Post by brittanydyan
July 26, 2009 at 12:42 am
After laying in bed for nearly an hour with no sign of sleep, I decided to do something useful with my time and take the blog baton passed from Will. I guess it is my turn to weigh in on what he has dubbed the “longest month.”
I’ll start with what’s happening right now. What’s with the insomnia? Let me count the reasons.
1) I am in my apartment with out air conditioning in downtown Ann Arbor on a Saturday night. Read: Loud music, loud people walking home, and general traffic right outside my open window.
2) I can’t stop thinking about dissertation ideas. Why?
2a) My computer crashed this week, and nearly all of the notes I’ve taken this summer on what I’ve read were lost. I’m trying to brainstorm and remember what I read before everything escapes my thoughts and all is lost.
2b) After I take (and hopefully) pass my second comp exam in a few weeks, I will have no excuse not to work on it. This is what the next two/three years are about, and time flies.
3) I miss Will, and it feels weird to not fall asleep talking to someone. I used to do this all the time, but back then, I had a television to fall asleep watching. I guess I’ll have to settle for street noise.
Now that I’ve set the scene, I will elaborate about the past week. As Will noted, he dropped me off here in Ann Arbor last weekend. Since then I have been attending 5 hours of political methodology related lecture a day. I am taking one two-hour class for credit, which covers duration models and models for time series cross-section and panel data. I am also attending two other lectures “for fun” and edification.
After a week of that, I am tired. And, thinking about the next three weeks makes me even more tired. Despite the exhaustion and missing Will, I am falling in love with Ann Arbor. One can truly see the crumminess of College Park when comparing it to the college-town glory of Ann Arbor. It ranks right up there with Athens (a remarkable accomplishment). I’d even go so far as to say that Ann Arbor’s downtown tops that of Athens. But, I’ve seen the “Big House” and it’s no Sanford Stadium.
I can stop dreaming though–the likelihood of me getting a job here is next to nothing. That’s in political science. I suppose I could get a job in food services. I have experience.
So I will spend my next three (long) weeks trying to enjoy this town–the eating, the weather, and yes, the statistics. But I will still be missing my washer and dryer, my new kitten, my husband, and regular sleep patterns.
Staying up past midnight just isn’t my thing. Back to bed.
Post by Will
July 24, 2009 at 4:20 pm
The past couple of weeks have been pretty … lively. I am just glad to not be a white man in Georgia.
We inherited a car from my brother, a 2001 Toyota Solara. And when I say “inherited”, I really mean, we paid a handsome price for the little red coupe that has now had its third ownership (previously owned by our dear Aunt Hilda).
The price really, the king’s ransom, you might say, has been the costs going to maintain the thing. Unnatural charges really. It hurts the wallet when your car gets its passenger side window smashed in an apparent robbery attempt, loses it will to live (battery death), needs an overdue oil removal and replenishment, and has to be registered in the “Old Line State“. Maryland residents we are not (yet), apparently the MVA will overlook that for the high price of a couple of license plates, stickers, and perforated papers.
Another pertinent issue has been the commute. This week I started driving into work. The first two days were not so bad. I can handle forty minutes of driving time. But, seriously, when it hits around an hour and twenty minutes, well friends, that is when the other shoe drops (I’m not sure that really makes sense there but it sounded good).
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After getting our smashed window replaced (I would highly recommend a mobile glass service), Brittany and I took off through the “Heartland of America”, some may call its “Bread and Butter”. If you have every been on the Ohio Turnpike for any negotiable time, then you might be inclined to call it something else, especially after you have to consistently hit up your nearest ATM to pay those pesky tolls.
We spent three days in Ann Arbor together. I am happy to report you can easily fit two full-size adults on a twin bed. Yet, how comfortable they sleep is another issue.
Ann Arbor, from the few days I was there, left me with a very favorable impression. I underestimated how large it was. The South Campus has the classic, collegiate feel, reeking of history. I am not quite sure how to completely describe it except as picturesque.
The main strip has a lot of great shops, local businesses, cafés, and restaurants. I think that is actually what blew me away, was how homegrown businesses were and how large the downtown area was.
Not to mention, it was discovered my favorite chain coffee, Espresso Royale, is there not once, twice, but seven times. Unbelievable.
The one night we ate local, we checked out the Arbor Brewing Company. If ABC is a barometer for other local eats in town, well, then I have to say, Ann Arbor has a lot going for it. Why is there not anything like this in D.C.? Maybe we will be able to find a local haunt somewhere out in Greenbelt.
