A Reprieve

I feel like my posting for the last month(s) has centered around descriptions of end-of-pregnancy woes and where is that baby anyway musings. These things are pretty much my life these days, but still it doesn't make for interesting writing (or living, for that matter). I work and I come home, do baby-related tasks and then go to bed.

However, today I tried to have a normal and fun Saturday afternoon; to get out of the house and do something we would have done pre-pregnancy and won't have a chance to do as often post-baby. So we headed to German Village for the afternoon. After actually finding a parking spot and a short walk through the brick streets of the Village, we met my brother for coffee (well I had tea) and hung out at Cup O Joe for a little bit. Then we headed next door to the Book Loft. The Book Loft has always been a favorite stop of mine in Columbus. Loving books as much as I do, it's a little piece of heaven to wander through the rooms and rooms (32 to be exact) of books. After much discussion, we picked out two books for our little Olive. Since we were in a hurry, I didn't have time to look for a new book for myself, but I understand I won't have much time for reading in the next several weeks anyway.

We then walked down the street to Katzinger's for lunch. It's been Dine Originals Restaurant Week and I've been too tired to really partake this week, but I wanted to participate at least a little bit. I also really like Katzinger's which is a great deli and famous sandwich shop, but don't make it there too often. They were running a great special for the Week, and the turkey flight (!) of sandwiches didn't disappoint. It was fun to try three different sandwiches in one basket - my favorite was a grilled one with delicious tangy mustard (#11).

After all the afternoon activity, I have to admit, I headed home to take a nap. I guess you can't take the pregnant girl off the couch for too long.

Ring Your Bell

Columbus has a AAA baseball team who is moving stadiums come next season. While I totally support the move from the current location to the more vibrant downtown Arena District, I felt a few pangs of nostalgia as this baseball season is coming to a close. See, as a little girl, I spent many memorable summer evenings with my parents and older brothers watching Clippers games. We usually sat behind the Clippers dugout and at the time the team was the farm affiliate of the New York Yankees. This gave us the chance to watch rookies move up through the system, in the early 80s we would have watched Don Mattingly before he got called up to the majors. (Some good Clippers history here.) Actually, I was probably not so into the baseball at that time. I found it more fun to place the stickers from the Cracker Jack boxes to the seats in front of me and to spend most of the game ringing the cow bell that was for some reason part of the fan experience. There was a song that went along with ringing the bell..."Columbus Clippers our fans are half the fun, whether we are winning or if we've had a spell, Columbus Clippers ring your bell." As I got older, my brothers would hide the bell from me because I was evidently supporting the team a little too much.

So it was with all of these memories (and more) that Chris and I joined some friends at Cooper Stadium for the last Dime-A-Dog night in the current stadium. A perfect late summer evening, Monday night drew in many fans wanting to see the stadium one last time and probably like me, relive their own Clippers at Cooper stadium memories.

The stadium seemed smaller than I remembered and the souvenir stand was sold out of bells, but there is still something magical about minor league baseball in a small stadium brimming with young families. And while the Cracker Jacks came in a bag instead of the traditional box, there was still a surprise inside (sadly no stickers). I didn't hear the Ring Your Bell song, but the Clippers pulled out a win.

I'm looking forward to visiting the new stadium and creating new memories with our children, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for what I knew as Cooper Stadium, home of the Clippers.

A Sense of Place

This week I went to an annual meeting for work. One of the speakers was Scott Russell Sanders who from my quick Google search is the author of several books and is a professor at Indiana University. He teaches English, but a lot of his work centers around the practice of community or a sense of place. There has been a lot of discussion in Columbus recently about a sense of place, who we are and where we are heading. Task forces have been formed to stop the Columbus brain drain and retain our young professionals. Columbus blogs are debating it and the local media is finding it interesting enough to report on.

Part of the argument of why people are leaving is because Columbus lacks a sense of place. It's been there said there is no easily recognizable symbol or perception of Columbus. You know what you're getting into when you fly to Boston, visit New York, drive to Chicago and vacation in Miami. Not so much with Columbus. In my line of work, what I hear repeated over and over again is people telling me they never knew Columbus would be so hip, so fun, so diverse or even so clean.

Columbus may be where I grew up, but it is also where I now choose to live. My sense of place is a Columbus that was with me for my partying early 20s, has a good business climate as I'm now furthering my career and will grow with me as we start a family in the next several years. Columbus is diverse enough that it doesn't need to be the same thing to all people all the time.

This topic won't be going away anytime soon and it will be interesting to see how it evolves and what comes of it. I'll keep you updated...