Inspired by our conversation at last night's Columbus Social Media Cafe meet-up, I present a video podcast of our adventures to Missouri. This also makes use of some of the skills I learned in Dr. Tannenbaum's multi-modal romanticism seminar last quarter (English H590.04).

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I have now been a part of O-H-I-O in London, England, and Springfield, MO. Excellent. Nine of us journeyed out to the Great Plains to participate in Chi Alpha's Reach the U conference over the weekend and we stopped by the St. Louis arch on the way home. Met up with some LSU students and our honor defended... (We also sang an admittedly bad rendition of "Hang On, Sloopy" for karaoke on the last night.)

I guess I can check off "road trip" from my list of college to-dos. All I really have left is to watch the Mirror Lake jump, climb the Orton Hall clock tower, visit all the campus museums, and...walk across the field in that Horseshoe in...one year minus 9 days! (But who's counting?)

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I heard the Orton chimes playing "Carmen, Ohio" while I was walking to work this afternoon. The last line is, "How firm thy friendship, O-HI-O," and I started thinking about how true that is.

On the one hand, it's a complete lie. Ohio State is huge and people drift in and out of classes, clubs, jobs like so many autumn leaves. Last week while cleaning out a purse I found the corny tear-off business cards they gave me at orientation three (!) years ago. First of all, handing someone a business card is not a good way to make friends; secondly, I hardly remember anyone I met at orientation, except for those who ended up in my dorm freshman year. And those I do remember I greet with little more than perfunctory hello and the requisite chitchat that has progressed little from the, "Where are you from? What's your major" conversations of freshman year.

On the other hand, it is completely true. I think the key word is "firm." In retrospect I realize that many of my high school friendships were based on convenience; you were friends with the people in your classes or those who lived near you. In college you have the ability to choose your associates based on their values, your common interests, or shared experiences, to an extent that was not possible, at least for me, in high school. The best friends I have made know me at a much deeper level than most of my high school friends. I think there is something a little special about sharing the college experience that makes these friendships much more meaningful, but I suppose only time will tell. In a year I'll be making another big transition and in all likelihood a group of people I count now as friends will quietly fade to acquaintances and memories. There's no way of knowing who will be in that group, but those who remain my friends will be all the more precious for it.

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On Saturday I went home and visited Schnormeier Gardens in Gambier with my parents. It is a private garden that has only been open to the public four times since its opening, so it was pretty special. It's very unique in that there are no paths or trails so you feel like it is your own home. I admit to feeling decidedly weird tramping straight across the grass, but it was very beautiful.

On Sunday we went to catch Shakespeare in the Park's closing performance of Macbeth. I had planned to go with some friends on Friday but the monstrous thunderstorm persuaded us otherwise. (We ended up having an indoor picnic and watching "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" which is a really weird movie.) I've been attending Shakespeare in the Park performances for four years now, and it's a lot of fun seeing the same actors appear in different roles and (for the most part) doing a bang-up job every time. It stirred in me again the urge to act.

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So I was going to write about the CERMACS awards banquet I attended today (and I will), but first I thought I'd share this photo of the aftermath of a crazy thunderstorm we had this afternoon.

You can't see from this picture, but to the left is the rest of the tree...and the collapsed porch underneath it. All I have to say is, I hope they have insurance!

After battling our way through the storm and the resultant traffic, my colleague Denise and I made it to the Hyatt Regency downtown. Wonders of Our World received the Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences, and I got a free dinner with the swankiest treatment I've ever received. The waiter spread my napkin on my lap for me! (A little weird, but very very swanky.) After the awards we heard a keynote speech from Dan Mushalko, the General Manager of WCBE, Columbus' NPR station, about the power of nerds. For all he said about making science accessible, though, I think there was still a slight air of superiority in his speech. Maybe that's just natural, but not necessarily a good thing. Had a good conversation afterward with Dr. Jimmy Cowan, who is a chemistry professor at OSU and also attends my church. Also ran into another WOW volunteer who works for CAS and also attends my church. Small world, huh?

Flowers displayed in an Erlenmayer flask.

Ryan and Dr. Susan Olesik accepting our big shiny plaque

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In the spirit of reducing, reusing, and recycling (and decluttering), I went up to the Goodwill store up on High Street this morning to drop off some old clothes. Then I went inside and managed to snag all this for $20.21:

The Purpose Driven Life - $1.49
The 9/11 Commission Report - $0.99
2 8-inch round baking pans - $1.99 each
Black dress from The Limited - $4.99
SO... jeans - $3.99
Beige dress slacks from Express - $3.49

Monday I went down to Take2Apparel in the Short North to see if they would buy any of the stuff I cleared out of my closet. They only took a handbag and gave me $6 store credit, which I put towards a black blouse that will go nicely with the slacks I bought today. I really wish more people (especially students) would swap or donate clothes they no longer wear instead of throwing it out or letting it sit in the closet while they buy still more new stuff that requires resources and energy to manufacture. There is already plenty of stuff to go around, we certainly don't need to go around demanding more.

I try not to preach too much on here, so I'll let others do it for me:

For the rest of the Story of Stuff, click here.

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On my first day of summer vacation (Friday) I headed downtown to check out the Columbus Arts Festival, forgetting the fact that it would get up to 94 degrees. The heat didn't seem to deter many people, though, as I saw a lot of downtown worker types stop by during lunch. It was at least fun playing tourist in my own town, despite the always slightly shady experience of riding multiple COTA buses.

Here at the corner of Broad and High is our own version of Times Square.

Not sure if I can completely agree with that sentiment, but that's the Dispatch offices behind the State House.

Ran into some colleagues from when I worked for the radio station last quarter. Will hopefully be able to hit the June meeting of the Social Media Cafe.

The Arts Festival is held in the Discovery District, which is home to the Columbus Museum of Art and Columbus College of Art and Design, among many other local attractions.

My favorite things were these hard-sided purses crafted with book jacket art, record album covers, board games, and playbills. Besides Harry Potter, there was Hannah Montana, Monopoly, Wicked, the Beatles, and more.

I also learned about a unique art form from the Peruvian Andes. These figures are made out of boiled and mashed potato mixed with pigment and some other hardening agents, and they are part of large, wall-mounted dioramas.

Finally, on the way home, I stumbled on the Pearl Market which just opened this week.

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All the group fitness classes at the RPAC are FREE this week, so I went to the Pilates class this evening for a welcome study break. (Despite my best efforts at spacing out my studying I'm already starting to feel brain fatigue. I hate Thursday finals.) Tomorrow I'm probably going to check out Body Sculpt. Historically I've always felt too awkward and self-conscious about working out in groups, but three years of sharing various gym facilities with enormous, muscle-bound men whose biceps are bigger than my thighs has taught me that, really, no one cares about your workout unless you happen to be hogging a machine or perhaps grunting particularly forcefully. Most people I see at the gym have iPods stuffed in their ears anyway a symptom of our generation's at blocking out the rest of the world that does not immediately concern them, which is mostly a liability but at least allows me to work out without feeling self-conscious.

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Gordon Gee sent us a link to this video in his e-mail to the student body. I really like how he does that, by the way, sending us messages at the beginning of each quarter encouraging us to do well, wishing us happy holidays, or updating us about the Governor's budget for state schools. Yes, I know that 50,000 people got the exact same e-mail, but the fact that he even bothers to write them is a testament to his concern for students.

Anyway, I am actually settling in to study for finals now on Sunday afternoon. That would have been appalling to the student I was two years ago, but at this point I've learned how much studying is too much and I think I've timed it so that if I start studying now I will peak in information retention by Thursday but not burn out and overload. Theoretically, anyway.

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