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Monday, March 26, 2007 Michigan Travels I find pieces of my parents' house in my brother's. The ceramic dishes, the wok hiding under the stove, the pots on the burners. It's the first time I've been to his place since he moved in, and it feels both immediately familiar and unfamiliar. Familiar because I feel comfortable--it's the bachelor pad of my kid brother, after all, and I don't feel the otherness of a guest even though his friendly roommates refer to me as one--unfamiliar because this is the first house he's lived in without our parents, and though it's been months since he moved to Lansing I hadn't been able to visit until this weekend. I played a show at the cafe down the street. The walls are decorated with brush paintings from a trip to China two years ago, chopsticks from his fellow InterVarsity staff roommate, a jazz poster from his musician roommate, and wallpaper that was fashionable decades ago. The fridge is a relic from the 70s (much like my microwave), but with the retro feel of the house there is a footed tub in the upstairs bathroom that's begging to be photographed or painted. In Ann Arbor I slept in the TV lounge of an all-women's co-op owned by the University of Michigan and remembered what it was like to live in the dorms while walking down the hall to use a communal bathroom with four sinks, three toilets, two showers, and a tub. I walked around my old city with friends I've known for years, surprised to see that the theatre building has been mostly torn down--only a third of it still stands. Its replacement is on North Campus, home of the engineers. I wandered through the Arb and tried to avoid patches of mud on the newly-thawed ground--spring has finally arrived, and just being in the sun, strolling without a jacket, conversing on life plans and theology while surrounded by a carefully sculpted wild landscape, was satisfying. And I played Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution for the first time--an apartment's worth of guys (and me) laughed so hard when Alex belted out tenor notes in a range almost too high for him that he wasn't able to sing from laughing himself. Here I've gotten a snapshot of my brother's life, playing Settlers of Catan with the other IVCF interns, hanging out with his students from Chinese Christian Fellowship, meeting the family that's essentially adopted him as their own (recently the two-year-old daughter spontaneously started calling him "Uncle Ben"). Three concerts, two cities, one brother, and lots of friends. It's been a good trip. Labels: concerts, touring, travel ^ Top | 1:07 AM | | | 
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