Happy New Year from Snowy Ohio!

Happy New Year friends! We hope you are healthy and happy, if not we hope you get that way soon. Ally and I are back in C-Bus, for me that means back to work and applications (just one more to go!), and for Ally that means she just started taking new classes (Disability Studies and Rhetoric) and teaching Women's Health. I will be looking for some part time/anytime work too in order to finance some upcoming trips (any suggestions?). The news stations here in Columbus are all a-buzz with the upcoming snow storm... we're expected to get an accumulation of 4 inches today! Our friends from Boston can imagine how hilarious all the excitement and worry over this measly amount of snow seems to Ally and I, but people here seriously can not drive in snow- at all. So while we may snicker at people 'stocking up' (on last nights news a lady was getting some essentials just in case - mostly mountain dew) driving in the snow here is dangerous, both because of the drivers and the predisposition of anything melted to turn to black ice quickly due to the cold winds our flat, flat home has blowing across it. Luckily(?) we don't have a car and we have cats to keep us entertained should we have a snow day.

Speaking of cats, this morning Bob and Diz had a face to face encounter with the primal. It was a stand-off whose tension was exaggerated by the mere centimeter thick glass pane that prevented what I'm sure would have been a close and vicious battle. Bob managed to stand straight up to glare at what looked like a pretty chubby squirrel that was looking into our kitchen window, while Diz tried to figure out what was going on with his head between Bob's rear legs (he never really did).

Pictures!

We forgot to mention - bell hooks visited OSU.
Ally got to chat with her, lucky ducky.
Top: Vintage store photo op
& Schmidt's Sausage Haus
Bottom: Kitten Mittens & bell hooks

Happy December!

Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Colloquium, Winter, Religious What Not and New Years. (We had some catching up to do and I figured, why not go for all of em). It's been a while since we last posted about our life here in Columbus but don't worry its mostly because we got busy. Ally is almost completely over her mono, her energy is still sapped sometimes but she's doing well. I got a job, so we can eat which is awfully nice. I work for county government logging things like voter registration forms and making sure people aren't getting food assistance in Ohio and Florida. I'm also in the midst of applying to doctoral programs and hiding from sallie mae. (what fun!). I was a robot for Halloween, Ally was pirate wearing a pumpkin hat. We had a vegan Thanksgiving with some fellow Boston - Columbus transplants. We also had a second Thanksgiving meal a couple of days later with some new friends because I demanded ham. We also now have a real honest to goodness bed (like adults) and let me tell you friends, sleeping in a bed is so much better than sleeping on... anything else really.

Sara Kleman gets a triple gold star medal for being the first friend to visit us. My brother visited too but he didn't stay over so he only gets a silver medallion. Sara also made the cats' booties and went with us to a sausage buffet. (Don't worry, pictures will be forthcoming). A sausage buffet? you say, 'who ever heard of such a thing?' Yes yes, that is perhaps what happens when you combine a historically German enclave (called German Village over here) with the Midwest (who doesn't love lots of (fill in the blank) at the low low price of (fill in the blank)). Probably won't be going there again, at least not for the buffet, but it was certainly a fun time plus there was a candy store down the block with the same chocolate covered marzipan that relatives in Germany sent my family when I was little.

Let's see what else? We miss you guys! We got cable last week and we wish we could invite you all over for a proper Bravo marathon. Bob is having a hard time understanding why he shouldn't stick his nose in our mood lighting (he keeps burning his whiskers) but otherwise the boys are doing well. We are both going back east for the holidays - Ally is off to Portland and I'm off to NYC. We wish you all a fabulous and healthy New Year and we promise to keep posting. Apparently Columbus's zoo is freaking amazing and there is a Chihuly exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art. Who doesn't like pictures of animals and pretty glass sculptures? Better not be you!

