hated. remember when their main st. was hit by the tornado?

god don't like chocolate cheese.