The Nineteenth First Day of School

It’s that time of year again. The leaves are starting to turn brown change color. The temperature drops twenty degrees overnight. The air starts feeling crisp and fresh in the mornings. Parents are giving their wallets to Target buying shiny new pencils and notebooks. Half-asleep Smiling happy children shuffle onto eagerly board bright yellow school buses at dark o’clock in the mornings. Yes, it’s back to school for children all across America. And me, if I’m not considered a children any more. And if we ignore that fact that I didn’t leave last year so I’m not really coming back this year. I’m just . . . here . . . all the time.

To celebrate my nineteenth year of schooling, I thought I would answer some back to school questions. Questions (taken from various blogs across the internet) and answers below. Sorry, no pictures with Pinterest signs.

School: University of Michigan

Grade: 18th (hypothetical question – how much school is too much?)

I am _____ inches tall short and I weigh _____ pounds only slightly more than my IKEA dresser.

Favorite color: Orange

Favorite food: Dessert

Favorite thing to eat at lunch: The only thing I eat for lunch: Peanut butter and jam sandwiches

Favorite animal: Grumpy cat. Also dogs.

Favorite book: Books about people climbing and hiking things; science fiction; comedic sci fi fantasy; books without characters falling in love at first sight/meeting their true love/falling in love at first sight, breaking up because of a horrible misunderstanding, then realizing they really are meant for each other because true love

Favorite movie: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Pixar movies

Favorite TV show: Jeopardy!

Favorite scientific calculator: Still the Casio fx-300ES.

Something I really like: Well-marked bike lanes that don’t end suddenly on the highway and cars who let you make left turns when you signal

Something I really don’t like: When food you haven’t had for that long goes moldy

Something I want to do this year: See the New England Revolution win MLS cup, but I’ll settle for baking cookies. Maybe also cake.

The best thing that happened today (this weekend): Buying apples at the farmer’s market

When I grow up I want to be a: Employed

Holland

The last stop before returning to Ann Arbor was Holland. Yes, we crossed the Atlantic, visited Holland, and crossed the Atlantic again all in a morning. No, we definitely did not go to Holland, Michigan, an hour away from Grand Rapids.

We began our morning with another complimentary hotel breakfast before setting out for Holland. When we arrived, we spent some time walking around the downtown area and visited the farmer’s market. It was nice; it’s a lot like downtown in cities that are trying to maintain a small town feel. There are a bunch of specialty shops and restaurants along the sidewalk-lined streets to encourage people to spend their hard-earned money. The farmer’s market had a good variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers, jams, and other farmer’s market-y products.

After walking down to the farmer’s market and stopping in a couple stores, we drove over to Windmill Island. The main draws of Windmill Island are that it has the only working Dutch windmill in the United States and tulips. The tulips were long wilted, shriveled, and gone, so that left the windmill. Admission to the park is $9.00 a person, which is a little steep compared to the activities I usually partake in [think going to the library (free), voluntarily sweating on my bike all over Ann Arbor (free¹), and practicing scale exercises for all 24 major and minor scales on my clarinet (free²)]. Unless it’s tulip time or you really love windmills, in which case I’m sure it’s very worth it.

The windmill, De Zwaan

We ended up spending a couple hours at Windmill Island during which we saw the windmill, took the tour up the windmill, heard the organ play a bit, saw a few imitation Dutch houses, and visited the gift shop. Then it was off to Ann Arbor, my latest home away from home. We took a couple days to visit the Henry Ford Museum because I could honestly spend days there. Then we did the whirlwind tour of Ann Arbor, including North Campus and my very boring exciting office in NCRC, the farmer’s market and Kerrytown, the library, Central Campus, the State Street area, and a picnic lunch at the Nichols Arboretum.

Overall, it was a good trip, but it could have used more trees and hiking and it screwed up my sleep schedule (again). A few months later, I’ve mostly fixed my sleep schedule (my eating schedule could still use some work), and I moved in the recent past (again). And then classes just started, which is sure to screw everything up (again).

¹After a $100+ investment
²After a $500+ investment

Art

Our next stop on my three-state/five-city tour was Grand Rapids, to visit one of my cousins. I have a lot of cousins. Most of them are older than me, got married, and are now spawning children. The point being, we went to visit one of my cousins and her family. While in Grand Rapids, the plan for the day was to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, so we got up nice and early and drove to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

Neuron

We ended up spending most of the day there, because in the theme of doing things for arbitrary completion, we like to get our money’s worth at any kind of museum or attraction by seeing everything there is to see. Besides, you might not be going that way again for awhile. We started out with the giant horse (and the medium horse and the little horse) then made our way around the sculpture park. Here’s where I add the disclaimer that I’m not a huge art person. I appreciate art, and I like going to art museums, but I can only name a handful of artists and I’m not discussing the symbolism of the green fork in the bottom right corner of the painting unless someone pays me.

That said, I liked the sculpture park. There were enough sculptures that looked like things or were otherwise interesting, and the walking between sculptures was through nicely manicured areas with lots of trees. Highlights included a giant trowel, a tree, headless ostriches, and curly fries, among others. For the right price, my naming services may be available for any paintings, sculptures, artwork, or children you might produce.

Clockwise from top left: giant trowel, headless ostriches, tree, and curly fry

After admiring every sculpture possible, I was hungry, so we went to have lunch back in the main building. It was standard museum-style food – mainly sandwiches, some salads and soups – and it was good, but not spectacular. If I remember correctly, the prices were reasonable, if on the higher side. The meal area also has Chihuly pieces hanging from the ceiling. Chihuly had an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that I saw some years ago; he’s known for his often very large and colorful blown glass works. If you have a chance to see a Chihuly exhibit, take it.

Following lunch, we returned outside to the blazing hot sun to explore the Japanese Garden. The Japanese Garden is the newest part of the Gardens/Sculpture Park. You could tell from the lack of mature plants in some areas, but it has a nice lake surrounded by paths, bridges, and waterfalls. After sweating our way through the Japanese Garden, we swung by the farm and the children’s garden, walked through the shade garden, and finished up in the greenhouses.

Cactus

So all told, we spent a full day there, with a lunch break. You could certainly take less time if you walked faster or didn’t look at every block of steel and concrete. You could take more time if you wanted to discuss why each artist used a particular shade of orange or placed that piece of wood exactly three centimeters from that other piece of wood. For the price, it’s worth it even if you only spend a few hours there if you compare it to a movie ticket. If you don’t like paying for movie tickets, spend the whole day there and it’ll be worth it then.