Ohmmm... Sweet Ohmmm

This is where I spend the majority of my week... a cubicle. Envoi rents a space out of Two Miranova so that I don't spend ALL my time in the apartment. It's a sad state of affairs. I've been here somewhere in the neighborhood of a year, and as temporary as this was supposed to be, it's feeling more and more permanent. 

The building itself is a single, sealed block. The windows don't open. I'm guessing that's so people don't jump. I work within Ethan Interactive. I rarely interact with Ethan Interactive. They're on the other side of the wall and there's only two or three present at a time. Ideally, I'd be in a space with multiple freelance designers, architects, homeless people... whoever. This apparently doesn't exist in Columbus. Recently, someone had just such a posting on craigslist. Upon inquiring, they said they would contact me in a couple of weeks. It's been over a month. I think it was a marketing group that was only interested in hawking people's work. Shady cats.

This lack of interaction eats at the core. People NEED other people to talk to... or as demonstrated so many times before, they go crazy. Over the course of this year, I've noticed I'm far more anxious and squirrelly in conversation with strangers than I've ever been before. I find myself wanting to be left alone when that's never been the case at all. It also puts undue strain on any relationship you might be in. I do 85% of my interpersonal communicating with Erica. So if it's not positive, I've really screwed myself for the day. Because of that, any argument or fight is exaggerated, making things all that more difficult.

I Do Give a Damn

I love Michigan. Superfans, show me mercy or may the ghost of Woody himself key my car. I can't help the way I feel. The vast majority of it is beautiful. This is Lake Michigan. The nice view was courtesy of Big Sable lighthouse, just north of Ludington (the knuckle of your pinky). I came across this picture the other day and wanted to be there again.

We used to vacation there when I was a kid. Many summers were spent along the south shore of Hamlin Lake at Twin Points Resort. This past summer, Erica and I decided to take a long weekend and drive to Manistee, about 30 miles north of Ludington. The idea was that we were going to try and make our own Michigan memories. After nearly two full days of rain and overcast skies, we woke up to an amazing blue sky, took two or three pictures of downtown Manistee and headed south. We spent the next two days at Snyder's Shoreline Inn. Erica was a good sport as I recalled old times. "... and we would walk out on THAT pier after ice cream..." "... that's different... that's different... hey, what happened to..." I would like to go back to that time just once to say hi. That's a bit much, but I'm feeling nostalgic at the moment. It's not fair to pack so many good memories into one annual pilgrimage, only to have the responsibilities that come with a certain age snatch them away. I always wanted to go back. And now that I have, I want to go back again.

I'll write more about it later. This is my place that I can't talk enough about. I was afraid before heading back last summer that it was the people that made it great. And with a lot of them gone or grown, it's something that can never be recreated. So I was glad to find that it hadn't lost its appeal.

The Other Side of the Tracks

At the end of Mound Street lies a forgotten little world of an overgrown holding pond. Turn to the right and you'd see two heaping behemoths of construction magic known as the Miranova Buildings... One and Two, respectively. Behind you, a conglomeration of interstate highways. I think 70 is in on it. And the Scioto runs just beyond that far wall... hence the bridge. 

It's interesting to me for a couple of reasons. One is that from this angle, it could be Piqua, my hometown, right smack in the middle of Columbus. Two, due to the multiple bridges, there is a lot of wall space for graffiti. I personally like graffiti. I don't know very much about it, but I think it's beautiful. Much more so than 300 square feet of 18% grey. It's all over the supports for the interstate(s) and a lot of it looks amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time yesterday, but I would like to see all of it.

But I like these "in-between" areas. They're the small disjointed pieces of urban space that you see off of highways or stuck behind large construction projects. They do alright. And depending on who's noticing, they get a lot of use. The graffiti gang uses the space as their studio. The vagrants use the overpasses to get out of the weather. It's a shortcut if you're walking from the west side to downtown. It might even be a great place to do drugs.

Small Stuff

I'm a fan of this chair. I have a set of four. I acquired them when I worked for the now defunct Inspire Magazine in Cincinnati. As bad as that job was, I took from it as much, if not more, than what I thought I had given. This chair and its three siblings remind me of that.

They are great chairs, though. Simple lines, well built, strong, with "YUGOSLAVIA" lightly stamped onto the bottom of the seat. I know their story from the fall of 2002 to the present, but prior to that is anyone's guess. I prefer the way they look to most chairs, yes, but what I'm most fond of is that they're different... at least compared to my references. I've never seen chairs like this. They tell a better story than the more ergonomic, mass-produced chairs of today. But who knows, these might've been the "ergonomic, mass-produced" chairs of the 60's. I suppose it's that I feel these four chairs have more to offer me than a set that I might buy at Crate & Barrel out of a box. I just like things that have tales to tell... that's all.

Flash Effects

This is simply pointless. I had gotten this really nice setup from my uncle when I graduated from UC. It had a nice Nikon flash in it, but the batteries had corroded. As embarrassing as this might be, I'm going to tell you that it took until this past weekend for me to finally fix that flash. But I did it! Had I known how it feels, I would've tackled this years ago, but only recently did the problem become noticeable.

