Life of Wry

Damn.. last day. I could stay weeks more. I love Ann Arbor and all it offers (like, you know, Peter and Maya for starters). Don’t like last days.

It was a great one, though!

Started at oh, dark, 6:10. That’s a full moon setting. Don’t be fooled by the brightness of this photo.. it was dark. I’m on Sarah’s porch waiting for Lisa to pick me up.

Lisa and I are joining MJ for their thrice weekly walk (Mary Jo, who she’s been running — now walking — with several times a week for 28 years!). They are both marathon runners. I enjoy joining them when I’m in town (not for marathons, not for runs). This day, Stephanie joined as well.

We parked at Sweetwaters in Kerry Town and walked down to the same river access point across from Casey’s Tavern. Their route is slightly different than my other river walks this week, but it’s still a 3-4 mile fast walk in 30-degree weather. INVIGORATING.

MJ and Steph then left for work, Lisa and I had coffee & a scone at Zingerman’s. I was back at the BT by 8:00am. Nice way to start a day!! (Remember that, Kari.)

I had to wait an hour for breakfast, so got cleaned up, then joined all those cute prospective grad students again and heard about their various wooing events from the day before.

Today’s cafe experience was a new one — Avalon — on Main, near Liberty. Sat for hours there, then met Lisa at the BT. We had some time to kill before heading off to a Tesla protest .. so went first to a very nice gallery, run by the local artists’ guild…

… where an artist friend of L&C’s had some pieces. Hard to see bc of all the reflection, but here’s an example of her water colors.. this one of the Nichols Arcade (a well known shopping area in A2) that won first place in this most recent exhibit:

Then we sat at the TeaHaus for an hour or so drinking unusual teas (I had chocolate chili, subtle but pretty good).

and THEN, it was time to go protest at the Ann Arbor Tesla dealership! I’m guessing there were about 300 people there. Each week the number grows, having started with one woman and a sign a few weeks ago.

Some pics.

We basically marched back and forth in an elongated circle the length of the very long Tesla property. It was quite satisfying. Some chants, mostly just pissed off white senior citizens. Not all old people, but that sure seems to be what makes up a lot of the opposition these days. Educated boomers. Some signs:

And a dog, just to show it’s not all retired white people.

Lisa and I, after all our marching and chanting, then headed over to Bill’s Beer Garden to meet P&M, but because it was a sunny, warm (70-degrees by late afternoon!) Friday, and because there were thousands of prospective grad students in town, Bills’ line wrapped around the block and we couldn’t get in. When P&M arrived, we decided instead on Grizzly Peak (a bar/restaurant). We hung out for about an hour before Peter had to head out for a department reception (an event also related to wooing new students to the Mech E department.

Lisa had to run off to another gathering, so Maya and I got to have an evening together. We hung out at Literati for a long time looking at books, then had dinner at the Pacific Rim .. probably Peter and Maya’s favorite A2 restaurant:

Peter dropped by after his event and helped us eat this….

… Pacific Rim’s famous hot chocolate cake with cherries and vanilla ice cream.

And that’s a wrap on another great day.