Homelessness

With the end of my domestic travels and my international travels about to begin, I have found myself in a rare position for me. I am somewhat homeless. My lease in Ann Arbor ended August 24th, and I don't leave for Europe for another two weeks. My permanent address is still in Washington, but I've found myself shuttling back and forth between my parents house and Ann Arbor where I squat in places friendly to my low income lifestyle.

Luckily over the course of the summer I've become close with my summer housemate's group of friends. One of the nicest feelings I've ever gotten was when my roommates said they wished I could keep living with them, and that I was an upgrade over their friend I was sub-letting from. As a stranger to the group only 3 months ago, this was a pretty nice compliment.

So I've been staying at home for the beginning of the week and then traveling up to Ann Arbor for the weekends. Last weekend was the first football game so I was also lucky to have some of my friends come into town. I also stayed with my buddy Alex who I've known since freshmen year. He has a house at Stadium and Main which is across the street from the Stadium and an ideal tailgate location.

On Thursday night I met up with my new friends and did the traditional 'Welcome Week' thing. We went to the Greenwood block party which was broken up within 10 minutes of us getting there - just like old times. I also told my story of the time Gabe Watson drove his Hummer H2 down Greenwood during the block party many years ago (which is a great story). Then we went and played some drinking games and did shots of vodka from a plastic handle. There was dancing, yelling, a girl crying, playing cards everywhere and a guy talking about what a great taste in music he has. It was a interesting reminder of some of the good and bad things about college life.

Greenwood Block Party

On Friday, I complied with my usual routine for Ann Arbor of going to the UGLi and spending all day trying to find a job that I actually want. Something involving mystique and intrigue while also paying well and supporting my all leisure lifestyle. That evening I found myself out with a couple of my longtime Michigan friends from the dorms. It was another classic college night which involved bars, cabs, house parties, a frat, back to the bars and a bus ride home. I got to sleep around 2am.

Around 6am I awoke to strange noises. I looked out the window and to my amazement saw people setting up tailgates for the 3:30 game. I put my hungover head on the pillow and fell back to sleep knowing it was finally gameday in Ann Arbor. At 9 am I arose for good and started my day off with two cups of coffee and a BITS (beer in the shower).

My gameday consisted of playing drinking games, walking to State street, walking back to Main Street to see an old Box guy, walking back to State Street, walking to Rub Pub BBQ, walking halfway back to the stadium, seeing friends and then walking back to State St, walking over to Oakland to get a ticket to the game for $10, walking back to State Street, walking to the game, standing for 4 hours at the game, walking back to the house I was staying at.

On the porch at the old house

After the game I needed to lie down for an hour, but then I got a second wind and walked over to State Street and pre-gamed while playing Mario Tennis, from there I walked to The Brown Jug to meet up with my college friends, after a great time at the jug we walked over to Skeeps (this is where I started openly complaining about my ass chafage), after many beers and some shame at Skeeps it was time to go home.

At this point I was completely unwilling to walk all the way back to the Stadium from downtown, so two of us tried to get a cab, but at 2am on Saturday that is easier said than done. So after a few frustrating minutes, I just decided to hitchhike. While I'm a big fan of hitchhiking, getting into someones car at 2am might have not been my greatest idea. To my surprise the very first vehicle stopped for us, it was a van with two black dudes in it blasting a song that did not present white people in the best light. But the guys were totally cool and gave us a ride all the way down State street. So another point in my personal log of hitchhiking success stories (which I'm up to about 10 or 11).

Sunday I went back to the library for a bit to use the computers before driving home to my parents house to unwind for a few days. On Thursday I'm heading back up to AA to partake in a fantasy draft for a fantasy football league the guys I lived with have (proof they must actually have liked me). Then everyone comes into town for the Notre Dame game which I hope is just as fun as the last ND-Michigan game which is one of my favorite games of all time.

Perhaps I'll write more next week!