Pre-production is a slog
makes it hard to write a blog!
(Makes it hard to leave the house…
chores fall on my loving spouse.)
WORTH IT! The next issue will
inform, connect, amuse, and thrill.
But I can’t go have Ann Arbor fun
’til all Observer work is done.
Hello, good morning, happy Sunday, and I hope this expertly written and extremely accurate poem excuses what will be a thin edition of Ann Arbor Fieldnotes. (For actually good poetry, may I direct you to Poet Tree Town?)
On Monday, I met up with Kristin from Children’s Literacy Network at the AADL Westgate Sweetwater’s!
Well, first I had to order a complicated coffee drink. While I was waiting for the barista to perform his coffee alchemy, I talked baseball with Nick, who was wearing a Twins hat and also waiting for a complicated drink.
“Christian Vásquez is one of the best pitchers in the American League and your team never plays him,” I told him, shaking my head. “I’m just… having a hard time forgiving you for that.”
January is when I really start to miss baseball; Nick recommended football. “I have a sport for every season,” he said. Wise man.
So THEN I met with Kristin from Children’s Literacy Network! As you can imagine, we talked about children’s literacy. It just so happens that I’ve been listening to Sold a Story, and recently edited an Observer article about M-STEP scores, so I kind of knew what I was talking about. It was one of those great, wide-ranging conversations that flitted from topic to topic like a Monarch butterfly at an all-you-can-eat pollinator garden. Yes, reading for pleasure, but ALSO, reading for the development of critical thinking skills, AND reading as a cornerstone of democracy. We also talked about rock climbing, being new to Ann Arbor, past service industry jobs and what we loved about them (she was a barista, I was a waitress), and the difference between who we are and who we think we are.
So fun, and it helped crystalize some ideas for future Observer stories. STAY TUNED!
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon, when I was invited to a historic building in Ann Arbor. “This isn’t a story, it’s an experience,” the host told me, so I won’t give any details. But I will say that at one point, I glanced out the window of this historic building. Beyond the glass, a new highrise. It was a moment of anachronism, a reminder that Ann Arbor is in a moment of evolution, a community considering not just who we are and who we think we are, but who we were and who we are becoming.