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| Frisbee Golf Course at Mt. Airy in Cincinnati, Ohio |
I know it's early in NaBloPoMo, but I'm kind of giving up on the site's prompts. Today's is: Can you listen to music and write? What song did you hear today?
Instead, I'd like to talk about Ohio.
On my flights to and from Boise last week, each seat mate initiated the typical conversation:
"So, where're you headed?"
"Boise."
"The blue field, huh? Is that where you're from?"
"I'm from there, but I live in Cincinnati."
"Oh, that's nice. Cincinnati is a nice place."
"Eh. It's okay."
"Just okay?"
"Yeah, just okay. You know, it's no Boise."
At this point in the conversation, the person sitting next to me usually paused, thinking quietly. I could almost see the thoughts floating around, reasons why Ohio, Cincinnati in particular, is a very nice place to live. And, sure enough, everyone did their best to convince me of its livability and general goodness.
No one could really understand my blasé attitude toward the Midwest and Ohio. I mean, it's fine. Livable, even. Maybe even a little pleasant.
But it's no Boise, Ho Chi Minh City, or Bangkok. And yes, I did just compare Boise to two Southeast Asian cities.
Here's the deal: Ohio isn't so bad. Or at least my little sliver of Ohio isn't.
A few examples:
- Last weekend, my husband and I had a very enjoyable frisbee golf game in a national park. This park is actually a beautiful, hilly, wooded area, and it's just 15 minutes our apartment.
- Day before yesterday, I had a nice five-mile run up and down steep hills, part of which was along a beautiful tree-covered road.
- Midwesterners are generally nice people, and they are very welcoming to outsiders.
- I have yet to see or hear about someone seeing a dead body.
Okay, so the last one is a little bit of a stretch, but my main point is that Cincinnati is relatively safe. It's not Boise safe, but it's definitely a lot safer than some of the places I've lived.
Seeing as I have to live here for another two or so years, I'm going to try to keep growing this list. I'm going to try to stop thinking about all of the fabulous places my husband and I could be living and really try to appreciate the place we're living now.
Ohio isn't so bad...and perhaps I'll eventually even think it's a nice place to live.