The Comedy Club

Hi again. Been a weird last few weeks, and I’d be lying if I said I’d even looked at this site any earlier than (maybe) two Mondays ago. How’s it goin?

Two weeks ago was my mom’s 50th birthday. Being the certified Good Kid I am, I took off work most of the week to spend as much time with my family as possible. The day before I left for Ohio, everything was still going according to plan; my car was loaded with a basket of laundry to clean (because it’s free when it’s at your parents’ house), and all I had to do was get through that last shift at work.

Then, well, Dad sent a text: Mom’s in the hospital. Might not be a good idea to come down right now.

I won’t get into what all was going on; what matters is that she’s going to be alright. But did that matter even a little in my decision to defy my dad and drive to Ohio that next morning anyway? It’s my mom’s birthday — come on now.

And I’m endlessly grateful I went. While I know everything’s going to be fine now, for a minute there it was anyone’s guess. And that was really scary.

In short, as far as birthdays go, this one kinda sucked.

So then I get back to Michigan. It’s Wednesday night, around 10:00, and I’m just about to brush my teeth and get to bed.

Have you ever wondered what it’d take to gain the undivided attention of all of the neighbors in your building at 10PM on a Wednesday for an hour and a half? The answer’s simple: just call the fire department.

It wasn’t a large fire, thankfully. But it was a fire. You see, just as I was brushing my teeth, the vent fan in my bathroom decided to explode in a ball of smoke and flame right before my eyes. According to the chief, there was no actual ventilation in there at all; all the steamy water and dust the fan had been sucking up since the building was erected in 1970 had just been sitting in the space between the ceiling and roof.

What does that mean for the building’s continued structural integrity? Hell if I knew. If I had to guess, I’d say that eventually all the wood’s bound to rot up there, leading, perhaps, to the entire building collapsing in on itself sooner or later. At which point, one would assume, my slum lord’s bound to accept a healthy insurance payout, and decide to sell the land upon which the building sits to a developer who’ll likely construct yet another “market-rate”, “luxury” high-rise to grace the Ann Arbor city skyline just in time for a new batch of wealthy undergrads to move in.

What a world.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. How the heck is it June already? Absolutely wild. I need to get a move on with this website already.

More to come.

-Ben