A Night in Ann Arbor, MI

On my little vacation trip to Ann Arbor, where I spent 16 and a half years and raised my kids who were 11, 8 and 5 when I moved here, I had a night out with 'the kids'.  Read that as 23 year old young women who were the best of friends in high school.

 

Ann Arbor, known for the University of Michigan and the 'maize-and-blue' of the Wolverines football team, the omnipresent big, block M logo and the ever-popular fight song "Hail to the Victors", has a bustling downtown with a great variety of restaurants and bars, many of which are on Main Street.  Yes, the Main Street of native-son Bob Seger's song.  And so, after a visit with an old friend, I met 'the girls' downtown. 

 

In front of the first bar, the girls pulled out their ID's, and so I followed suit.  All credit to the doorboy, he did not move a facial muscle as he looked it over.  Nor did he say, "You couldn't POSSIBLY be that old", so I took that as a good thing.  We sat at a table where I could barely hear anything due to the volume of the rap music, but we did manage to catch up on the current boy troubles of one and the grad school update of another.  Then there was the singalong of the great lyrics - HOW DO THEY REMEMBER SO MANY WORDS??

 

Next bar, an Irish pub, and again, I pulled out my ID (I know, it's a driver's license, but ID sounds so college-y!) and again, it was examined, this time with a pen light.  What started out as a sincere scanning of the date by the damned door-child (stubble-free, looking about 10 years old) ended up inducing a smirk that made me feel ancient.  Actually, I don't think that was his goal, but I was tired and sensitive at this point.  Another table, more loud music, drunken conversation about boys and the great fun of running into one of my other kid's childhood friends.  I LOVE this stuff.  Another conversation, but this time  not boy-trouble.  This one had MAN-trouble.  LOVE IT!!  Some things never change - we had these same conversations when they were in high school, but they were around my kitchen table. 

 

The night ended with drunken tears (not me, silly) and vows of everlasting friendship and big bear hugs goodbye that I am sure, when the kids got home, resulted in MORE big bear hugs, but this time, hugs of the porcelain bowl.  Another great night in a college town!!