Holiday shopping!

On November 11, I had a day off from work.  Although I definitely hate working weekends, the tradeoff is having weekdays off sometimes, which is always nice for running errands and checking things off of my to-do list.

B asked if I would like to meet him for lunch, and I jumped at the chance; it’s not often we get to eat that meal together!  Conveniently, Potbelly was having a pre-grand opening special, where you paid a $5 donation that went to the Parade Company, and you got a sandwich, chips and a drink.  Pretty sweet deal!  They were also giving out samples of their soups and milkshakes which were all delicious.  I arrived there before B did, but I didn’t get in line yet because they were taking donations right at the door and he had the cash.  He arrived shortly after, and the line took about 15 minutes.  The girl taking the order was being “trained”, which basically involved telling her what to do and making her stand in a very specific spot on the floor.  We ate at a little table in the corner, and it was delicious!

After that, I went shopping at a few places on Woodward. These were pop-up shops that were just there for the holiday season.  First I went into a shop called The Hand Made Company.  They had some antiques, some Michigan made products and gifts–pretty cool.  Then I went into Rock Paper Scissors, a paper and gift store.  They have other locations in Ann Arbor and Tecumseh.  I love stores like this—stationery, quirky cards, candles, cool knick knacks.  I bought a set of Boston Terrier Christmas cards for my friend Jacquie, and a couple other cards that say “Someone in Detroit Misses You”.  Then I walked back to the apartment, jumped into my car and stopped at Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company, where I had the Sexy Mexican….seriously, if you have not had this drink, you need to.  So tasty.  And then I went over to City Bird on Canfield, and Nest next door to that.  I found sooooooo much stuff I wanted to buy, but I held off—I hadn’t quite made up my mind who I needed to shop for and what I wanted to buy.   I also spent a ridiculous amount of time just standing in City BIrd looking through texts from my sister and listening to the awful weird French music that was playing, trying to find a list of stuff she had texted me that she wanted for her bday and xmas, but I couldn’t find it.

It was a good day off, and nice to see what the city had to offer for the holiday season.

Until next time,

H

Sister day!

On 10/29, my sister came down and spent the night.  I got home from work around 930, and we had snacks and watched the final Twilight movie On Demand.  The next day, we woke up, got ready and went to Eastern Market Antiques.  B and I have been there a few times, and taken a few different friends with us.  We’ve also found a few cool treasures there, including a really old Sears catalog and a cat/zodiac plate (random!) that I’m giving to my sister for Christmas.

It’s a really cool place, because it’s huge and has so many different rooms with so many different things.  I usually don’t have much money with me when I go, so I never make a big purchase, but I dream about refinishing furniture or finding an authentic, cameo necklace in good condition.  For some odd reason, it usually smells like some type of food mixed in with the smell of old things, but this time it had an odd smell, and it was freezing cold, especially upstairs.  We didn’t stay as long as I normally would have, but that was ok with me; we just weren’t feeling like antiquing that day.

We left Eastern Market and went back downtown, stopping at The Roasting Plant for coffee.  I hadn’t been yet, but B told me that the coffee beans come down from a little chute, sort of like when you go through the drive thru at a bank.  The coffee tubes are in the middle of the shop, and you order at front.  I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, so I asked a guy who walked up behind us; he grumpily answered, “You just go up and order coffee.”  Right, ok, thanks captain obvious.  I ordered the Roasting Plant Blend and E got Sumatra Red Badger.  I had to add a lot of sugar in the raw to mine because it was quite strong, but it had good flavor.  We sat at the diner-style counter, looking out onto the street where we had parked.  We talked about the surgery our mom was having the next day, among other things.  Just as we were finishing up, we saw a meter van pull up right next to my car, 2 people hop out, one of them holding a large metal canister.  At first glance, E said “They’re going to put a boot on your car!!!!”  So we grabbed our bags and ran outside, me getting my purse stuck in the revolving door on the way out.  When we got to the car, we saw that the metal canister was actually a container to hold all the coins from the meters.  No parking ticket, whew!

From there we decided to go to Sgt. Pepperoni’s for lunch, since they have vegan pizza available.  E placed her order, and we got a beer at the bar while we waited.  The bartender checked our IDs and mentioned that he also grew up in our hometown, which was a weird coincidence.  There was a guy next to us watching some type of weird video; I asked him about it, then afterwards joked with E about how lately I realized I have no problem making small talk with people I don’t know at all.  Our food was ready and we moved to a table with another round of beers.  We laughed a lot, and she shared some secrets with me.  At one point an older guy came around with 2 beers and asked if we wanted them; E’s immediate reaction was suspicion and annoyance and she blurted out “Um, NO.”  I, on the other hand, don’t like to turn down freebies, and assuming that this guy wasn’t trying to roofie me, I accepted.  We’re both a bit lightweight when it comes to drinks, so we were buzzed and trying to decide if we should continue drinking or go back to my apartment.  We decided we were having too much fun, so we went to Detroit Beer Company.

Shortly after we got there, I got a call from our friend Mike.  He was downtown and wanted to know if we were out and could he meet up with us.  We were both excited to see him because he’s been a friend for a long time, but we don’t see much of each other these days.  He stayed for awhile and the three of us talked a lot; the lady next to us remembered meeting Mike at a softball game and it seemed she may have had a slight crush on him, because she kept finding ways to interject into our conversation.  Eventually, Mike left, and we left shortly after.  We decided to pick up snacks and drinks and head back to my apartment for a dance party.

When B came home from work, we were dancing away.    After a little while, E got tipsy-tired and we decided to go to sleep.  We had a big tomorrow ahead of us.

Until next time,

H