Memory Central

I was born and raised in Shelby Township, MI for the first 19 years of my life. Driving down the streets of my hometown after so many years has been both confusing (because a vast majority of my landmarks are gone) and emotional. I can't help but be flooded with memories. From silly ones like passing the McDonald's where I laugh snorted my first Shamrock Shake to my old neighborhood where my old house is now owned by complete strangers (which just feels..weird). Everywhere I turn there is some sort of memory, or there is something missing. The old Donut shop that used to make Hamburger and hotdog shaped donuts. I wish I had pictures, those things were amazing. The little white bridge in the sidewalk that I used to ride my bike over all the time. Even my elementary, junior high, and highschool all look different. So many changes have been wrought over the decade and a half that I have been gone. Fortunately a few things remain the same, the people I grew up with are mostly still here. It's been wonderful getting to see them and catching up on all that I have missed.

My first day here was a complete whirlwind with the little amount of sleep and the three hour time difference. Once out of the airport my friend Mr Timbre drove me to Enterprise to pick up my rental car. Or Not. Did you know that you can't rent a rental car from Enterprise with an out-of-state driver's license without using a major credit card? Neither did I. And since they failed to mention that was necessary when I booked the rental I failed to bring one with me. They also failed to rent me the car. Fortunately my friend Mr Timbre likes to live on the edge and offered to allow me to borrow his car, and he ended up renting the car for himself. Well since I plan on paying for it I guess I technically rented the car for him. :) It's all a bit complicated and the bottomline is my friends are awesome, and Enterprise at least in this instance, is not.

Ms Tink and I @ the Rochester Mills Beer Co.

We made dinner plans with our mutual friend Ms Tink and her new boyfriend Mr Auto. We ended up all running late but met up at the Rochester Mills Beer Co. Where we ate, drank, and played several games of pool. The food was pretty decent. I got the pulled pork sandwich with sweet potatoe fries. Yum and Yum! After our pool games we weren't quite ready for the evening to end so we walked up to the neighborhood Dairy Queen and enjoyed some old school Blizzards. I didn't realize they came in a mini size or I probably would have gotten a smaller size!

We rounded our evening off with stopping at the Paint Creek Tavern where our group enjoyed a last round of drinks before quitting time.

During our walk he couldn't help but notice the plethora of sheep statues in the downtown Rochester Hills area. It reminded me of the Parade of Cows that went on in Pittsburgh while I was still living there. In fact since Ms Tink liked how's so much I actually got her collectible replicas of the cows over several years for her birthdays.

TOP: Superhero Sheep, one of my favs  |  BOTTOM: DQ Blizzard!!

Ms Tink and I met in high school in a most random way. She was a sophomore and I was a Junior so we really hadn't had any classes together. Then one morning we were both at school early and the Seniors had release a bunch of mice into the commons area at school.  Seeing that they were obviously store bought I swooped one up and walked over to the nearest teacher with it. Once I got up close I realized that the girl the teacher was currently talking to was also holding a mouse. We both looked at the mouse the other was holding and just burst out laughing. I don't remember what happened to the mice, but our friendship was born in that moment.

Oddly enough even though Mr Timbre and I went to school together I never really knew him. I knew of him as he was dating a girl at the time that I took my Orchestra class with, but it wasn't until college when Ms Tink, Mrs Green and I were all suitemates that Mr Timbre came officially into my life. He and Ms Tink had become fast friends and as he's a very friendly and easy going guy he ended up extending that friendship to me. We've been friends ever since.

Once home we actually still had enough energy to watch an episode of Coupling and then headed to bed. Mr Mine was online so I got to stay up chatting with him for a while as well. All in all, a very long, but enjoyable first day :)