Subject: TAN: Ann Arbor and the Great Construction Caper From: Maggie Organization: Missy the Monster Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan NNTP-Posting-Host: cblmdm63-166-32-206.buckeye-express.com Toledo, Ohio. Tuesday night: Kenn is supposed to arrive at Toledo Express Airport around 11PM for pre-Social socializing. I let the Monsters stay up so they can go to the airport with me and the spouse type-thing to fetch him, and it turns out that his flight has been delayed by half an hour. Two little kids in an airport late at night can be quite amusing. Kenn arrives, there is much squealing from the Monsters, we go home, stay up til 3AM, then call it a night. Wednesday: I drag Kenn downtown to mail a belated graduation gift to SuperWarder, and ship off a signed first edition of American Gods to a pal in Oz. We have a bit of time before the bus home, so we wander up and down the street looking at part of Toledo's "It's Reigning Frogs" exhibit. Like Chicago's cows (and now chairs) and Toronto's moose (mooses?), and someone else's potatoes, our city has decided we need outdoor art on certain corners. They're quite funny, some remarkably cool, and all of them are just plain cute. http://www.itsreigningfrogs.com Thursday: I spend most of Thursday in the kitchen preparing pasta, bread and cheesecake for Friday. In between, Kenn and I amuse ourselves with Law and Order, among other things, and wait for Steve. Eventually, we break out the Scrabble board, where I am thoroughly and mercilessly trounced. <*sigh*> Steve arrives almost exactly on time, bearing mead, and proceeds to get us a little toasty. At one point in the evening, a thirsty fly decides Kenn's glass would be a good place for a swim, and proceeds to swim laps in his mead. Steve fishes him out, and we watch him stumble drunkenly across the floor. Some days, we are so easily amused! OK, so enough of that. Here's what happened for the Real Social part: Friday: Kenn, Steve and I got up around 10ish, looking to leave around 11ish. At 10:30, I went across the hall to get my babysitter. After 10 minutes of pounding on the door, it was apparent that she was either not home, in the shower, or dead asleep. I left a message for Anne, telling her we'd be late because my sitter had not arrived. We packed up the car, grabbed last minute stuff, and I set to hammering on the door across the hall again. Nothing. It occurred to me that I could go ring the doorbell, which I did. I was rewarded with a surly boy yanking the door open and snarling at me: "What the fuck do you want? We're sleeping!" "Well, your girlfriend has been paid in advance to babysit for me, so I suggest you shut up and get her out of bed. She's an hour late as it is." Her mama would kick her ass if she knew the boy stayed the night. She's going to kick it anyway for later events...but I digress. We hit the road a full hour and twenty minutes after we had planned to, and promptly discovered that the entirety of Michigan is under construction. All of it. Fuck. Thankfully, Kenn has a terrific sense of direction and successfully navigated us through Orange Barrel Hell with only a minimum of confusion. In fact, the only confusion was which way to head once we got to Livonia, but that was straightened out by a lady having a garage sale. We arrive unscathed at Anne's, where we are given the tour and head out for lunch and a trip to the grocery store. Watching the woman at the meat counter was hysterical, she could not wrap her mind around the words "I need all of them". I guess she's not used to people buying large quantities of beef tenderloin. We returned home, where I attacked Anne's kitchen while she and Steve went off to pick up various and assorted other DFs, and I waited for other arrivals. In due time, Alex showed up in the Gadget Van, followed soon thereafter by Zack (WhooHoo! Sacrificial Newbie!) and Christina (yet another Social Virgin! Whee!). Introductions were made, shit was shot, dinner was cooked, and soon the rest of the clan arrived - Steve, Jeff, Anne, Madhu and Leah. I was especially pleased that Dr. Warder was able to come, after having his plans changed for him several times due to his demanding lab work. I've missed him awfully! Random conversation: Maggie: "It's a 'cyber-salon'." Alex: "What do you add to your computer to get it to do your hair?" I have no idea what was talked about during dinner preparation, I was a bit busy. I was dragged out of the kitchen long enough to be presented with two things that made me laugh, one thing that made