cinco de me

i drove through all manner of corn and soybean fields to arrive in oxford, ohio yesterday to look at apartment and houses. the rental market in oxford is grim. it may be grand for undergrads who want to live in houses with cutesy placards announcing their names: dirty south, desperate roommates, the stoned house, and on. but for grown people over the age of 35 who don't desire outdoor rooms with beer pong tables and ratty sofas?

along high street, at a sidewalk cafe, i glimpsed a tipsy undergrad beckoning to john lewis, the venerable freedom fighter and congressman who is the commencement speaker. i cringed. oh my people should be ashamed of themselves.

on the four hour drive back to ann arbor, i figured out how this can work, but i was a little shell-shocked after my time there yesterday.

i will get dog for sure. i wish that i could have a little poodle with me right now. but i can wait until the middle of august. i think that i need a companion to tackle life in oxford and a poodle is right my non-verbal speed.


when i returned to ann arbor, i found a thick envelope from the mu dean for research and scholarship with materials on grant programs for faculty. i am doing the right thing, but i didn't think through what it would be like to go there alone yesterday in the height of student move-out on the eve of commencement.