Episode 35: March 2008
Highlights of the month include:
- Red Wings hockey game and weekend in Detroit;
- Girls weekend in Traverse City;
- Long weekend in Oklahoma;
To start off the month, we spent a weekend in Detroit. Although we have lived in Michigan for almost 18 months and ventured across the state, we have not yet spent much time in the biggest city the state has to offer. We started the weekend by watching famed ice hockey team – the Detroit Red Wings – and thoroughly enjoyed the craziness of a large ice hockey game with our friends, Anne and Keith. The city of Detroit itself has clearly and visibly been affected by the plight of Michigan’s economy. At the height of the U.S. automotive industry, Detroit was the hot-bed of activity for the three “majors”: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. In fact, there is still a lot of “old” car money in town. But as the U.S. car industry has faded so, too, has Detroit. The city now claims to have one of the highest (if not THE highest) crime rate in the nation and it has lost most of its luster. You can certainly tell how impressive the city must have once been, but its current state is a pretty sad sight to see. After the game, we headed off to a bar to finish off the evening with a few beers and snacks before heading to our hotel just out of town in the suburb of Southfield.
For all the shortcomings of the city of Detroit, its suburbs are quite pleasant. We spent the following day exploring the suburb of Birmingham, which is a very cute town with plenty of activity. We enjoyed a day of eating, shopping, and people-watching (my idea of a perfect day). That evening, we hit the suburb of Royal Oak, another diverse town, where we had a fabulous Thai dinner to end the day. The next day held more of the same before we made the two-hour drive north to Midland.
The weekend after, eight girlfriends from my book club decided to have a girls weekend in Traverse City, a town located two hours north of Midland. We spent our first evening catching up over dinner and martinis. On Saturday, we indulged in some spa treatments at the hotel we stayed at for most of the day, followed by a late lunch and some relaxing shopping. We ended the day with a fabulous antipasto and wine tasting evening back at the condo we had rented, and in typical sleepover fashion, the furniture got moved around to make way for dancing and singing to all that our iPods had to offer. It was a wonderful weekend, connecting with friends and relaxing in a very pretty part of the state.
This month did not hold much work-related travel for either of us. Neal did not have any trips, while I spent a week in Houston. The key purpose of my visit to Houston was to present at an HR conference on the topic of corporate reputation in recruiting campaigns. The presentation went well – I was invited back to present at next year’s conference – and the other presentations were very thought-provoking.
A day after arriving back from Houston, we returned to the airport, this time to head to Stillwater, Oklahoma where we spent Easter weekend with Neal’s parents. We explored some of the town, revisited some of Neal’s favorite places, took a nap at Boomer Lake, and walked around the university campus. Besides looking around the town, most of our time was spent enjoying the company of Neal’s parents and grandparents whom we had not seen in a while. We are pleased to say that all are doing great.
Work was crazy-busy for the two of us in March, so our weeknights were spent unwinding for the most part and trying to get in some exercise at the gym whenever possible. We spent a mid-week evening at the theatre to see a series of acts that were brought over from the Xian region of China. The performance was part of cultural exchange between Midland and the Xian region and it involved local dances, songs, and acrobatics. The show was very nicely done, and it is always nice to see how appreciative the Midland audience is of cultural events both via their turnout and their standing ovations.
On the final weekend of the month, we decided to take a daytrip to Lansing, Michigan’s capitol city. The primary purpose of our trip was to check out the capitol building. Oddly enough, we arrived there only to find a sign on the door that read: “Due to budgetary constraints, the Capitol will be closed on Saturdays until further notice.” That pretty much sums up the current state of Michigan’s economy.
After exploring a little more of the town, we headed back towards Midland, stopping at the town of Mount Pleasant, which is about 30 minutes away from Midland. Mount Pleasant is the hope to two landmarks: Central Michigan University and a huge casino. The university was hosting an international film festival that we wanted to check out, which was our main reason for stopping. To fill the time until the movie, we visited the casino to try our luck (which was not very good), and have a pre-show dinner at a surprisingly good restaurant called Waterlilly. From there, we went to the Broadway theatre to watch the movie Paris, je t’aime. The movie had a very interesting concept: several movie directors were asked to make short films about an aspect of Paris. Some of the directors were famous, and some of the acts featured famous actors. In total, there were 18 short films, each of which was a different interpretation of love in Paris. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, from Detroit to Oklahoma and China to Paris, the month brought some fabulous local and international experiences. The weather has finally started to get more reasonable, although the snow has not quite yet melted. Surely, April will see the end of the winter (we can only hope). Until next month, take care!