me cry, and one thing that mooed so loudly I yelped. From the mad giggling out of Leah and Madhu, I suspect they had a bet riding on it. Boogers. On a pair of gorgeous handmade candles from Christina: "Oh dear. They seem to be Joy Stix!" Steve: "Try not to wear them out!" Heard drifting from the other room: "At the Minnesota State Fair, all the food is served on a stick..." There was much laughing and toasting at dinner, some five kinds of alcohol were consumed, and there was a warm, happy glow from around the table. We quickly supplemented that with dessert, more booze, much more talking and general mirth, and I soon found myself at the table with Zack and Alex til around 5:30AM. I don't remember what we talked about, and it doesn't really matter - I was in the company of two very charming young men, so anything else is a bonus! <*grin*> Saturday: Spent the morning being lazy and slow while Leah was at the doctor's office being poked, prodded and otherwise abused by sadistic bastards with needles. I'm glad we had a slow morning before heading for the Art Fair in Ann Arbor, because it took a full 20 minutes to wrap the beautiful sari Madhu had given me sometime ago. I now know why Indian women dress in groups - someone has to hold the pleats! It's easily the most comfortable thing I've ever worn, though, so the extra dressing time didn't really matter. We split up and headed into Ann Arbor - smokers in one car, nons in Alex's Gadget Van, a roomy green Windstar with great music and a fun driver! Leah and I took turns squashing Steve in the very back, and teasing Christina and Zack. Upon reaching Ann Arbor, we converged upon the Cancer Center, met in the lobby, and proceeded to haul our asses into town for the fair. Oddly, we wound up splitting up into two groups again, and somehow managed to avoid each other completely until our appointed gathering time. We then traipsed off to invade Kinko's for a minute, so I could fax Mark directions to BDs Mongolian Barbecue and let him know that canoeing was out. Not enough rain, low river levels. Blah. We headed back for the cars, and proceeded to Anne's house. Well, sort of proceeded to Anne's house. We missed an exit, and because of the construction, wound up looping all over Hell's Half Acre to get back. Goddamned Orange Barrels. Alex, ever the thoughtful Lackey, took our collective frustration out on a Goddamned Orange Barrel. "Alex? Alex?? That's a barrel!" <*THUNK*> "Enh. The worst of it will wax off." We finally made it back to Anne's, to find that Good Will Hunting was underway. Wonderful film, haven't seen it in ages! Then it was time for dinner. Those of us in the Incredible Barrel Killing Van had discussed sushi on the way home - we had plenty of time to talk about it. We discovered to our dismay that in order to get sushi, we were going to have to practically fly back to Ann Arbor. Luckily for us, Jeff knew the owners of the lovely Yamato restaurant, and they took very good care of us. They were well rewarded for it, too! Upon returning, we settled into various spots for cards, movies and much consumption of booze. Oh, was there ever consumption of booze. Random conversation: Leah: "Oooh...Zack's a little hottie!" Maggie, peering at Zack: "What are you talking about? He's a whole lotta hottie!" "Mmmm...we've got all kindsa hottie going on in here!" Darkfriends make very nice scenery. Around 3AM-ish, Kenn, Anne, Madhu, Zack and I decided it was time to go visit the pond out back. We lay in the grass looking at the stars and marveling over the few "shooting stars" we spotted. In my slightly inebriated condition, I pointed out a small shape out in the middle of the pond. "Look, there's a duck!" Said Zack: "That's not a duck." "It is so a duck. He's sleeping. That's how ducks sleep!" "That's not a duck. I'm going to go get it and show you that it isn't a duck." "OK, go catch the duck for me." So Zack ambles down the bank, nabs someone's canoe, and paddles out to the shape on the water. With his hands. And we hear his low voice across the silent water. "It's not a duck." It turned out to be a huge chunk of driftwood that he was not able to hoist into the canoe. He returned triumphantly, reminding me again that it was definitely not a duck, and we all lay in the grass giggling. People slowly began to drift inside, and I found myself discussing Germany and singing in German with Zack for a little longer. He has a nice singing voice, and I have a horrendous time trying to sing the Bombaluende Song while tipsy. Neither of us could remember