Posts tagged ‘ypsilanti’

June 29th, 2011

Summer 2011 Bucket List

Because I love lists & I can’t let the summer by without a few new adventures, a short bucket list of things to do, places to go:

Strangely, I realize a lot of these involve hanging out in Ann Arbor. Despite living in Ypsi for nearly 3 years, there’s a lot we haven’t done in AA.

What else should be on the list?

Cool things I’ve done, but not on the original list:

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February 25th, 2011

Baby steps toward spring

Daylight savings is just 15 days away. Just over two weeks! I’ve had a countdown widget for a while now – the promise of extra daylight [maybe even sunshine] is helping me put one foot in front of the other these days!

Something else to get through the winter is the museum’s “Spring into Spring” event in early April. It’s really great for kids, but apparently pretty fun for adults too. If you’re in the area, you should definitely come on out!! You can buy your tickets online. Who can say no to a pizza feast??

Another key factor in making it to spring is keeping warm – with food!

Since December, Joel has been working at SOS Community Services here in Ypsilanti. In addition to running the food bank, he does crisis counseling for people about to lose their housing. I’m so proud to see him in such a great position – he’s made a lot of positive changes to the program and it’s also encouraging to see him getting respect & encouragement from the other staff [a stark contrast to his previous job].

Last Sunday SOS benefited from a fun [& delicious] fundraiser – the Depot Town Chili Challenge!!

Chili cook off

For $5, judges received a bag with a map, 10 mini-cups, a spoon, napkins, a tiny pencil & a score card. This year’s participants where: Sidetrack, the Food Co-Op, Aubree’s, Cafe Ollie & Corner Brewery. And, although not officially not on the ballot, we knew Andy & Hasan had cooked up some chili so we stopped at Woodruff’s for a taste – marinating everything with ghost peppers & habaneros makes things HOT [understatement - my stomach was on fire for hours].

Although Sidetrack won [their veg was my 2nd favorite], I picked the Food Coop’s sweet potato black bean chili as the best. The Ypsilanti Courier has a nice article about the event, including its history.

Now it’s time to clean myself up, go volunteer for a few hours, then head to Lansing for a Fields of Industry show, followed by a weekend in Grand Rapids visiting friends & family.

Cheers!

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January 19th, 2011

Serving in the Archives Together

This past weekend was awesome. Not only was Victoria visiting for the weekend [guaranteeing nonstop hilarity], but Joel & I stayed in Detroit Sunday night & enjoyed a lot of delicious food. The original plan was to visit The Henry Ford Museum Monday morning, but the overwhelming amounts of homework I had made us put that off for another time. [100 days until graduation!]

One of the best parts of this weekend was on Saturday. Myself and a group of SI students spent the afternoon volunteering at a place that’s been on my Ypsilanti bucket list for two years now – the Ypsilanti Historical Society.

Our work was part of a larger effort – an SI wide service day. In addition to the Ypsi Historical Society, groups of students volunteered with The Ark, WCBN Radio, 826 Michigan, Recycle Center, Ann Arbor Art Center and The Generation Project. I was proud of the effort from the archives community at SI – each SAA board member arranged a volunteer project, an archives faculty member went to each site and over 20 archives students volunteered!!

At YHS we were tasked with doing an inventory of some of the many boxes of largely unknown materials. I went through a box of scrapbooks from the 1940s and a box of items from the Ypsilanti Garden Club, circa 1950. Other students worked with oral history tapes, a box of playbills from the Ypsilanti Players, old textbooks and a variety of other things. After, we were treated to a tour of the museum upstairs by the incredibly knowledgable James Mann. It was a really great experience and myself and at least one other person are arranging to go back and continue volunteering.

Here are some photos of our work at YHS and some from a group at WCBN, working in their off-site storage facility.

