Vacation '07

I've been home for a few days after my trip home. I loved going home but it's good to be home. I'm still in "college mode" where you have home - your house/parent's house/hometown and home - your dorm/campus. Michigan will always be home for me, but I can't deny that home is also where all my stuff is and mail is sent to.

I had a lovely time. I got to see my oldest friend Sarah and her adorable little girls. I also got to see lots of family and enjoyed it thoroughly. I even got a sunburn as we all sat out on the deck in the gorgeous, gorgeous weather.

I got to see my beloved School Section Lake. It was really surreal. The place was packed with campers (the thing) but eerily absent were any campers (the people). I'd have sworn I arrived there just after the rapture. There were 5 or 6 fifteen year old boys swimming in the lake. I wanted to take a picture of the lake even though it was a very gloomy day. I was high up on the hill far away from the actual lake and heard the boys accusing each other of looking at their "weiners". Nothing says 15-year-old like that word. So I quickly took one picture and left as I was feeling very eerie. Everything was just as I remembered except for new fire pits. That was really comforting. I had a hard time finding it and getting back to the highway. I got to traverse several dirt roads.

We also went to Michigan's Adventure for a little bit. Unfortunately, my tummy and head don't last long there anymore. We played ski ball, rode the tilt-a-whirl, and ate Dippin Dots. We were just lucky there was no rain. It was fun, but I wish I could have done more than 5 rides. And again, I was determined to do the Corkscrew, the bane of my existance. But alas, I could not. Someday I will conquer it, my friend.

I ate and ate while I was home. Not only did I have several restaurants I wanted to hit, ma also made some of my favorite treats. I had my Scandanavia Shuffle and Riviera salad at Arnies, two trips to Yesterdog, Brann's salad (but they don't have their slim sam on the menu, sadly), Arnies cake and more Arnies cake, Brandywine brizzy (breakfast), and seashell salad, one of the nectar of the gods.

I need to get back into my exercise regime, but the rain here is conspiring against me. Blast my added poundage! Blast yummy vacation food! And I just got used to actually having NPR. Houston isn't very enlightened that way.

Am I a Hipster?

I was listening to my favorite radio show, This American Life, when they were doing a show about TV. Apparently there was this show the kids were all into called The O.C. or The OC. I've never seen it. But they mentioned TAL. This boy on the show says he's listening to TAL and his girlfriend says, "This American Life? Is that that show by those hipster know-it-alls who talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?"

Now, grant you I'm not Ira Glass and I don't work on the show, but I do listen to Death Cab and now this. Hmmmm.... I never thought of myself as such. I've never been hip-anything ever.

This American Life

My new favorite thing in the world is my This American Life (thisamericanlife.org) podcast. I go out walking and never quite know what I'm going to hear. It's put out by NPR/PRI. I get the podcast for free on iTunes. It's an hour-long show with 2 or 3 stories that have a similar theme. They're just stories told by someone involved in them. They tell a little piece of themselves. I'm a firm believer, though I somtimes forget this, that you can learn something amazing from every single person on earth if you only take the time to listen to them. This radio show validates that.

This morning I heard a story about an 80 year old man who let his house become overrun with prostitutes and drugs. On the surface it seems pretty cut and dry, the old man was an idiot. But when you really listen to his side and really examine, you start to understand people and how they get themselves in such situations. Another was about an Iraqi POW and lady American soldier who fell in love in Iraq. It was really quite sad. But my favorite so far has been this woman Erin who's mother was being hidden by a Polish during the Nazi occupation when she was just a girl. Erin wanted to get in touch with the family who saved her parent's life. Her mother's father had thanked them by letting them live in his apartment building for free and letting them keep the rent from all the tennants. He left them the building and moved to America with his daughter and started his life. Erin decided to go to this building in Poland and find them. She found out that the family was in trouble because they didn't have a legal claim to the building so all the tennants quit paying rent. She set out to try and help them get the building on paper legally. It's very long and complicated and is still ongoing. I must have listened to her tell that story 5 times as I lay awake on sleepless nights.

I absolutely love things like this. I love hearing snippets of people's lives. To me, real life is so much more interesting than fiction, than anything anyone could make up. All you need to know is where to find it, where to look for it. I absolutely can't recommend this podcast/radio show enough. If you're lucky enough to get it, tune in to it. As an aside, I'm constantly amazed and disheartened that a city the size of Houston doesn't have a proper NPR station. We get a few hours in the morning, a few in the evening, and a smattering on the weekends. Mostly they play classical music. I have nothing against classical, but dammit, Grand Rapids had THREE more or less full time NPR stations. Thank God for podcasts and iTunes and mp3 players.