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[zie_verse]

I want to like Michigan. Unfortunately, I'm really getting homesick for gays and glitter and Birkenstocks and being dirty and caring about something more than oneself. It's so vanilla here. I need to get out and see something that'll make me happy again. Bugger. I want to be on the Clearwater or at the Northwest Wooden Boat Building School.

Comments

[lostforeverblue]

yeah, michigan is an interesting place. i think i probably have a slightly different view of it since i grew up there, and i could imagine that on the surface its pretty dull. actually, it is pretty bland, but it's a really pretty place to be in the summer, all green and nice. and there are things to do, you just have to look hard. but you're probably getting a sense of why i've never considered myself a midwesterner, dispite the fact that i've spent the majority of my life there.

people are nice there, but they're also very sheltered. generations of people will live in the same town without ever leaving; i've seen it happen to the people i went to high school with. so many of them are just staying put.

not to mention the michigan economy sucks right now. the domestic car companies that used to employ a lot of michiganders are all going under, gm's in huge trouble. there's even an abandoned gm plant in kalamazoo that i'd drive by all the time. no good. and (at least in southwest michigan) the pharmaceutical companies are running amok laying off people, but at least that seems to have stabalized for now.

i think its also probably hard to get a sense of what michigan is really like from either traverse city or ann arbor. ann arbor is 100% college town and traverse city is a bit touristy. as far as michigan cities go, kalamazoo, flint, lansing or grand rapids are good choices for 'feel'. and the u.p.'s like a different state/country: canada junior.

you need to find yourself some lovable michigan hicks, knock back a few cold ones, play some euchre and try not to set the adjacent corn field on fire. or yourselves. fire + person = bad.

and i'll gladly be a michigan test subject.

[pensivebrooding]

Hmm, yeah. It seems a lot like Vermont - sheltered, filled with loveable hicks and corn fields, the love of bonfires; yet the whole 'nice' thing is just wicked odd. Or maybe it's just more-sheltered-than-even-me that comes out as 'nice'? Have you spent any time out in the boonies of Vermont? I'd be interested to know what you think of it if you have. And by boonies I mean not-Stowe or Chittenden County.

eeeexcelent. *tents fingers*

[lostforeverblue]

i've only ever been to burlington, and only for a few days at that. what is it about the 'nice' thing that's so weird? i don't really know what it is since i've was immersed in it for so long, and then moved to chicago, where i'm pretty sure it doesn't apply. and i'd also be willing to bet people in the midwest are more sheltered. not only is there the normal (?) massive amount of sheltering, but since the midwest is so far from either of the coasts, their cultural influences take years to make it inland, if they make it at all. there's always a good three or four year delay on things like fashion in the midwest. plus midwesterners don't know how to dress anyway. hell, people are more fashion-savvy here than michigan, and i'm in fucking utah! and people are also hella lazy. they'll drive their big-ass suv down the hallway to their make a sandwich and then drive it back to their la-z-boy. and exercise? yeah right. people aren't too health-conscious in general in the midwest. probably not enough hippies. i'm already in better shape out here than i've been in years, cycling almost every day and playing ultimate twice a week. dear lord, i thought my lungs were going to explode after that first game. and there's a sweet organic/local produce grocery store down the street from my apartment, which i'm moving into today as well. sweet.

[pensivebrooding]

I guess it just catches me off guard when I say a few words to someone, expecting a grunt or a few words back, and then I get a five minute conversation.

Yeah, I thought Vermont was behind on everything a lot, but I'm actually on top of things here...so now I'm afraid. And the whole driving everywhere thing unsettles me. And the whole smoking inside isn't outlawed thing angers me.

[lostforeverblue]

and the smaller the town, the lengthier the conversation.

[pensivebrooding]

So it's like the South, but up North?

I have a mission in mind to go to the u.p. once I actually find people with a car who I can have drive me there. It sounds more like Vermont up there, so I want to check it oot.

[lostforeverblue]

u.p. = canada junior.

very pretty, very strange.