To The Point

Cedar Point, that is.

This weekend, we caught up with our respective families while also managing to squeeze in a trip to Sandusky, Ohio to visit the classic midwest amusement park. We logged it in as another one of AFJ’s firsts! ZMW’s company organized a trip for its employees and we enjoyed a non-driving trip down on a surprisingly comfortable bus (:

The night before, we met up with ZMW’s family at his high school alma mater for homecoming(!) where we were surprised to discover the opposing team happened to be MY high school alma mater. Needless to say, we shamed ZMW’s old football team by beating them on their own homecoming night. Sorry, guys ;) It was a blast from the past but a good time, nontheless.

Sunday was spent with my family and we enjoyed dim sum and hearty conversation with my comedian father. Priceless weekend all around ;) See below for some highlights!

What Do We Value?

As the general election approaches, it seems even more urgent to reflect on our government and the values that it expresses through its actions. More importantly, as citizens we must be critical and thoughtful about how and why we support or rally against government actions.

Our economy has been a salient issue with the evident demise of some of the largest U.S. financial institutions. In addition to what we can potentially fear financially — indeed, there is much to be concerned about with the fall of AIG and certain market funds –the government bailouts of these institutions reflect values.

For one, those who are most at risk of losing their jobs in the immediate future are those who hold some of the most coveted positions among American Professionals - Investment Bankers. To be sure, these same individuals earn at the highest pay scales in our society and certainly ‘earned’ their positions with Ivy League educations and hard work.

That said, and it is beyond the scope of this blog to discuss this in detail, our government has reached a decision to bail out these institutions with billions of dollars, racking up a bill at the end of the day that could potentially reach the trillions. The very nature of free markets mitigates government intervention and here we are, intervening in the free market because of some crappy securities and questionable business practices in general.

It is in light of these events that we must begin to analyze why it is that our government values do not include social provisions, including but not limited to; social security, city infrastructure investment (think Detroit and New Orleans), and public school finance. To me, it seems clear that we, as a society, value a certain socioeconomic segment of society and to put it bluntly - we don’t value the rest all that much.

Much remains to be seen as events continue to unfold but there do not seem to be too many surprises any more about who and what the federal government values. This could be a good thing, and indeed, it could be a bad thing but in these times, I hope more people think thoughtfully about the kind of leadership they want in office and what kind of society they would like to be part of .

Note the Parisian Soiree

For the first time in a long time, we stayed in Ann Arbor over the weekend. We decided to take a pass on the frantic quest to squeeze in camping trips before winter sets in. Random highlights of the ‘Uneventful Weekend in Town’ warranted a blog post as it underscores the many benefits of living in Ann Arbor and sticking around the city limits every now and again!

On Friday evening, we hiked down to one of Ann Arbor’s community gems — the Kerrytown Concert House. Last minute ‘date night’ planning had me on their website perusing their themed concert series entitled, “A Parisian Soiree”. The program included a UofM concert violinist and various opera singers, all of whom entertainingly invoked the romantic and sassy nature of Parisian culture. Anna danced and giggled at the performances while ZMW and I sipped on champagne.

Not bad, eh?

Trust me, it was heavenly.

It also happened to rain all weekend and boy, was it the perfect excuse to stay indoors and relax after weeks of eventful weekends hiking outdoors, swimming in Lake Michigan or traveling, in general. To be sure, we stayed in on Sunday and napped intermittently THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE DAY to the pitter patter of the rain (: