The leaves on trees are starting to change colors and the nights are becoming cooler. Wanting to spend some time outside we’re looking for things to do. This weekend is the big Oktoberfest in Columbus, so like the dedicated tourist that I am we decided to head over for a good time. It was a bit expensive to get in, so we were hoping for a really good time. As soon as we entered there was a big crowd around a lady who was handing out paper bracelets (you know the kind you get at water parks or Mayan Palace). We headed over there and Scott reached out his hand. The lady put a bright orange wrist band around Scott without thinking about it and then stopped when she got to me. She asked me how old I was; I replied “24″ and she asked to see my I.D. before she would give me a band. At that point we figured out that the bands weren’t just for admittance, they were so that you could buy alcohol in the festival (well all they really had was beer…of course). I was so offended that she would card me and not Scott! Do I really look that young?!? Anyway, so we wandered around the festival a bit and got some dinner. Overall we weren’t that impressed with the festival–it really wasn’t all that German. Other than excessive amounts of beer and some overpriced traditional costumes, they really didn’t have anything “German.” There was Greek and Italian food to buy, Ohio Buckeye souvenirs to buy, Swing music from the band, and all sorts of nifty arts and crafts. We enjoyed it for a bit and then decided to head home, a bit disappointed at the expense and unauthenticity of the experience–they didn’t even hold the festival in the German Village portion of town for crying out loud!
So this morning we woke up to some beautiful fall weather and decided that we would head to Worthington and eat some breakfast outside at a sidewalk cafe. When we reached our destination we realized that we got a lot more than we bargained for. Not only were they having their weekly farmer’s market but it was also some sort of fall festival. They had arts and crafts, all sorts of vendors, and everything “fallish.” We had a good time wandering around, enjoying the atmosphere, and commenting on how Mesa never does anything like this. All in all we decided that the free Worthington unnamed market was a much bigger hit than the much-anticipated and sought after Oktoberfest was. Nevertheless, both inspired me to recognize that fall is here and its time to decorate. My house is now festooned with all things fall! Yeah!

Columbus Festivals, Life in OH-IO | 6 Comments »

Saturday Kandra and Jared (our new Ohio friends and extended family) gave us their tickets to the OSU game. We were really excited to go to our first ever OSU game. Attending a game is quite the event for any Columbian. EVERYONE goes to the games. And if you don’t go to the game, then you at least wear your OSU gear all day long. Honestly, the grocery stores are packed with OSU fans buying “game day” supplies (ie. Chips and beer) before the game starts and traffic on the way to the game is ridiculous. So, to be prepared, Dave parked his car at the medical school lot the night before and we found a ride that could drop us off close to the stadium (they actually have busses that transfer you from the farther parking lots to the stadium—like Disneyland or something). We donned our OSU gear (well, at least Scott and I did; Dave and Candace failed to represent) and headed for the stadium.

The place was packed! They don’t let alcohol into the stadium so all the dedicated fans have to arrive hours early to tailgate and get wasted before the game begins. I think it’s all just a good excuse to get drunk before noon. Anyway, the stadium is hopping at the beginning of the game—due to all the consumed alcohol—and crazy things start happening right away. While Scott and Dave enjoyed watching the game, I prefer to watch the fans, so I found this aspect of the OSU game appealing. I also enjoyed watching all the pomp and ceremony associated with OSU. For example, the band runs out onto the field at the beginning of the game and scripts out “OHIO,” all the fans scream out “OH” and the other half of the stadium responds with “IO,” they run a huge flag up the pole and every one starts cheering. It was all pretty exciting.

It was a bit disappointing though because OSU slaughtered Northwestern (of course, Dave and Scott had to call Steve and rub it in). OSU scored four times in the first quarter and finally ended the half with score of 45-0. I felt bad for Northwestern, because the OSU fans are so dedicated that it doesn’t matter how far ahead they get they still brutally boo the opposition and cheer for OSU. We ended up leaving at half time (after I made everyone stay to see the band march during the half time show), but still had a great time. We’re looking forward to some more OSU game opportunities…

