Episode 43: January & February 2009
Highlights of the month:
· Courtside seats at a Detroit Pistons game;
· Deb reconnects with her Broadway diva;
· Jewel concert;
· Neal starts a workout boot camp;
· Weekend in Detroit.
Well rested after a relatively quiet return to the office, we welcomed the New Year during a house party with some of our good friends. We spent the night eating, dancing, catching up on our Christmas adventures, playing Jenga, and generally enjoying seeing each other. At the stroke of midnight, we retreated to the living room to watch the ball drop in Times Square in New York. No matter how many times we see it, the ball drop never seems to get old.
January and February were full of small adventures for us, all within Michigan. Neal decided to take on an eight-week body fitness challenge at a local gym. The program was pretty intense, with “contestants” split into teams pitted against each other to see which group can lose the most body fat. Having a competitive element to it has made the program a good one for Neal – he’s been much more motivated to get out of the office and head to the gym! I also got back into a few activities in January. I have become quite addicted to two particular workouts: Zumba, which is a high impact Latin dance-inspired workout, and NIA, which is a low-impact dance/movement workout. I manage to do one of these two classes at least three days a week. When I was not working out, I joined my girlfriend, Stephanie, at a six-week knitting class for beginners. Yes, you read correctly…knitting. Aside from genuinely being interested in learning how to knit, our prime reason for taking the class was to support a friend of ours, Susan, who was teaching the class. We also had secret hopes that we would start a revolution and make knitting cool among people our age. Though we are still working on that, we had a great time at the class, and I have decided to keep it up and have started a knitting project (a scarf) with my newfound skills.
The early months of 2009 also saw us get in touch with our artistic sides. In January, I also volunteered to be part of the backstage crew for a local theater production for a play called “Almost Maine.” The play ran for two weeks, so between rehearsals and the actual performances, most of my evenings were taken up with the play. I really enjoyed it and met some great new people along the way. On one weekend in February, we visited Mt. Pleasant with our friends, Stephanie and Luis, to see Jewel in concert. Jewel was amazing – the stage set involved her, a microphone, and two guitars that she picked from depending on the song. That was all. She still has a terrific voice and it was extremely impressive that she kept up that quality for a two-hour long acoustic set. Later in February, we joined some friends to see Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt perform an acoustic set at the Midland Center for the Arts. Although we are not familiar at all with either musician’s music (all we know is the Lyle used to be married to Julia Roberts), we were very impressed with the musicianship and the stories that each singer told from their long careers in the industry.
One unfortunate part of January and February was that the weather was terribly cold, so we spent most of our time indoors. We did manage to fit in the occasional snowshoe hike or leisurely walk outside when temperatures “warmed” (i.e., got up to near 30 degrees Fahrenheit, or zero Celsius). We spent many of the weekend nights with buckets of popcorn and watching movies with Luis and Stephanie. We agreed with the two of them to a challenge to watch all of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Proudly, we got through many of them, including “Slumdog Millionaire,” which we enjoyed and which eventually won the award.
One of the major highlights of February was getting courtside tickets to a Detroit Pistons basketball game. Our friends, Craig and Yvonne, joined us for what was a spectacular way to watch a basketball game. The tickets we got were given to us by an executive at Dow – the tickets are the company’s and are used to entertain customers, so we had a feeling the seats would be better than most. After driving through a pretty good snow storm to get to the stadium, we were sent to a VIP lounge where we were greeted with free drinks and food before the start of the game. We then walked to the court, searching for our seats. When we finally found them we were amazed to learn that our seats were literally on the court, right next to the Detroit players’ bench! We could literally reach over and wipe the sweat off of the players’ foreheads. This was especially exciting for Neal. As the only American in our group, he knew all the major players by name, including Allen Iverson, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Chris Paul (who was playing for the visiting New Orleans Hornets). The pre-game entertainment was just as captivating as the game itself, but what we were truly amazed by was being able to watch the coach interact with the players during the game – one of the players even chased a ball out of bounds during the game and ended up in Craig and Yvonne’s lap. It was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. It will surely be hard to go back to watching a game from the bleachers now that we have been so spoiled!
During Valentine’s weekend in February, we headed south for an impromptu weekend in Detroit. We spent the day stimulating the economy by shopping on Saturday and had a great dinner in Royal Oak. On Sunday, we met up with our friends, Roya and Moosa, and went with them to the Detroit Opera House for a performance of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. Founded in New York City, the dance troop is known for celebrating diversity and giving a break to many African American dancers. The performance was amazing, and Neal and I will be sure to see them again if we get the chance.
Overall, it was a fun-filled start to the year despite the cold. The weather is certain to warm up soon (fingers crossed!), and we look forward to sharing warmer stories next month. Until then, back to knit one…pearl one. Take care!
