One Month in Ohio

A month ago today we made the final drive from New York to Ohio. We were moving from our Brooklyn apartment to the spare room of Paul's mom, wondering what the remainder of the summer would bring.

What a difference a month makes.

Today is our first full day as owners of a house in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus. It was the first house we looked at on our first full day back in Ohio (after touring many, many, many other homes on previous visits to the state), and we closed on it in less than a month.

Although we couldn't ask for a more gracious host than Paul's mom (as well as my own parents, who hosted Edith and me for a week earlier this month), I've been anxious to again be in my own place. And unlike in our Brooklyn apartment, in Clintonville we'll have room to grow.

But that's a topic for another blog post, and I'm sure there will be several. Today, however, I'm thinking about how much has changed in 31 days. And in almost six years.

Paul and I have spent a fair amount of time re-exploring our fair city, and we like what we see. Many of our old Columbus haunts are still here, and I'm excited to visit the new stores and restaurants. There's an energy to the Short North and downtown that I don't remember. I like it.

And while Clintonville isn't Bay Ridge, it does have many of the same characteristics: an active community, an urban atmosphere, walkable streets with places to actually walk to! I've enjoyed Clintonville since I first visited the neighborhood as a college student. I can't believe I'm actually going to live there.

Many people have asked whether I'm happy to be back in Ohio. I don't have a straight answer, and I suspect that all but my closest family and friends aren't too interested in the long version. But here it goes anyway.

I'm obviously pleased to be nearer those same family and friends. I love Columbus, I love Ohio. I have always been proud to call myself an Ohio girl.

But I loved New York, I loved Brooklyn, I loved Bay Ridge. I've written countless posts about what made living in the city so great. It'll be impossible to recreate.

That doesn't mean that I won't find living in Columbus again exciting. It will be so, only in a different way. I have to admit, I'm more excited about being back in Ohio now than I thought I would be for a long, long time.