September 11, 2000
On the Town
Yesterday was a red-letter day, so I decided to commemorate it with a picture: I wore makeup. That makes twice this year, so far. What was the occasion? Meeting a new friend from online. One of the few I have in town, in fact! She and I met at one of the many, many coffeeshops right around campus and then wandered around downtown for a bit, hitting bookstores and having lunch. It was fun. It's been a long time since I wandered around the campus area with someone. Of course, it started pouring rain on my way back to my car. I didn't have an umbrella, so by the time I got to the movie we'd decided to see I looked (and felt!) like a drowned rat. I was literally wringing water from my hair in the car. Feh.
Ann Arbor is a great place for people-watching, but it's starting to make me feel old. I'm so out of it on all the trends, fashion and otherwise. Another sign I'm old: I found myself going 'girls are wearing that now? Ick!' Of course, I did that when I was in high school too, so maybe it's just me. I should take my camera downtown sometime and take some pictures. There's definitely some interesting characters around. When we went into Borders, there were about three boys, maybe early college age, dressed in skater-grunge regalia. One of them had a guitar. When we came out of Borders, the one with the guitar was singing something about not having eaten in thirty days. Forty-five minutes later, when we came out of Starbucks, he was still singing it. I guess they were panhandling, cause they sure didn't look like they were starving. He had a pretty good voice. I was sort of envious in a way. It takes a lot of guts to plant your feet on a street corner and start belting out a song.
(Side note #1: where did college students study before coffeehouses were trendy? I remember just studying in my dorm, myself. Side note #2: don't go to downtown Ann Arbor on a rainy Sunday afternoon and expect to find a seat in any of the coffee shops there. People were circling like sharks, just waiting for people to vacate tables.)
It's nice to have a social life of sorts again. It's odd how low my energy level is, though. I think I'm going to have to build up some stamina before I can turn into a social butterfly again. It'll be good for me, as much as staying out at all hours is good for someone.
I gotta gear up... the Jazz and Blues Festival is this weekend, and I'm thinking I want to go, at least to part of it.
Posted by Lisa at September 11, 2000 01:02 PM
