Detroit on a Saturday night

Hi Mom,

Met up with Julie's friends from abroad tonight; they're in for the wedding and we all decided to toodle around town together. They had already toured our fair city (with a guide, nonetheless) and their cellphones sported pictures of the swinging fist and several dilapidated buildings downtown. Hence Emily, her friend and I took them to Novi, which makes a decent attempt at having a downtown, though it still mostly makes me think of glorified strip malls (not a criticism, I am not a New York City snob). I had never been to Lucky's, which has pinball machines, bowling, a bar and a band all sprawled out in a giant rec space.

It was rather unexpected and actually pretty cool, though Julie's friend forgetting his ID sent us across the street to a rather normal sports bar with big screens instead. They were a nice and incredibly international bunch. We drank beer until it got late out and then headed home--wedding to get ready for in the morning and all.

Hope everything's going well over there--I'm tuckered out from a night of adventure.

Love,
Karen

Muse

Hi Mom,

With so many museums and three free hours to see them in, it's hard to decide. Every year I swear I'll plot ahead of time, with shortcuts involving jumping hedges and skateboarding around, not through, the crowds. Never works.

The Museum Mile is a night set out to perplex frequent museum-goers who try and balance their interest in getting into every museum they've ever wanted to see with their fascination with whatever performances are happening on the blocked-off, pedestrian-friendly street on a warm summer evening.

I mill around in the middle of the street, smelling the sweet corn and crepes cooking at small stalls on the sides. I try and elbow my way in to seeing some artwork, but since it's free pretty much everyone shows up at once. The music doesn't lose its luster but seeing art with everyone on earth crammed in around you is a little bit less powerful. At least I know what to go back and visit when I have more time, like doing a whirlwind tour of six countries in a week.

Anyway, saw the MET, always a favorite, and watched a street performer juggle, and then subsequently eat, fire.

Hope you're having a great birthday. I'm thinking of you.

Love,
Karen

Fresh Air

Hi Mom,

I have just solved one of my apartment's mega-mysteries. The motion-activated air freshener I bought, which I was convinced on multiple occasions I had moved to various other strategic locations throughout the apartment, kept showing up back on my dresser. I had entertained the possibility that I had dreamed the whole thing up, that I had never moved it at all. I had briefly considered whether the puffs of scent it emits could propel it somehow from various places back to its previous perch. Turns out, my roommate hates the darn thing and kept waiting for me to get the idea.

We both dissolved into peals of laughter as she explained how it had puffed her in the head from the ledge in the bathroom, made her hand stink all day when I had left it on the sink, and shot her in the face when it was atop the toaster. Each time she had placed it back in its dust ring on my dresser, wondering what kind of passive-aggressive odor-prevention program was in place around here.

I feel much less crazy now. I'll tell you, when you walk in, flip on the light and hear its telltale wheeze when the contraption's supposed to be 100 feet away and on the other side of the door...

well, it's strange. 

That was this morning's great discovery. Stay tuned and see what we think of next.

Love,

Karen

Hey there, Mac

Hi Mom,

Just came in from the 24-hour Apple store, the big glass one with the Willy Wonka-style elevator. It must take vats of Windex to keep the thing clean but they always manage to make it look easy.

I think you should buy a MacBook. I was staring at them for awhile earlier and I think you'd like the portability and style. They come in shiny colors. The only real dilemma would be if you aspired to move things between a Mac and a PC. Or if you decided to use specific software that is still only made for PCs. Development is slow sometimes because most things go PC first, except some design software, I think.

In related news, on a whim I decided I should buy a business school book. Don't fall over. It was just to keep my options open, see if I still have a passion for standardized tests, all the usual reasons. I picked up a Kaplan GMAT book for thirty-odd dollars and as the CD started whirring realized it was only for the PC. So much for that study aid. Since I had already opened the CD (you have to in order to put it in the computer and all) they won't take it back at Barnes & Noble. So what I need now is to find someone with a PC who plans to take the test and needs a book. Doh!