SAA Service Day

SAA Service Day

SAA Service Day

P1150022

P1150006

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January 4th, 2011

High Five for the Mitten

Sunday I went to the movies for the first time since seeing The Darjeeling Limited at the Michigan Theatre in 2007. After reading all the books this summer & catching up on the movies over the semester, we saw the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’ll tell you that my initial motivation for this is the beautiful Emma Watson, but I’ve really come to enjoy the books and the depth & creatively they hold. I’m definitely excited for the last movie.

Yesterday was my first day at the new job & it went swimmingly. It felt great to get in & to get going – I’m really looking forward to being there. Joel & I had dinner at Sidetrack when I got home, the perfect ending to most any day.

This past weekend was an annual event worth highlighting – MITTENFEST.

This 4-day music fest is a fundraiser for 826 Michigan, a nonprofit writing & tutoring center with ties to Dave Egger’s original 826 Valencia. This year they raised about $15,000 for the organization, which is really incredible. This was our second year attending [Fields of Industry played last year, too].

Mittenfest V was held at the new [& lovely] Woodruff’s after the untimely demise of Savoy. Even though there wasn’t space for two stages as planned, Woodruff’s is a lot more cozy, classy & I think it was a much better venue overall.

We went two nights this year – Thursday when Joel played in Fields of Industry & Saturday when good friends Natural Monuments & Secret Twins played. Unfortunately we had to miss our buds Long Whisker on Friday because we were setting up for the party [but they came over later on].

Fields of Industry at Mittenfest V

Natural Monuments at Mittenfest V

I think that for both Joel & I, the best part of the festival wasn’t seeing so many of our friends on stage, but that the entire bar was filled with friends. We’ve been in Ypsilanti just over 2 years now, but we’ve gotten to know so many different people in different social circles through different ways. Saturday we could wander around & we were guaranteed to run into someone we know. This was especially meaningful now that we own a house here – it further solidifies our love for the community & our investment in it.

This is my last free day before work & the new semester start up in full swing, so I need to go tackle a giant to-do list.

Cheers to a beautiful 2010!

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December 8th, 2010

Ypsilanti Love

I’m currently sitting at home, wrapped in a blanket & enjoying some afternoon coffee because our front yard looks like this:

After moving in & living here a few days, we started to notice a lot of water in the front lawn. Then on the sidewalk. Then in the road. Currently, there’s a giant patch of ice covering the road in front of our house, but there’s also a backhoe that’s digging up the old [leaking] pipes to replace them with shiny, new copper ones. Our house is up on a hill & I’m pretty impressed with the 10+ foot trench they’ve had to dig to reach the hook up to the house. Ace Plumbing is doing the work & they’ve been great & flexible, letting us pay some now, some next week.

Anyway, despite this major [& expensive] repair, I can’t help thinking of the small bit of Christmas shopping I’ll do this year – downtown Ypsilanti!

Quick facts:
Population of about 23,000
Home to Eastern Michigan University
Host to the winner of the Most Phallic Building Contest
Named after Demetrius Ypsilanti, a hero in the Greek War of Independence

One of things I love most about Ypsilanti is that it’s incredibly vibrant and has so much to offer, without losing all of it’s grittiness [like this drug dealer that lives a street over] or sense of creativity & community [does your town have a Krampus Costume Ball?].

All this is to say that I love my town & I’ve decided that all my gift buying will be done locally this year. A short list of places available to fulfill my gifting needs:
MIX
Bowerbird Mongo [My favorite place to shop in Ypsi, hands down]
Salt City Antiques
The Rocket [Tons of fun, silly things here!]
Depot Town Tattoo [let's me honest, any gifts from here will definitely be for me]
DIYpsi [The craft fair filling the gap by Shadow Art Fair this year, held at the brand new Woodruffs]

Also, now that the majority of our house projects are over [we hope!!], Joel & I are going to try & fulfill as many of our renovation needs at the local Ace Hardware – they’re friendly, helpful and we want them to stay in business.

Well the water is on & they’re putting the dirt back in, so it’s to do the dishes & get ready for work!

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