Tag Archives: no i really do love ohio

Welcome Home, or Welcome Back to NYC, At Least, Because It’s Still Unclear If This or Ohio is My Home

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There are a lot of things I love about Ohio, neither ironically nor just out of sentimentality for the first twenty-four years of my life. Of course because my family and my lifelong friends live there, but also because the people are kinder, everything’s wildly inexpensive, and it’s just generally easier to exist there in the wide-open spaces. The cool things in Ohio seem cooler because they’re undiluted by a million other cool things around them, you know?

But after the most perfectly Ohio goodbye with a lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with my best friend and our friends Erin and Jenn, I came back to NYC on Saturday afternoon, and the city felt welcoming for once. My plane flew way up past the airport in Queens over the Bronx and City Island, over sailboats sprinkled in Pelham Bay, over tiny islands I’ve never seen before with a single house on each one. Pea Island! Goose Island! Hog Island! Kamran and I walked to Grand Central to shop once I arrived at his apartment, and the employees at Banana Republic were extra nice, the desserts at Financier were extra delicious, the cheese selection at Murray’s was extra impressive. We ordered organic grass-fed burgers for dinner, which you have a hard time finding in the grocery store in Ohio, let alone have them delivered to your house for free by a man on a bike. And then we stayed up all night watching ancient episodes of “X-Files” in which people wear pink eye makeup.

On Sunday, a Mila Kunis/Zoe Saldana/Marion Cotillard/Clive Owen/Billy Crudup movie was filming outside Kamran’s building, which we only figured out when we realized we’d been hearing squealing tires on the street below for three hours straight. The modern street signs had been pasted over with “Knickerbocker Ave.” and “54th St.”, and 70s-era cars filled the parking spaces while cops in old-fashioned uniforms staged a chase between them.

United Nations Rainbow

There was a rainbow over the United Nations building, which we attempted to follow to the river but lost somewhere between 43rd and 51st Streets. The sky in general was brooding and bright blue at the same time and somehow more expansive than it’s ever seemed. The French pastry place was closed and the Jamba Juice was closed, but we found a restaurant specializing in Indian kati rolls and stopped by Crumbs for cupcakes, and everything was more delicious than ever. And we went to our grocery store that only has natural and organic products, and we ordered dinner from our usual favourites that don’t exist in Ohio, and it felt like this place missed me.

Roosevelt Island and the East River

I love Ohio, and I love NY, and they’re almost complete opposites, but I still think of them both as home.

Gone Fishin’

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I’m going to Ohio for a week to see my friends and family and let them grill meatz for me on Memorial Day.

I keep thinking that this is a real holiday, like Christmas or Pumpkin Show or the 4th of July.

Sparkler

But people are going to be working while I’m there! And my best friend says the latest she’ll stay up with me is midnight! And my dad says the attic is full of bats! And if I eat any cookie dough, my pants will explode! And I’m going to miss “Girls” and “Game of Thrones”! WHAT KIND OF LIFE IS THIS?

Moonrises and Rainbows

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Two shots from the sky over Ohio during my last visit home:

moonrise

rainbow

The moonrise was over the trees in my great-aunt’s front yard, and the rainbow was in the backyard of my best friend, Tracey‘s parents’ house on the crazy-windiest day ever.

You don’t see these things in Brooklyn.

An Embroidery Piece Personalized for Me!

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Liesi over at Too Crewel held a contest for a custom embroidery piece recently, and I was the lucky winner! I’d been slobbering over her Etsy shop nonstop, especially the United States pillow and the paper airplane hoop, so I asked her to combine the two ideas for me to make this:

It’s the U.S., with a heart where Ohio is and a star where New York is and an airplane trail connecting the two. <3 <3 <3!

She also did a piece for my friend Dishy that involves the entire family, the pet bird, the chickens, the rats, and the dog. If I never wanted to cram a chicken coop into the corner of my 900-square-foot apartment before (yeah, right), I sure do now.

Talk to Liesi to get a piece of your own!

Noel. No-EL. Knoll. NO-uhl.

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I’ve met my blogfriend and yours Noel five or six times now. We found each other through a girl I went to high school with, and I was immediately drawn to the way she can write soulfully about seriously provocative issues without turning hippie-dippy or New-Age-y. Noel’s husband was a few years behind me in school, so I was aware of his brother, and he was aware of my cousin, and Noel had been to all of my favourite places in Ohio. Like my hometown. And the one and only pizzeria in it. And the Circleville Pumpkin Show.

Noel gets mad that I sometimes mention our dates here but never show any pictures of us together, so I’m continuing the trend (mostly because I didn’t actually take any pictures of us this time around). Here’s a picture of my best friend, Tracey, holding Noel and Ryan’s son, Silas:

Did you just feel your reproductive system cry out a little? No? Mine, neither, but let me tell you that Silas is twice as cute in person as in pictures, and this was in the rain when he was in need of a nap and had just watched us gnaw on burgers at Max & Erma’s for an hour while he had, like, peas or something.

Later in the week, Tracey and I met Noel again for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory while Ryan watched the kid, and we talked about families and teaching and boys and blogs and boobs. Then we went to see My Week with Marilyn, in which Michelle Williams had my hair, and in which Hermione Granger didn’t get naked, and in which I snorted so loud when Marilyn Monroe announced that Abe Lincoln was her dad.

And thus concludes the December meeting of blogfriends who pronounce their names weirdly.