weekend in michigan
My sister has been working on her PhD in English for a while now. She has been having difficulty writing her disertation, not because she doesn't have a topic. It's because she doesn't have the time to write. Her job is the Assistant Director of Freshman English at the University of Connecticut (UCONN). It's supposed to be a 20hr/wk job, but she works it like a full time job, leaving no time for her to concentrate on her disertation.
My sister attended Adrian College (small school, about 1100 students total) in Adrian, Michigan. She became friends with Diane Henningfeld, a professor in the English Department. My sister has been friends with the Henningfelds for a long time.
So, my sister is taking a leave of absence from UCONN to stay with the Henningfelds and try to concentrate on writing her disertation.
My parents and I went to visit her over the weekend. Though, I thought we wouldn't go because mom was sick, but a quick recovery and we were on the rode to Michigan on Friday around 1:30pm.
We got to the Henningfelds around 6:30pm. We unloaded the car, I looked over some directions and headed to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, about 1.5 hours northeast of Adrian. It was a little weird getting there, but after one oops I made it to Farmington Hills. Trying to look for a place in the dark while dealing with 3 lanes of traffic was not fun. I had to ask where it was. I pull into the shopping plaza and I'm driving around looking for it. Then *BAM* HUGE neon sign. Of course I took a picture after parking my car around 8:30pm.
As I'm walking in I can see the DDR machines to my right, MAX and 5th, a short right turn and you see a Drummania machine and Guitar Freaks. It was really crowded in that building. More machines and things than people. Walkways were tight. There didn't seem to be a coin line, but I ask this guy "quarters or tokens." "quarters he says." "If you are dancing alone, may I join you?" So I get on the machine and have someone quickly snap my picture, I believe it was BakuuBakuu. Then I got to play MAX. Freeze arrows are interesting, and it is much easier to select sudden, shuffle, etc. Just hold the rectangle button and you get a menu.
It was very social at Marv's. I met a number of DDR players, DJ (tom), Beth, Shei, 2%. Tom was very nice. A bunch of AIM names were exchanged.
In addition to being an arcade Marvin's contains mechanical antiques and things all over the place. It's very cluttered and distracting. I need to go back again sometime when it's not so crowded.
I was realizing that I wasn't playing alot of DDR nor anything else. It was 9:30pm. I had a choice to remain and socialize or to head to Pinball Petes for more Bemani. I said good bye, nice to meet you to everyone and headed to Pete's
It was a short drive to Downtown Ann Arbor, much easier to get to than Marv's. Ah Detroit, Motor City, 4 lanes of cars, 70 MPH speed limit, awe yeah...... Anyway I made it to Pete's and was able to park right in front of it. I was warned that is was "ghetto" and they were kinda right.
Pinball Pete's was HUGE. A more open and spread out arcade, with so many machines. A large set of steps with a neon sign overhead lead down to the arcade. There was so much Bemani... DDR 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, Solo Bass; Guitar freaks 2, 3, 4; Keyboardmania, Dance Maniax 2nd, Para Para Paradise, Drummania 3rd. But everyone seemed to keep to themselves. Not really talking to anyone. Not as social.
So I played a round on each of the DDR machines, Dance Maniax, Keyboradmania, Guitar freaks 4th, and a number of rounds on the PPP machine. I must have my own bemani arcade someday. I got a few tickets as keepsakes since they didn't have tokens either. I try to collect tokens from the places that I play DDR.
I left Pete's around 1am and got back to the Henningfelds around 2am. I slept very well that night.
On Saturday, my sister took us on a walk around Adrian campus. Showed us the new library. It was wonderful. Data ports for laptops all over the place. Lots of natural light. Functional workspaces. Warm and cozy. Puts Hillman library to shame. Then we headed to this "meditation labrynth." Basically it was a stone path that you walk. It's to give you a repetative motion so that you can concentrate or ponder about things. Very neat. I'm going to try and build something similar in my back yard.
Then back to the Henningfelds to hang out and relax. Anne, the youngest daughter, used to be a professional yo-yo person. She used to tour and do demonstrations. She showed us some cool stuff and gave me a yo-yo carrying bag from Japan. ^_^
The lasagna dinner was exceptionally tasty. And the conversation following was interesting. Talking about education, perception, reality, .... It made your brain work, but not overwork.
After the Henningfelds went to bed before 11pm too early for me I got to watch Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. An episode of YuYu Hakushuo, Cowboy Bebop, and Cadidate for Goddess. I was so happy, opening/closing themes, original music, uncut, but unfortunately dubbed. They weren't too bad. I just want cartoon network at home. *sniffsniff*
Sunday, we all got up eventually and had lots of yummy pancakes. We packed up our stuff and relaxed for a while. I made plans to vist the Henningfelds next weekend. Anne and I will head to Blaster's Family Fun Center in Brighton that has so much bemani, and much nicer arcade than Pinball Pete's. That will be fun. Though I have to make the 5 hour drive by myself, it will be fun to show DDR etc to someone new. ^_^
Upon returning to Pittsburgh, I headed out to Oakland to drop off something for Kathy, and dropped by Ashitaka's place to pick up my Angel/Buffy/Smallville tape. He looked much better than he did on thursday, and he asked how my trip was. *sigh*
See the next exciting entry for reflections on the people I met and more ramblings about Ashitaka.