Maybe it's a sign--people with Macs shouldn't go to business school. Or people named Karen. Also saw Up tonight. Very cute. I recommend.

Love,
Karen

Keep the change

Hi Mom,

A guy with a fancy umbrella stopped me in the street this morning on my walk to work. “Funny, you don’t look like a tourist.” I was trying to get the parking lot shot at the exact right angle to get in all the crazy verticals. “I’m not. It’s for a blog for my mom.” He still looked confused. “I take pictures of things I think are interesting around the city and send them to her.”

He walked with me for five blocks. We talked about GM and cars and parking lots, then briefly about jobs, hedge funds (he works at one) and layoffs. He was shocked to find I walk all the way to work. I turned the corner. He waved.

I was walking down Broadway, where city employees are now called upon daily to set up a barrage of lawn chairs. A man with a grey hat and a black messenger bag jogged past me in street clothes, pausing as I did when a series of quarters and pennies hit the ground. “Are those mine?” he asked. “I think so, yeah,” I said, reviewing any open pockets or pouches that could have shed approximately 46 cents. He picked it up and jogged off. I kept walking.

I took a shortcut down the bike lane, imagining the street lined with pink flamingo lawn ornaments. About ten minutes later, he reappeared. “I think they’re yours,” he said breathlessly. I didn’t drop them.” He dropped the 46 cents into my palm and disappeared down the street.

Love,
Karen

30 minutes, walking briskly

Hi Mom,

I saw my old roommates the other day, the Brooklyn crew from when I lived out near Coney Island. It remains a great apartment--my old room looks even better now, they fixed it up and unlike my minimalist approach, decorated. It's still too far to get me to work on time. Or that just could have been me dismembering the alarm clock and waking up late. Hard to say.

These days I walk to work. It's a little over a mile and a half and winds me through Times Square, Herald Square and down to Union Square, where I can stop by the farmer's market for some fresh cider and snacks. 

I try to vary the route to see what's going on in the city. Going the fastest way though, or what I've until now perceived to be the fastest way, I can watch them setting up the chairs in Times Square, check out the windows in Macy's down by Herald Square, and watch gobs of locals hit up Starbucks amidst confused, map-bearing tourist throngs. 

Other streets are less picturesque but also a lot of fun. One sells wholesale jewelry for about six blocks, big costume pieces you can't buy individually but can sometimes sneak in to admire in their plastic wonder. Another is just knockoff perfumes and non-name brand t-shirts, storefronts blank due to today's economy and large red going-out-of-business signs. 

Every time I make the walk downtown I notice something new. It's a nice way to start the day. Speaking of which, I should probably go do that. Have a great Wednesday!

Love, 

Karen 

Calls for a glass of milk

Hi Mom,

I have made a recent and unfortunate discovery--the Treats Truck comes to rest within five blocks of my office on a routine basis, bringing cookies, brownies with jam, rice krispie squares and other manner of dangerous, diet-obstructing goodness to a corner near me. 

The treats are only a couple bucks each, making it super-easy on a dreary (insert day here) afternoon to look up from one's desk and exclaim gleefully "TREATS TRUCK!" before heading out like the pied piper with ten people and twenty dollars worth of requests from individuals still glued to their seats.

I usually let the lady pick my treat for me. I know that's not the way it's supposed to be but somehow I just get overwhelmed by the sugary possibilities. When I'm feeling even more concrete I'll just go to City Bakery and get a buttery chocolate chip cookie because there's no decision to be made there. They hands down make a great chocolate chip cookie and also marvelous hot chocolate, which you can only drink in tiny cups because it's so rich and thick. 

The Truck lists its destinations on its website and sometimes we get so desperate we even have a countdown going until the truck arrives. Today we even went in the rain. This lady has no idea how addictive the treats are. Or maybe she does, and that's how she makes her living.

Send me the cowboy cookie recipe and save me from myself. :)

Love,

Karen