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Archive for March 30th, 2004

A Rainy Day in Ann Arbor

Tuesday, March 30th, 2004

Well I spent the day in Ann Arbor again, but this time I drove alone. It was sunny when I left but it was cloudy when I got there and sprinkling rain by mid-afternoon.

First thing, I was trying to meet up with some Michigan knitters from online, but they had children with them, and I was running late… so they left before I got there. I guess there were 4 of them so they did have a good time. I’ll try to meet with them some other time.

After that I spent some time in downtown Ann Arbor, walking quite a distance (before the rain hit) and really enjoyed it. (See picture of a tiny, artful, red hot dog booth that has been there a very long time.) I ended up at Zingerman’s Deli (again, my all time favorite haunt in Ann Arbor) with a pot of good Organic Hojicha tea from Japan, and my laptop. I did some boring but easy number-crunching on my laptop in preparation for taxes (I’m much later than I wanted to be this year), but enjoyed being in that environment and really enjoyed my tea.

Why did I hang out in town so long? Because there was another knit in at night! The crew that meets at Arborland Borders books on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday nights, meets at a little asian tea/coffee house on 4th Street, when there happens to be a 5th Tuesday. So once I finished my tea at Zingerman’s, I went to Eastern Accent and had a small pot of Genmaicha… green tea with toasted rice in it. It’s very satisfying on a cold day.

I talked to friends until 10pm and then my cell phone rang. It was People Magazine (yes, really) wanting to interview me about Freecycling. I was expecting the call, as we sent one another emails yesterday.

My story is more interesting than other stories about Freecycling, because it reaches further than my personal life. Most stories either say: I wanted something, I posted that I needed it, someone offered theirs to me, we worked out how to transfer the item(s). Or… Someone posted something I could use, I asked for it, we transferred the item.

However… for me, it is “I posted on the freecycle list that I could use functional computers for my community center computer room. Somehow the word got out, and about 6 weeks later I got a call from Foster, Swift, Collins and Smith, saying they had heard that I could use some older computers.” The guy at the law firm is not on Freecycle, but somehow the word got to him anyway.

In the end, I got about 15 functioning computers and a lot of useful parts for my computer room. The machines are significantly better than those I had before. And the whole community benefits, not just two individuals transferring ownership of something. So I’m a good interview. (Mind you, I’ve given away rollerblades through Freecycle, and acquired fake fireplace logs and a large microwave for dyeing wool, in addition to the computer gift, but those stories are not interesting enough to make a national publication.)

We’ll see… maybe Lansing will make it into People magazine. I can’t spend time thinking about it… if I do, I just worry about getting quoted properly. I need to remember that the main point of her article is how Freecycling started… especially, she is focusing on the person who got the freecycling movement rolling. I’m a tiny speck of lint in the big picture.

After being interviewed on my new cellphone (thank goodness I had one today), I drove home. I have a pair of toe-up, afterthought heel socks ready for a ribbed 1-2″ top and then heels. Actually, I have another pair done the same way, that just needs a tiny bit more done on the heels themselves and they are done. It’s just that heels take a bit of thinking. Maybe at the allergist on Thursday…