Ohio has been on my mind lately what with my being unemployed and yet not having visited yet (obviously I’m waiting for the pumpkin festival next month), so here are a few photos I dug up from my last trips there:

This is Graham, who belongs to my BFF, Tracey. When I’m in town, she goes off to work as usual for most of the week, and I stay at her and her husband’s house with the cats. Usually the cats sleep in their bedroom (Tracey’s and Dan’s; the cats don’t have their own bedroom) all day, but sometimes they’ll wander downstairs to see who’s crying in front of yet another episode of “Enlightened” and find me. Rupert is generally happy to turn back around and ignore me, but Graham will stare me down, reminding me that he had the chance to kill me once and didn’t take it. I’m sure I’ve told you this, but before Tracey and Dan owned their own house with a separate office, craft room, and Katie’s Room™, I used to sleep on the living room couch when I’d visit. When Graham was just a kitten, I awoke in the middle of the night once to see him flying across the couch from one armrest to the other, his claws outstretched and coming for my eyes. He could’ve had me if he’d wanted to. And he won’t let me forget.

I get so used to my horizon being saturated with tall buildings that sometimes I’ll be leaving Olive Garden with Tracey and our friend Katie and will just be struck by the sight of the sky. Ohio sunsets are amazing, and this wasn’t even a remotely interesting one, but I just remember my heart swelling at this in the middle of some dumb parking lot.

As we were leaving for the airport after my Christmas visit, my dad took me to the barn behind our house to show me these icicles, which formed at an angle thanks to the crazy wind coming up the hill they live on. As much as I’m loving the cooler air and the opportunity to open my windows for the first time since March right now, I’m so, so anxious about winter this year.

OHIO!