When my neighbor Joe and I started listening to music together it was just by chance. I think he asked me to drive him to CVS once and when I helped him bring in the groceries he asked if I wanted to stay for a bit. We got talking about jazz and such. We were both rattling off different artists, and then I asked if he had time to listen to a few things. Well, that random weekday evening turned into our first listening night which then led to a friendship that lasted a long time.
With the summer story time session over, we found that we had a little extra time on our hands for a few weeks. I wanted to try something new, something different, so we found a little place in Ann Arbor called the Hands On Museum. We coordinated with our friends Kelly and Evelyn and made plans to go. Kelly wanted to go early because it’s about an hour away. “Is it too crazy to leave by 8:15 or 8:30am?” she asked. Yes. Yes it is a little crazy, but we were up for the challenge.
One thing I love to do is just sit around a listen to music. New music, old music, rock music, or classical, it just depends on my mood. I’d call them listening nights. Usually I’d pick a night when Aya was out late, and I’d park it on the couch with a stack of CDs and listen. Pretty loud too. But with Ellie around, I don’t really get to do it as much as I used to. I have music on a lot, but it’s different. I love taking drives by myself now just so I can crank the music. Even if it’s a short trip to the gas station, I bring my iPod and put on a song and jam. I might not even get to finish the song but I don’t care, it’s still that short moment when I can remember who I am. Anyway, I’m really lucky to have Joe, a next door neighbor who loves listening nights just as much as I do. And on a recent visit to his house, the subject was the Beatles, and the volume had no limits.
Other than going to Macy Monday’s, I like to frequent the Henry Ford Museum. Ellie and I were going to meet up with my friend Meggan and her son River. Meggan and I were both majored in Interior Design in college, both worked our first internship at the same place, stayed in contact as we entered the professional world, and now, we are both stay at home moms. I mean parents. Stay at home parents. We were originally going to meet at the zoo, but due to the intense heat outside, we ended up at the museum for more of an educational mallwalking type journey.
It’s kind of funny that you can go your whole life knowing somebody but not really know them.  For example, Andy’s birthday is the day before mine. I don’t know how long it took me to realize that. Or maybe I knew at one point but then I forgot. But either way, I didn’t like that even though I had tons of fun with these people, (yeah, these people) that I didn’t know some details about them. So I made sure I learned a few extra things about them while they were here.
