Sunday in the Park with Dogs

I had a genius morning.

A friend texted me and found, shockingly, that I was up somewhat early on a Sunday and invited me to go for a walk in Lafayette Park (the actual park, technically referred to as Lafayette Plaisance). So I threw on jeans and a sweater, pulled on a hat to hide my bed-head, and took the elevator down to the park for a walk.

What ensued was a crazy example of why life downtown is so amazing to me. First I ran into the owner of Canine to Five, Detroit's doggy daycare, walking her two ginormous dogs. We chatted and walked around the park a few times. And it was good.

Then we ran into "Dutch," the writer of the great blog Sweet Juniper, who was out walking his dog and daughter. Sweet Juniper is an awesome blog about raising a child in Detroit, and he and his wife are expected a second child (a boy) soon. The gender of the new baby led to possibly the gay-friendliest post on any straight blog ever, which ends with the line:

"Well then let them circumcise their own potentially-homosexual son. Mine is going to get into gay night clubs for free."

Then we walked a bit more and ran into an older woman who lives in the Chateaufort association, one of the lesser-known but still lovely Lafayette Park co-ops that border the park (hang out with a dog-daycare owner in a park and you will meet everyone). And finally a cool couple who are inhabiting the design-y new loft development on Gratiot by the folks at Slows and their friends, also out walking their dog.

I can't have a dog - I simply don't spend enough time at home and I would end up boarding the poor thing all the time (like my brother does, ever since I turned him on to Canine to Five). But I love other people's dogs, and that was one fun morning, seeing cool people: people who love living in the city like I do, and frankly, the people who make living here great.

I feel like I seem really Pollyanna in my posts lately, liking Detroit so much as I seem to. But I'll be honest, the more time I spend here, the happier I am to be here. And the less I feel like Detroit needs a makeover.

Anyone who says Detroit is "on it's way" is kind of missing the point. Detroit is actually there. You just have to dig kind of hard to find it. But believe me, it's worth the work.