A Mirror with a Memory: Hello, Ohio

Song to listen to "Ohio" by Over the Rhine

"Hello, Ohio

The back roads

I know Ohio

Like the back of my hand

Alone Ohio

Where the river bends

And it strange to see your story end."

This Thanksgiving marks the first time I've been to Ohio in TWO YEARS, which is far too long. I spent an unholy amount of time marveling at things that had changed, including the giant honkin' Wal-Mart that popped up on 675.

I was so quick to move away from Ohio when I went to college. I thought that any place was better than gray, old, chilly Ohio. I'm glad I went to school in Texas. Had I not, I would not have grown up so much, made the excellent friends I did, or meet the love of my life. Now that I'm in San Diego, however, I feel much differently about Ohio and the Midwest. Every time we travel home for the holidays to either Ohio or Missouri, we desire to move back.

Well, at any rate, we did have a good time while we were there. We spent some much needed time with family and friends, worked in the kitchen and in the garage and tried to relax a little bit. Enjoy the photos!

Dad and Tony had a great time working on Dad's car together! They successfully fixed a hand brake problem and managed to get his car to go even faster.

There was a lot of fall "BLAMMO" in the house. I will explain this in the future. Just know that there were handmade centerpieces and lots of fall spirit.

Give me a moment of weirdness here: I really missed this chandelier. It makes home, home.

Thanksgiving day was a whirlwind, but lots of fun! Mom and I cooked most of the meal (except I left the room gagging when she took the "stuff" out of the inside of the turkey to clean it. Pansy.), while Dad and Tony worked on the car. Typical. :)

I guess I'll keep 'em around though, since they clean up pretty well.

Granny was there! Man, did I ever miss her. She made me pound cake for my birthday, which is the best present I could have asked for! She's so little compared to me. Dang it, what happened to those petite genes when I came around?

We decided to take a multi-generational photo, but Dad kept making faces and Granny couldn't focus. That's my family in a nutshell.

Friday, instead of going to my stupid high school reunion, I opted to visit with a few friends. In between the meetings I decided to go to my old elementary school, John Hole, to take some photos of the OUTSTANDING playground they have. They really haven't changed much since I was enrolled there, 13 years ago.

We were the John Hole Tigers!

Too much editing?

Here are some super cool slides...

The towers still seemed tall!

Thankfully, the monkey bars weren't as challenging as when I was 7...

The paint may be fading, but this place has held up for over 2 decades.

This is the slide everyone always fought over. Good thing you had to weave through some tight crevices to get to the top, that made getting back in line more fun!