Out and About

Alrighty, things are in swing here in Columbus and we have some photos to prove that we don't stay home with the cats all day. Ally looking in awe at the OSU library, myself enjoying a two dollar milkshake, oh and frat row which we don't live far from. We actually got out this weekend, saw some of the nightlife of Columbus and got a little tipsy. (fyi mono plus alcohol, maybe not the best combo). Anywho, if any of ya'll come out to Columbus we recommend Jenni's Homemade Ice Cream, (seriously, seriously good), Club Diversty (for way strong martinis, pleasant older gentlemen, free popcorn and live jazz), and perhaps Lemongrass, which we haven't been to yet but we've heard the monsoon shrimp is banging. Still looking for work, going on interviews, trolling the internet and biking around town. Accidentally biked into the crimson wave that is OSU right before a game this Saturday. I wasn't wearing red. It was scary.

Its cold.

Its so cold, Dizzy is using eminent domain to take over my lap. Bob got tired of Dizzy trying to sit on him and left. Its okay boys, its not like I'm working or anything...

The weather has changed here in C-Bus...

Yup. That's right. Yesterday I was standing at my bus stop, buttoning my coat against the wind that was making foul whistling noises through the plexi-glass shelter and thinking about how it almost feels like New England. Granted, in New England right now I would be wearing a hoodie underneath my light coat (as opposed to the light-weight work shirt I am wearing) and wondering where I stashed my smart wool socks that I would be needing in a matter of weeks. That said, the change in weather, now that the humidity has taken flight, has energized me for school. I am feeling better--the mono just makes me tired now, as opposed to waking up, aching, and feeling in general like I want to die. This development in health has led Cat and I to explore Columbus a little bit more.

On Friday night we actually went on a date. We found this little one-screen movie theatre in Clintonville (a neighborhood North of us, just past campus) that serves beer on draught and sandwiches so you can eat and drink during your movie. There is also an old Pac Man machine, which apparently, Cat RULES at playing. (I blame my sisters for hogging the only Pac Man machine we ever came in contact, which was at our dentist office, for my own poor performance). So Cat had some kind of IPA and I had a Root Beer on tap as we split veggie sub and watched 500 Days of Summer. It was a perfect evening, it turns out. BUT our last bus came at 9:30 or something, so if we had gone to a later show than the 7:00 showing, we would have needed to cab it home. One downside of Columbus's cheap public transportation.

We were also able to get to a Sunday Brunch since Cat last wrote. We walked the two blocks downtown looking for some place for eggs and coffee and stumbled upon the apparently immensely popular North Star, which has outdoor patio seating, an ordering-your-entrees-at-the-counter system, and locally-grown, organic, and humanly-raised food. I got the pancakes and a carrot juice, Cat got a mushroom frittata and a tea. She couldn't figure out how the loose-tea contraption came out of the mug, but after a minor faux-pas, a nice staff person helped her. The food was kind of expensive ($30 for the two of us to eat) but the atmosphere lovely and the entrees tasty.

Otherwise, I am muddling through my first classes, trying to fit in napping and full nights of sleep in between reading, course-planning, and attempts to make friends. All in all, things are looking up and the wind can't keep me down!

Some general observations...

Hi folks! Mono update: Ally stayed home from her first day of teacher training today because she couldn't fathom expending the energy to get to campus. This is a good thing! She needs to rest before her actual classes. Her fevers haven't been as extreme but she still needs to sleep about 18 hours a day.
Other observations...
Columbus is a sports town, I believe we mentioned this. Those of you that are living or have lived in Red Sox Nation have an idea of what that is like. This last weekend was the big game between OSU and USC. Ally and I happened to go out to get ice cream the afternoon before the game. Everyone, and I really mean everyone, was wearing buckeye apparel. Old people, young people, dogs, toddlers, everyone. Except me of course, I was wearing my pink monster t-shirt. We felt lucky that Ally had put on her red head scarf before heading out. Having procured our ice cream, we basically made a bad choice and walked back home through the greek houses. I have never seen so much beer pong happening (on people's front lawns) at 3 in the afternoon. Anywho, lots of people had their barbecues going and flags waving, basically it felt like a holiday. I am actually looking forward to going to a game sometime (when Ally can stay awake) for the experience of being with that kind of crowd and maybe even to see some good football. I'm (slightly - to be honest I don't give a hoot about football) sad to report that OSU lost to USC that evening. Don't worry friends, they'll bounce back.