insider

all of a sudden, the sun has come out, and i seem to have developed a social life. quite by accident, but i shall not complain just yet. last weekend i actually had to say no to a drink (for more reasons than one) which is a rare thing given the usual emptiness of my diary. thursday night cw, ba & i had a small jam session at huron hills, which was mostly entertaining, though i think we lack a groove. not sure how to fix that actually. no matter. afterwards we were hungry enough to resort to the nearest big boy, where i tried to explain to the boys why it's not something you can say with a straight face in the UK. not sure they got it...
on saturday i finally managed to get an early start and got through some serious camus reading at sweetwaters before i had a visit from the wierd guy who hangs out in the same cafes as me. once he'd left me alone i was too stressed to get back to the books. in the end i called ab and stopped by chez lui for coffee and a chat. in fact i just needed to see a friendly face - i can't quite get my head around why the wierd guy freaks me out so much, but he does, and as of saturday i am avoiding all coffee shops. which is really quite something.
sat night, after a beautiful easter vigil, a small group of us went to the firefly, which is a great little jazz club down by sweetwaters. we went to hear the delightful miss sheila jordan, who was in town for the night. she was - as ever - simply wonderful, and i finally plucked up the courage to actually speak to her at the end of the show. it really was the most perfect of evenings. listening to her sing, it felt as if time was pausing for a moment, just to let us soak it all up and feel just how good life is sometimes. sadly there's nothing to beat that feeling, so although it was fun eating pizza at the NY pizza depot around 1am, it somehow didn't quite compare to the magic of the music.
sunday night i think i went on an accidental date. very pleasant despite the surprise of the thing. k & i saw schultze gets the blues at the michigan theater, still my favourite cinema here. it wasn't the cinematic bear hug i'd been promised, but beautiful in its own way. just a little too sad for me... still, the rest of the evening made up for it, even if it did involve a vegetarian restaurant. as i was walking home under a beautiful full moon, i heard someone playing jazz on the trumpet underneath the bridge, down by the river. very strange, but somehow not a bad way to end the weekend.

posted by Joanna Ruth @ 8:54 PM

sunday night; listening to the delightful vincent delerm and emailing the little darlings who can't find their homework for tomorrow. sigh. it's been a big weekend. friday night was the most surreal clubbing experience yet, courtesy of my friend jcl and ann arbor's studio 4. still, wierd as it was, i think we shall be back out dancing again before too long. i hope so...
yesterday was the big day really. epic in fact. ag & ap have finally decided to tie the knot, which is possibly the best news i've had all year, if not longer. perhaps i should say ag finally got his act together and asked the girl, and i couldn't be happier for either of them. ap is simply the sweetest girl in the world and i am thrilled at finally acquiring a sister. it has really made my week, strange as it is to be getting into a new chapter of the gill family book. but it was about time...
today has been quiet in comparison. no engagement announcements as yet. there's still time though. church this morning was fun as ever ... life in the band continues to be entertaining. after the services we had lunch at the flim flam which is the sunday diner of the moment. we've got to the point where we know what we'll order before we sit down. i think that's how meals in diners should be. home away from home. better than home in fact, since they actually have food in their fridge.
only a few weeks left of this semester, which is hard to believe. just as i start to enjoy life here! but nothing can convince me that this eternal winter (the snow is still on the ground) is worth living through again. i won't miss that once i'm home.
final thought, not connected to the snow or the perils of life in the midwest: had a great chat with miss jh yesterday (and another today actually, where i proceeded to tell her about ag's engagement for a second time, poor girl...). sometimes the girl is wiser than i give her credit for. we were talking about singleness and being whole as one is... not needing someone else to feel complete. it was good to be reminded of it, and to hear someone who has the same faith and the same excitement about the future as i do. of course the fact that she called me today to tell me about the cute guy she sat next to in church sort of put a dent in her image as the happy singleton, but i was very impressed with her while it lasted... love that gal.

posted by Joanna Ruth @ 3:34 AM

listening to my new band of the moment, the redwalls, and looking out across the snowy wasteland that is ann arbor in march. despite the ongoing - everlasting?- cold weather, this weekend was a good one. had coffee with ms, a neighbour from HT, at ERC on Main on friday night. all very last-minute ... i ran into him (not literally, thankfully) on my way to work out and must have said something rather pitiful as he offered to take me out for coffee in order to compensate for my appalling lack of a social life. as D managed to point out when i told him the story, i think i enjoyed it because it made me feel like a woman and not just a grad student. a rare thing indeed. saturday morning i spent at sweetwaters, successfully avoiding other people's conversations and wading through more camus. last night jl and i went to see a screening of the dance on film festival which turned out to be excellent. we watched a series of shorts, and the winner - by far the best - was a film called the cost of living, from the UK. it had some beautifully comic moments, the best one involving a dance to a cher song. really very funny. afterwards we grabbed some mexican food and i picked his brains over my latest romantic dilemma. it's good to have friends on the other side ...

posted by Joanna Ruth @ 10:01 PM

back in the snowiness of michigan after a week at home, which was a real treat. mostly because i got to meet my delightful goddaughter, miss lydia mead. born on thursday 3rd of march with dark hair and beautiful big eyes. home seems a long way away now. still, i've been reminded that my days here are limited now, and i am determined to make the most of them, even if it seems hard to be back. today i've been listening to kevin prosch and remembering how blessed i am, in so many little ways. it's only 10:20pm but all is quiet and all i can hear is the ticking of my watch. it's been snowing again this evening which somehow adds to the quietness of everything outside. from my desk i can see the twinkling lights over at the hospital, which always keep me company when i work late. not that i'm really working hard. just messing around with some grades i thought i had lost but now are found. the prodigal grades. still listening kevin prosch, and still feeling happy.

posted by Joanna Ruth @ 3:16 AM