We're throwing a wedding shower tonight, and I am totally unprepared. I don't know how it has happened, but my office looks like one of those rooms they might feature on a reality show where they turn something totally trashed into a miraculous, usable room. I'm not going to even bother getting that ready for tonight, but I have some cooking and cleaning to do downstairs that will keep me busy all day. I should have gotten a lot more done last night, but we went downtown instead on a Clementine date (she met up with Hudson, and we hung with his parents as per usual).
I haven't come up with a way to describe Detroit that has remained true for very long. It's a city that is constantly changing--sometimes for the better, sometimes not. In recent months, it has all been positive. Bringing the Superbowl here meant that a lot of new businesses, restaurants, bars and cash infiltrated downtown, and now there are lots of pockets of developed areas that are amazing and fun to hang out in. I used to think Detroit was a city nature was determined to reclaim. Half the buildings in town have trees growing through the middle of them; they've been abandoned, picked over and left to disintegrate. Others have had 50 lives--the style of the building may be old and Art Deco, but the features have been painted over or even hidden by a facade, and even the resale/consignment store that was the last occupant has long given up. But now there are new buildings and concentrated efforts to restore the old ones.
When Nate and I were looking to buy a house, we tried very hard to find one in the city. There are some great old ones that need as much TLC as the one we ended up buying just outside (literally, we are two blocks north of the city line) Detroit. It was hard, since we aren't locals, to find the right kind of neighborhood to put that much effort in, and once we did, it was impossible to imagine having to drive to the suburbs anyway for big grocery shopping trips (the pickings are slim in the city) and other services you just can't get in the city. Things are changing now, though, and it makes me wish we had moved down there. If we ever finish the house we're living in, Detroit would be the first place I'd look for so many reasons. Not only would I like to be a part of the positive change that is taking place, but I'd like Clementine to grow up with a city mentality, and I'd like her to live someplace diverse. Hazel Park is the opposite of all that, and I can't bear the thought of her playing in the park with kids who scream some of the racist and ignorant things we've heard them scream now that we have parent ears and are listening for those kinds of things.
Courtney and Adam are some of our only parent friends, which alone makes them awesome to hang out with, whether or not we have the kids with us (although come to think of it, I'm not sure the four of us have ever done that). They live in Detroit, which means that going out in the city is easy. They are also becoming the kind of friends you don't have to make plans with a week in advance with three structured activities, which is really all I want in friends these days. We met them at the Cass Cafe by Wayne State, and once Clementine had totally trashed the restaurant by gumming and then dropping every single piece of food we gave her, we went down to Campus Martius in the heart o' the city to eat ice cream and enjoy the weather. We actually thought we might be enjoying a concert, too, because it's one of those great green spaces they are using to draw people downtown--all sorts of activities and programs to get people down there. But alas there was no music, so we were entertained instead by our darling little kids. Clementine amused herself by slapping Hudson around a little because she doesn't really understand gentle touching, and Hudson got frustrated when we left him on his tummy for too long. His lack of mobility so far means he can't chase Clementine down, which might be her saving grace for right now. Once that kid can move, I think she'll have met her match.
Party preparations call. I think we're going to go with low lights and candles tonight so I don't have to scrub the floor.
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