Detroit!

Aint I just the jet setter. Two days ago I whipped the kids up to Eastport to spend the week with Buggy and Grampy and now here I am in Detroit!  Kidless! Kidless in Detroit! It is such a strange feeling to be kidless. I feel like I'm floating. I also feel like I have forgotten something. I keep checking for my wallet.

Eastport was a very short visit but I did get to have time with wonderful friends. I wish the Hopkins clan could live in my pocket. It is the nature of life out there to be super conscious of how one lives and my friends are so wonderfully wildcrafty (Amy!) and macrobiotic (Ann!) and self sustaining (Beavers!) It is very inspirational.  I raced home the next morning to make it on time for my farmer's market gig (Which was super fun, lots of kids participating with percussion, lots of smiling faces and tapping toes, which is as close to dancing as it gets in New England.) Then up at 4am to get to the airport on time and now Detroit!

I have been wanting to come here. It seems like such an interesting city, and so far it is living up to my expectations. Driving around the power plant where Dennis is working is pretty shocking. Abandoned factories, huge apartment complexes trashed  with all the windows busted out, graffitti, ( Not the Shepard Fairey / Banksey kind.) totally sketchy, perpetually dark under-the-bridge nastyness. The other day, Dennis drove past a car completely engulfed in flames in the middle of the off-ramp. Some parts of Detroit are really harsh. Then I got down town and there are all of these great buildings and things happening. I went for a walk around and checked out the GM renaissance building which is super modern and fancy and filled with business people speaking every language from everywhere on earth.

Walking around the down town, I was chatted up by people at the stop light, waiting in line at a shop,walking down the street, everyone is so friendly. Its like Canada or something. Maybe a midwestern thing.

 One other thing I noticed in my first hours in Detroit: Fancy, fancy men. Usually in a city you get fashion ladies tripping about all over, and they are here too, but the men! I am talkng three piece suits! hats! (not baseball caps, real hats, fedoras, newsboy hats, really fancy matching-the-suit hats!) GLEE! fancy leather shoes! I guess it's motown so what should I expect, but I'm used to men who stop at clean jeans and button shirts. To see a man walking around with this much attention to detail made me want to go wash my hair and put on a skirt. I wonder how I can convince my husband to adopt this style.

my camera is in the shop getting fixed, so no pictures, too bad. I'll have to find an outdoor cafe and sketch the fancy people. and hey! I can actually do that 'cause I have NO KIDS! I can also go to the art galleries! And boutiques! and I can go into a bar and have a drink! In the middle of the day! But right now I am going to take a nap in this air conditioned hotel room.

cheers friends and family!