Another plus about the trip up to, and back, from Ann Arbor, is it is a very favorable route for a nice road trip. Generally, I despise being in the car for a lengthy amount of time but since we have been a little untested on the road recently, with not owning a car and all, I occasionally look forward to going on long trips. I mean, is there anything more American than that? Other than mowing your lawn (I’ll get to that later).
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Life for me has been pretty robust. I have to assume a handful of responsibilities around the house, additional items such as closing out the former apartment, and work has been very busy … which is a good thing.
For some reason I had imagined me spending hours on our patio, kicking back, and taking it easy. Thus far, that has not happened. Although, keeping active burns the days away.
Another new function of living in Greenbelt is the fact that we have a considerable amount of yard to tend. Fortunately, our landlord took care of a majority of it, although I did mow the other day. With an electric lawn mower to boot. When they first told us this would be me that this was the standard operation, I imagined a mower that charged up when plugged in. Actually, the mower remains plugged in while you mow. The only glitch is that you have to be wary of the endless extension cord as you don’t want to shred a $30 line.
One other feature of our new lifestyle, which I haven’t fully used yet but need to, is the compost piles. I thought composting would be cool before we moved and thought about asking permission to start one. I have not decided yet if I was surprised or not that I was beat to the line.
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Brittany had an OS fail yesterday. Fortunately, there was an Apple Store in town and it should be fixed later today. Unfortunately, they don’t offer a full-scale Genius operation. Meaning, they don’t have the facilities to attempt to recover her information on her hard drive (I don’t get that as I figure it would be a common need).
Hopefully she will be on here soon to give her perspective on “The Longest Month“.
Post by brittanydyan
July 7, 2009 at 10:19 pm
As the past blog posts have indicated, a number of changes have come to the Bramlett household this summer. First, you’ve undoubtedly heard/read about Will’s toe saga. That was interesting and certainly required flexibility on both our parts. Second, we also picked up and moved to Maryland on relatively short notice. We had an inkling that an opportunity might arise, but weren’t sure if it would come to fruition until a few weeks ago. This change also required a bit of spontaneity. Third, we purchased David’s car, so we are once again gas-guzzling car owners. And finally, we have a new addition to our household–our kitten, Margot Jean Bramlett.
Since you’ve been thoroughly updated on Will’s toe stuff, I’ll give my two cents on our move. We are renting a two bedroom home in the historic Greenbelt co-op community– and we are still trying to figure out what that means. The planned community was designed in the late 1930s to provide inexpensive housing for all of people headed to the Washington DC area to work during the post-Great Depression period. You can read more about it here. We are renting from a friend of mine from graduate school who recently received her PhD. We are glad to have more space, and the neighborhood is visually appealing with civic-minded residents. We miss parts of the DC life, but this move made good sense for us right now.
We are enjoying our new (8/9 year old) vehicle. I’ve never had a car with power windows before! What a joy! The sun roof is also nice. Mainly–it’s just nice to go to the grocery store and load up.
And, we have adopted a kitten. A friend of ours has a couple of feral cats that roam her back yard, and they had kittens. We knew we would get a cat once we moved out of our apartment, so the timing was just right. Margot joined the Bram Fam on Sunday and has been playing ever since. She has a lot of kitty energy. I took her to the vet today for her first round of shots, and they said she is approximately 12 weeks old. We love her so much already.
Before I end, I must also mention the nightmare that was last week…jury duty. Perhaps I’m being dramatic, but I am hard pressed to think of many other times in my life when I’ve been more frustrated with people. In my opinion (and 8 other jurors’ opinions), the case was pretty cut and dry. The jury selection process as well as hearing the testimony and evidence were actually very cool. This took up two days. And then, we deliberated for 13 hours spread over three days. We reasoned and argued over the same five or so facts of the case.
I’m not really blaming anyone. This is how the process works…but it doesn’t mean that it’s not annoying. Is the concept “beyond a reasonable doubt” vague and difficult to pin down? Sure is. That’s the major lesson that I take away from this experience. People either come to different interpretations of what a reasonable doubt is, or they flat out ignore the judge’s instructions to consider only the evidence and not to speculate outside of the evidence.
Anyhow, our trial was deemed a mistrial in the end. We could not reach a verdict. To be honest, I did learn a lot about criminal trials involving the sale of narcotics. And I made some jury friends who I will probably never see again.
