It was a good couple of days. Rob had a meeting yesterday, so he dropped me off in Royal Oak. I wandered around the borders outlet, which near as I could tell means "where old books go to die". It was almost entirely books that had been marked down to five bucks or less. The store was a gigantic "bargain shelf'". I got sucked into reading this pop psychology book. I wound up getting sucked into it for so long that I figured I should buy it--or something. But there was nothing worth buying. The book itself was kind of cheesy, the type of thing I'd never be caught dead buying. Well, it's better to swallow my pride than look like some cheap heel that reads their books all day and never buys anything.
So I sheepishly bought the book, feeling an awful lot like a teenage boy in a porno shop. I then went over to Brazil's for coffee, where I got a cappucino and a piece of their double fudge torte cake, which was absolutely incredible.
Rob met up with me there, and we hung out at Brazil's for awhile before going to the church where his mom works (she's a cook) to visit her. She had left early because of feeling sick but Rob's uncle Pat was there, so we talked to him for a bit.
We then went to Wayne for me to get a look at the campus. We took Woodward all the way down, getting the tour of upper crust liberal suburbia to inner city urban decay. There was a sort of surrealistic post apocalyptic feel, with the buildings that had been burnt out since the sixties, the fervent churches next to run down, nearly condemned peep booths. I kind of wished I had the hi-8 with me, so I could film it in black and white from the car.
Getting closer to Wayne State, there was still the sense of being in some weird, futuristic urban sci fi flick, but it was juxtaposed by the structures of academia and little cafes and bars right by campus. It was getting late, so we didn't go inside. But it was interesting and nonetheless.
There was something both disturbing and enthralling by the grittiness of downtown. Chicago has downtown campuses like that, with buildings littered all over the place, but it was usually fairly antiseptic and almost disappearing next to the various office buildings. Downtown Detroit was much more conspicuous, much more raw. The streets were virtually empty at five o clock on a monday and filled with intent. Anyone you saw was there for a reason, and didn't seem to linger too much.
We went to Rob's mom's house. We all sat around and talked for a bit. We then overstuffed ourselves on Chinese take out.
Then, we went over to Rob's aunt's house and visited with that leg of the family. They were all overjoyed to hear about our plans to move back.
We went to the Tap Room where I drank far too much. The bartender was giving me two for ones on the kamikazes so I was getting drunk rather quickly. We talked with Briggs for quite a bit, then an old man, Darryl, came to join us. Darryl was an eighty year old Wayne student who was absolutely fascinating, and the conversation fell into the realm of drunken philosophy. (Well drunken on my part at least)
Around midnight, we went home. I kept waking up, with the dehydrated, feeling like hell sensation. I'd wake up, guzzle water, go to sleep. Then I'd wake up, go to the bathroom, go back to sleep. Then I'd wake up again, needing more water...well you get the idea.
I finally got up around 9:30 when I could sleep no more. We had breakfast, then went over to Dearborn to look at the place.
Oh.My.God.
It was fucking gorgeous.
It was beautifully landscaped, surrounded by woods. There were two ponds, one of which had a little bridge you could walk over. The buildings were brown brick, a nice selling point on a luxury apartment.
In my opinion, most luxury apartments are a little too light and airy, where the facades almost have a plastic feel. This was very solid and blended in beautifully with the rest of the complex.
We decided to take it even before we saw the apartment. The apartment itself was nice and beautifully laid out. It was the same space as our current place only the kitchen was huge. There was a nice view of the woods, too. So we were given our new address and a move in date of the fifth.
Elated and in disbelief that we actually found something nicer than where we are now, and on such short notice, we went looking around Dearborn. We found a nice little coffee place. It was a little bit of your generic cafe, but they had good coffee and amazing tiramisu. We then walked around for a bit, going to record stores and comic book stores and antique stores. The antique store had some beautiful black vintage furniture, and I saw an adorable velvet black beret that I fell in love with. I almost bought it but money's too tight for frivolity right now.
After a couple of hours of seeing Dearborn we headed back.
I can't wait to move.
Dearborn is a neat town and is really close to downtown Detroit, so it's easy to get to and from. Plus, it has a lot of culture and variety. I knew there would be plenty of nice middle eastern restaurants, but I was surprised at all the Thai, Italian, Polish, Japanese and Vietnamese places as well.
The worst part about an adventure like this is coming back to a shithole like Kalamazoo. It has always sucked but the knowledge of just how much better life will be in a few weeks has made it almost intolerable...