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Let’s just say that things in Ohio have been tense. Yes, tense. During our daily inspection of the herb garden we realized that not only have the roots from the transplanted rosemary grown too large for it’s container (and thus require a new larger and roomier pot), but small, minute, so-minature-you’re-not-really-sure-if-you’re-seeing-them-even-with-a-magnifying-glass, spider mites have taken over the root systems of our nicely cared for herb garden. How can such a catastrophe happen when we water them, sun them, and fertilize them, with such extreme care and concern? How, when we invest so much of our precious time and energy into these beautiful herbs, can they repay us by hosting spider mites? I ask you, it’s an affront to gardeners everywhere! After thoroughly researching the problem (and learning that these minute bed bugs really do have an offical name–that’s really when we starting calling them spider mites), a trip to the local nursery was a must. Luckily they had just want our little herbs needed–Insecticidal Soap. Very offical. Very responsive. Very leathal. Hopefully, with their new treatment our little herb garden can continue to grow strong, healthy, and happy. Stay posted for future updates. I’ll keep sending them as they keep coming… :0)

P.S. Has anyone noticed the weather here in Columbus?!? This is more like Christmas than early September! Honestly, my body is thrown all out of wack. I don’t even know what to do. Not to mention the fact that deep down inside I am terrified of what’s to come. If September is as cold as I’ve ever known it, what am I going to do come January?

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Monday, September 3, 2007

As it was Labor Day and Scott had the day off from school, we decided to head up to Kirtland and explore that area of Ohio. We left fairly early in the morning and made the two and a half hour drive easily. We had brought a picnic lunch and so enjoyed the nice weather before going on a tour of “historic Kirtland.” The first part that we saw was the main down town area of Kirtland. We toured the Saw Mill, Ashery, Inn, Newel K. Whitney store and home. It was neat to see inside all of these buildings and experience a small slice of history.

They use this sawmill to create the different sections of the Kirtland temple. Here they have the podium displayed during different steps of its creation.

The ashery and sawmill are a bit away from the other N.K. Whitney buildings, but it is still a close walk.

This is the Johnson Inn. The Church has rebuilt the building, so this is not the original and the inside isn’t really an inn, but more a visitor center where you can search the church’s records for you ancestors to see if they were in Kirtland. I called home and found out that my great-great-great-great grandpa was in Kirtland at this time. That was pretty neat. Also, the highway used to run right in front of the inn and intersect with another highway that used to run right in front of the N.K. Whitney store. The church bought up all the land and paid to have the roads moved so that they no longer run right through the area.

This is the Whitney home. They were pretty wealthy for the time and their home (according to the tour guide) is quite a bit bigger than most of the homes at the time. Even still, it was rather small, considering they had so many kids. It was amazing to see how much they gave of their personal resources to help the early church, especially Joseph and Emma.

This picture is from the inside of the Whitney store. The Whitney store is actually still standing and the church has just restored some of the old parts, but Newel K. Whitney took such careful inventory of the goods he sold, that the store really contains the exact same things he sold back in the day. We thought that was pretty neat.

The school of the prophets would meet in upstairs section of the Whitney store. This image isn’t of the school of the prophets, but it is the room just next door. Joseph Smith and Emma stayed in the Whitney’s store and this is the room in which Joseph would often conduct church business.

We are standing in what was once the major highway that ran in front of N.K. Whitney’s store. Now it is just a pathway between the different Historic Kirtland sites.

It really made all the history I learned about as a seminary student come to life. Afterwards, we headed over to the Kirtland temple. Even though it is not currently owned by the Church, it was neat to walk around inside and see the actual structure.

From there we headed over to the Johnson Farm where Joseph and Emma Smith stayed for awhile. We made it just in time to take the tour before they closed and seven and we had a rather entertaining old man take us around for the tour.

This is the front of the Johnson Farm House. Joseph would preach from the front steps of the building to anyone who would gather below to listen to him.

This is the room that Joseph and Emma stayed in while at the Johnson’s home. In fact, this is the room from which Joseph was pulled the night that they tarred and feathered him. Their sick twins were laying on the bed with Joseph and Emma when the mob came and pulled Joseph out and dragged him down the road before tarring and feathering him. The next morning Joseph preached from the steps outside the home to many of the men from the mob the night before.

Next to the Johnson’s farm is a large stake center. We enjoyed watching the sun set behind the steeple and across the Ohio farms before heading back to Columbus.