So I spent the majority of yesterday experimenting with it. I can read every manual ever written on my flash, but until I get out there and use it, nothing will stick. And as much as I'd rather not use a flash, it's nice to know that it's available should the need arise... that's what I tell myself when in reality I just don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Anyways, this here is Opal. She's a jade plant and is currently cohabitating with my girlfriend, Erica. Opal happens to be her pride and joy. It wasn't all that long ago that Opal was struggling. She wasn't long for this world, but a relocation project and a brand new plant stand turned her frown upside down. She's now thriving in the southwest window of our apartment. Erica loves her dearly and I believe it shows in Opal's appearance. It's nice to see something so seemingly simple as a plant bring so much happiness to someone. Horticultural therapy at work.

No Reason for This

I'm only posting this because the central point of focus is similar to the snowy street picture from earlier. They have nothing in common other than that... and the fact that they are paths of similar varieties. This was Alum Creek State Park. It's a hole. This is an example of their hiking trails. As far as I know, this is the closest state park Columbus has to offer. From the looks of it, this land will soon be a subdivision with a name like "Otter Glen" or "Deer Run at Water's Edge". Central Ohioans appear to be more concerned with eating up land than saving it. The only valuable acreage is that which you can build on... the general consensus for the entire country. I just wish Central Ohio legislation could've saved larger tracts from the voracious appetites of Dublin, Polaris and Gahanna to name a few.

It's greed that drives places like Sawmill Road and Easton Town Place or Center or whatever warm fuzzy name they give it to distract people from the fact that they scoured hundreds of acres of earth so that white people can drive their SUV's into a parking lot, walk the 30' to the door, shop and never really interact with anyone. But it's all generalizations and assumptions. It's just that Ohio is a tough place to live when you have a hard time swallowing shallow, characterless sprawl.

So it started off as a harmless post and has turned into a hippie rant. So long as I keep it to this and not in conversation. People become uncomfortable when you don't agree with something so inherent to them. Ugh, I'm starting to piss myself off.

Run Forrest

This is what my road has looked like as of late. I run. Some purists would argue that it's more like jogging, but I sweat and breathe hard... I'm running. 

Running is a funny thing. When I played sports in high school, I never had the faintest idea of what it would be like to just stop. To stop running sprints or perhaps stop mid-play in practice was inconceivable. But now I'm an adult. It's often that running sucks. Heavy snow makes it tough to see. Add wind and some ice that's been hidden by said snow... and you have more to worry about than whether your knee is still sore from the other day. But I can stop. No one is blowing a whistle or waiting to make an example out of me. I have stopped and it's an awful awful feeling. I didn't quit on any coach, I quit on me. I was able to convince myself that I could go no further.

So I head out in weather like this because not a lot of people will. I get strange looks but every once and a while someone will say "Way to go!" and mean it. Plus, running in fresh snow is the best. Not a lot of traffic and when it's cold, the air is thick. Drink it up because the humid stagnant days will soon be here. Not only that, the first race of the year is at the end of March. 15K in Cincinnati for the Mini Heart Marathon. It will be my first time running it and I'm looking forward to it.

Total Eclipse of the... Moon

I don't really know what the song means... mostly because I have a hard time listening to the words. But I do know what a total lunar eclipse is and what it means. It means that for several hours, a few things in the solar system are all lined up. They happen far more often than solar eclipses, but nonetheless are fun to have around. I stood outside in the bitter cold to snap this photo. In the process, you could hear the sounds of kids looking up into the sky to gaze upon one of the coolest things they'd ever seen.

It makes me wonder if there was a time when stargazing was the only form of entertainment in the evening. Either that or marauding... which I'm sure lunar eclipses did not help with and therefore were not welcomed.

New Starts

I'm new to all of this. I thought I might just dive right in... but apprehension loomed large just beyond my cyber door. I was... and still very much am... excited about the birth of my niece yesterday. It's really what prompted this. I was ready to post names, pictures, stats... all of it. I have no desire to broadcast my own life on such a public venue so what makes me think she'd want hers? So it occurred to me that this blog would have to be approached, not with reckless abandon, but tact. This really is an assortment of ambiguity thrown together in an attempt to delicately provide a glimpse of the... blogger (is that right?). So all content must be carefully thought out... read, reread and finally approved by said blogger. So here it goes...

I became an uncle for the first time yesterday morning at 7:20 in the a.m.. She's sweeter than a fresh pull of Big League Chew. I'm excited... even more so than I thought I'd be. I want to take her to a ballgame, buy her the wrong hat and hope her parents taught her that peanut shells may or may not be edible. I want her to try and make me play dolls. She'll be sorry when I instead show her how a proper pursuit drill is run. What a sucker. But all that will have to wait until she's more than 8 lbs and is taller than 21.5". But I'm in no big hurry.