Barack and me || I ain’t drinkin’ anything with a slurry in it
So, today was a momentous day here on the Planet Ann Arbor as Barack Obama dropped in for a little visit with this year’s crop of University of Michigan grads. Aaaaannnddd… It was a momentous day here at the Landfill, which happens to be on the Planet Ann Arbor, as our 2009 Kalamazoo College grad moved out. Into a house only about six blocks from the Big House, aka, the UMich Football Stadium. Where they hold the graduation. With 80,000 people in attendance.
Yesterday, my co-workers commiserated with me about how horrible the traffic would be today. Early this morning, my favorite Meijer uscan cashier and I commiserated about the busy day she would have and all the traffic I would have to put up with helping Mouse move. Well, why would Mouse pick this day to move anyway? Because. Fer kee-reist (-: She is sick and tired of living with a couple of baggy old grumpies and this is the first day she could move in!
Guess what? The only problem that any one of us had with traffic the entire day was when I pulled out of Mouse’s driveway and completely forgot that it was a ONE-WAY STREET (!!!) and turned the wrong way. Duh. How many years have I lived on this planet? Yes, I caught my error almost immediately, and no, I didn’t get caught by the po-leese.
I won’t replay the details of the whole day. The GG and Mouse took a few big things over there early. Then Mouse and I did some shopping and took a few groceries and cleaning stuff and Roomba over there. Mouse is smart. She knows I like to flap around like a duck or helicopter or whatever. So she tasked me with cleaning the refrigerator (new and pretty clean but maybe the reno crew has been storing their lunches in there or whatever). She knew that cleaning the refrigerator (and running Roomba) would keep me busy and out of her hair and it did. I mean, it kept me busy, I hope it kept me out of her hair.
And then. Flap flap flap chop chop chop. Helicopters overhead. Even if I hadn’t known that they were related to the presidential appearance, I would’ve probably dropped my cleaning rag, dashed out broken my neck struggling with the screen door latch to get outside and wave to the nice helicopters (ca-ca-cas, hecki-poppers or whatever). When I was a kid on Fin Family Moominbeach, B52 bombers would occasionally fly low over our woods and out over the water and Grandroobly and Uncle Duke who were WWII pilots would always run outside because they were *excited* and, uh, so did I, even though I was ALSO a bit terrified. Kinda like when I am sitting in the Dee-troit Metro cell phone lot at the end of one of the runways and a blasted 747 takes off over me. Yeee-iyyyy.
Nowadays I don’t run outside when any routine kind of airplane or helicopter flies over, although I often watch them when I *am* outside. I knew these ‘copters were related to Obama. What I didn’t know, until a facebook friend* who was at the graduation pointed it out, was that Obama was on one of them. I only got to wave to the second ‘copter (darn that screen door) so I hope that’s the one the sitting president was on. Although I am sure he wasn’t looking down at the old washerwoman madly waving her cleaning rag.
And then there was the Kentucky Derby. The GG and I did our best to sing the song and I teared up just a bit, even though I have only dashed through Kentucky a couple of times in my life and I like horses best from a bit of a distance. I picked the horse Icebox only because I spent a good bit of time cleaning a refrigerator today. It seemed appropriate. I can’t remember who the GG picked. It’s done. Our horses didn’t win and that’s okay. I declared that I wasn’t gonna drink something with mint slurry in it and the GG is just under the weather enough today to agree and so I made manhattans and he snipped a little sprig of mint to stick in those. So we are waving at the Kentucky Derby with love.
And that photooo is of the stairs in Mouse’s house. I have a hard time taking interior house photos but I thought The Commander and Elizilla (and maybe others) might want a snapshot of Mouse’s house. It’s a beautiful house on Ann Arbor’s Old West Side.
*Facebook friend? Sheesh, she *is* a Facebook friend. But she is also a neighbor and the mom of one of Mouse’s best friends! Facebook friend. Git off them thar tubes fer a few minutes, KW!
May 1st, 2010 at 8:07 pm
That staircase is beautiful! And that’s just so cool that you got to “see” the president! :o)
I’m also laughing that you picked a horse named “Icebox” to win the Derby. I’ll never understand the weirdness of racehorse names.
May 2nd, 2010 at 12:23 am
That is a gorgeous house and I’m glad the move went well. You guys are so important that you got the President to stop by?? Wow!!
May 2nd, 2010 at 9:14 am
Bubs and I were at the Big House to experience Obama’s visit first hand. pretty darn exciting!
and perhaps a perfect excuse to avoid the heavy lifting associated with any move. 😉