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Friday, August 30, 2007

So, I spent all week long (while I didn’t have a job and thus nothing else to do) pouring over my maps and guide books for Ohio. You see, Labor Day weekend is coming up and we had to have something to do over the three day weekend besides pack away our white pants and shoes. So I came up with a number of different options (we’re going to head to Kirtland on Monday and check out the site there) and realized that we moved to a very “Stars Hallow” type town (for those of you who know anything about Gilmore Girls). Apparently, September is the month to hold festivals. I realized, after much research, that Columbus hosts and exorbitant number of festivals in the month of September. This weekend is the Greek Festival; and after Dave, Candace and Scott turned me down for the state fair and then realized later that it was “The Place to Be” we had to go—well at least Scott and I did—I can’t speak for Dave and Candace.

So Friday night we jumped in the car with our camera and not much else, like a purse (more on that in a minute). We finally found a place to park after much driving around and being jacked by a couple of girls who moved in our free spot before we reached it, found a place that required us to pay five dollars. Let me just say that parking in Columbus is an experience. You have to have a law degree (which we are currently working on, thankfully) to interpret the parking signs. After staring at them perplexedly for five minutes we finally figured out that we couldn’t park on this side of the street. I’m included this picture so you can get an idea of what a conundrum we were in.

So, we pulled into the $5 spot and had a grand time stuffing one-dollar bills into the slot one at a time. Scott, letting his inner evil self out for a short time, folded all the bills differently into small bits and stuffed them down the slot.

Little did we know that this would be our first mistake…

So we walk down the street towards the festival and enjoyed the sights of this part of town. It was rather picturesque and appealing.

I liked the painted murals on the sides of the walls; Scott preferred the “super-cool” Lamborghini parked on the side of the road. Of course, we had to cross the street and practically drool on the hunk of metal before we could proceed to the festival. We finally reach the entrance and realize that it costs four dollars per person to get inside and you can only pay with cash. Scott opened his wallet and found that he had three dollars inside. He turned to ask me if I had any cash in my purse (which of course I left at home—not that I had any money in it anyway) and we found ourselves denied entrance to the festival. We decided to wander around looking for an ATM where we could extract some cash.

We finally found one at the North Market and then realized that Scott had yet to put his new ATM card in his wallet (it’s conveniently sitting at home on our key rack) and I had conveniently closed our old bank account just that day. I got in trouble for not having my purse because then we would have access to money. (On an interesting side note, last night we went to pick Dave and Candace up from the airport and went to dinner afterwards. Not wanting to get in trouble again, I brought my purse with me. We came home form dinner and I realized that I left my purse at the restaurant. This time I got in trouble for bringing my purse—because who would bring their purse to the airport?!? It seems I just can’t win. Scott told me I would “win” if I just kept my purse glued to my shoulder. But, I don’t really think that’s feasible.) Devoid of anyway to extract money from our bank account we had to view the Greek festival from afar and inhale the wonderful scent of food while our tummies growled.

Actually, my tummy was growling quite uncontrollably by this time, so rather than waste the five dollars we paid on parking we decided to find a restaurant (preferably one that takes credit cards) on this street to eat at. We found this little dive that we had some doubts about but the hamburger and chicken wings were actually really good.

After dinner we decided to drive around this part of town and explore some (as I had read my guide books and new that there were lots of things to see around here). We drove through Victorian Village (a really cool neighborhood with lots of old Victorian mansions surrounding a really pretty park—which according to my guide book is the first public park in Columbus). Don’t doubt that Scott made fun of me for knowing all this information. We walked around the park and enjoyed the wonderful summer weather (which to anyone else in Columbus is absolutely miserable), the gigantic lilly pads (honestly, you’ve never seen any this big before), and the cute gazebo, before heading home. While things didn’t quite turn out the way we had anticipated, we still had fun and enjoyed the evening.

Oh, and it really helps when you consider that I had just received and job offer. That really made my day. After looking for over a month here in Columbus I was anxious to finally accept an offer. I’ll be working at an inner-city Charter school as a Title 1 Math Specialist. Basically, that means that I’ll be pulling really low level math students, ages 3rd grade through 8th, out of their regular classes to help tutor them in so they can build up their math skills. I don’t exactly know how I’m qualified for this position, other than I’ve tutored, I’ve taken math classes, and I’ve worked with students this age before. But, I’ve never done any of those things all together. I’m a bit anxious and think it will be something of a challenge, but the position had a few things going for it: I’m working in education, which I like, the schedule is great (8:30-3:00 M-F), the pay is pretty good (sort of), and I only work during the school year (which means we can go to Oxford this summer! Yeah! …Well, I really don’t know if that’s going to work out, but hey! It’s worth hoping for).

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