words for anything, which I still find amusing. Since canoeing on Sunday was out of the question, we slept in, had leisurely coffee and breakfast, made another trip to the pond (where we regaled Jeff and Christina with accounts of Zack's mischief the night before), and decided that we needed to take a little time to go to Middle Earth in Ann Arbor before meeting the Spouse Maus and the Carpet Mice at BDs for dinner. Alas, Middle Earth, my favorite store in all of Ann Arbor, was closed for post-fair recovery. No problem. We file into the Safe Sex Shop next store to check out the Inflatable Bondage Chairs, Cherry Pecker Pops, assorted gag gifts and...toys..., then head across the street to the Comics Underground, where I manage to nab a pair of Cheapass Games before heading for BDs. The Mice were there, with grim news: My apartment was trashed. It was clean when I left, and my very tardy tartlet sitter decided that it needed *5 kids besides my own* to remedy that. My computers were fucked up, my clean laundry was scattered hell to breakfast, and the desks and closets had been thoroughly rifled and trashed. Fuck. Naturally, that put a bit of a damper on dinner. Even so, we had fun chatting around the table, likely frightening Christina's brother, Cary with our tales of Barrels and Booze. Poor guy. To my undying chagrin, all good things must end. The Mice left for home, and I went back to where the cars were parked to say goodbyes and catch a ride home with Steve (who had all my stuff!). Plans were quickly discussed for Cedar Point in October, and those claiming "tentative" were threatened with a visit from the Duct Tape Ninja. We don't play around! Many thanks to Anne for allowing us to take over her lovely home, to Christina and Zack for being such good sports about the Ritual Newbie Sacrifices (esp. to Zack for letting me claim him as my Pet Darkfriend!), to Alex, my wonderful Lackey, for hauling us around town and amusing the hell out of us with his Barrel Hunting skills, and to the rest of y'all for just being the wonderful clan that you are. I can't wait to see you all at Cedar Point! (And at Kenn's in September, for anyone attending that!) ************* Consider this the first call for the Cedar Point Social, to be held over the weekend of October 5th through 8th. This is Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, so plans are for arrivals and dinner Chez Moo on Friday, Cedar Point on Saturday, recovery and possibly COSI or the Zoo on Sunday if anyone is interested. Since it's a long weekend, anyone wishing to stay through Monday is quite welcome to do so. Standard procedure applies: Get on the mailing list ASAP. I'm happy to stuff as many people as we can into my place (we managed 13 with creative sleeping arrangements in March!), but I really need to know who plans to come and when they plan to arrive - I need to start stockpiling soda and booze and planning a menu! Dave Rothgery has already booked his flight from San Diego to join us for this Social! Hooray! Reminders will be posted at intervals. E-mail if you have questions! -- Maggie UIN 10248195 http://www.chocolatefiends.com "Shadow found himself thinking about a garage in San Clemente with box after box of rare, strange and beautiful books in it rotting away, all of them browning and wilting and being eaten by mold and insects in the darkness, waiting for someone who would never come to set them free." - Neil Gaiman, cut from _American Gods_ r arrivals and dinner Chez Moo on Friday, Cedar Point on Saturday, recovery and possibly COSI or the Zoo on Sunday if anyone is interested. Since it's a long weekend, anyone wishing to stay through Monday is quite welcome to do so. Standard procedure applies: Get on the mailing list ASAP. I'm happy to stuff as many people as we can into my place (we managed 13 with creative sleeping arrangements in March!), but I really need to know who plans to come and when they plan to arrive - I need to start stockpiling soda and booze and planning a menu! Dave Rothgery has already booked his flight from San Diego to join us for this Social! Hooray! Reminders will be posted at intervals. E-mail if you have questions! -- Maggie UIN 10248195 http://www.chocolatefiends.com "Shadow found himself thinking about a garage in San Clemente with box after box of rare, strange and beautiful books in it rotting away, all of them browning and wilting and being eaten by mold and insects in the darkness, waiting for someone who would never come to set them free." - Neil Gaiman, cut from _American Gods_