I never thought I'd say this, but here it goes:
I miss watching sports on TV.
It's not that I don't have options. The Mets and the Yankees, the Jets and the Giants -- they're all on TV. But who I really want to see are the Cincinnati Reds and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
In Ohio you could barely escape from them. Sure, not every Cincinnati game was on TV, but it was rare if you couldn't catch at least one game in a series. And sure, not every OSU game was on a channel we could get at home, but we could at least catch part of it on the radio. Even the grocery store I went to in Columbus played the game over the loudspeaker.
This year I consider myself lucky. Already the Ohio State-Miami football game was broadcast on a channel we get. And, of course, tonight I'll be able to watch the Reds on the road to the World Series -- even if the game will be more than half over by the time I get home from work.
I'm certainly not a sports junkie. Just an Ohio fair-weather fan.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
7 Things That Make New York City So Livable
I spent last week waxing rhapsodic about Ohio, but let's face it -- New York isn't so bad either. Sure, there's the museums and the parks and the general hustle and bustle. But underneath that top layer of what makes New York City so great are seven things that make New York City so livable:
7. Ethnic Food
It's not like ethnic food doesn't exist in Ohio. I've been to French, Spanish, Mexican and German restaurants in Columbus that are just as good as any I've been to in New York, and at much more reasonable prices. There's even a well-regarded Ethiopian restaurant near Ohio State. But you can't beat New York for both the diversity and breadth of its ethnic food. Not only does New York have a Scandinavian restaurant, for example, but it has several.
6. Bodegas
I eat about six or seven bananas a week. It was almost impossible to do that in Ohio without making two stops at the grocery store. Now I can just pop into a bodega on my walk home from the subway station and bam, I've replenished my stash in about 30 seconds.
5. Later working hours
Despite what Dolly Parton says, 9 to 5 doesn't really exist here. For me, the day starts at 9:30 a.m., a full hour after I clocked in at my last job in Ohio. That -- and the fact that New York is on the eastern edge of the time zone -- means I never wake up in the dark.
4. "Normal" eating hours
This one's debatable, of course. I've always been a late eater, however, and on weekdays I take my lunch break at 3:30 p.m. Luckily, almost everyone in New York shares my late hours. Restaurants don't seem to fill up at night until about 8 p.m. I like that.
3. No closing hours
New York really is the city that never sleeps, not that I take advantage of it all too often. But it's nice to know that it's all there -- bars open 'til 4 a.m., 24-hour restaurants serving hamburgers and pie or pierogis and blintzes.
2. Walkability
It is perfectly doable to live in almost any neighborhood in New York relying only on your own two feet. You don't need a car, and you don't need public transportation. Grocery stores, doctors, dentists, restaurants, hair salons -- they're all a short walk away. Few places in Columbus -- and none in Defiance -- have this going for them.
1. Public transportation
Even if you can live on what's within walking distance, it's much more pleasant if you don't have to. Sure, I complain about the unreliability of the subway system at night and on the weekends, and recent cutbacks haven't much helped. But what can I say? It runs 24 hours and it gets me anywhere I could possibly want to go -- without also having to find a parking space.
7. Ethnic Food
It's not like ethnic food doesn't exist in Ohio. I've been to French, Spanish, Mexican and German restaurants in Columbus that are just as good as any I've been to in New York, and at much more reasonable prices. There's even a well-regarded Ethiopian restaurant near Ohio State. But you can't beat New York for both the diversity and breadth of its ethnic food. Not only does New York have a Scandinavian restaurant, for example, but it has several.
6. Bodegas
I eat about six or seven bananas a week. It was almost impossible to do that in Ohio without making two stops at the grocery store. Now I can just pop into a bodega on my walk home from the subway station and bam, I've replenished my stash in about 30 seconds.
5. Later working hours
Despite what Dolly Parton says, 9 to 5 doesn't really exist here. For me, the day starts at 9:30 a.m., a full hour after I clocked in at my last job in Ohio. That -- and the fact that New York is on the eastern edge of the time zone -- means I never wake up in the dark.
4. "Normal" eating hours
This one's debatable, of course. I've always been a late eater, however, and on weekdays I take my lunch break at 3:30 p.m. Luckily, almost everyone in New York shares my late hours. Restaurants don't seem to fill up at night until about 8 p.m. I like that.
3. No closing hours
New York really is the city that never sleeps, not that I take advantage of it all too often. But it's nice to know that it's all there -- bars open 'til 4 a.m., 24-hour restaurants serving hamburgers and pie or pierogis and blintzes.
2. Walkability
It is perfectly doable to live in almost any neighborhood in New York relying only on your own two feet. You don't need a car, and you don't need public transportation. Grocery stores, doctors, dentists, restaurants, hair salons -- they're all a short walk away. Few places in Columbus -- and none in Defiance -- have this going for them.
1. Public transportation
Even if you can live on what's within walking distance, it's much more pleasant if you don't have to. Sure, I complain about the unreliability of the subway system at night and on the weekends, and recent cutbacks haven't much helped. But what can I say? It runs 24 hours and it gets me anywhere I could possibly want to go -- without also having to find a parking space.
Friday, October 1, 2010
7 Things I Miss About Columbus
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| View of Ohio State with the Columbus skyline in the distance,from the top floor of Ohio State's main library |
Each time we revisit Columbus, I wonder why we don't live there anymore.
It's not "home" like Defiance is, but I did spend eight years there. It's where I became an adult. It's where most of my friends -- as well as all of Paul's immediate family -- live.
Of course, I love living in New York. I always tell Paul, however, that when he wants to move back to Columbus, just be sure to ask me right after a trip to Ohio. I'm always ready to move back then. Here's why:
7. Donuts
You've heard me say it before: New York's donuts are crap. But Buckeye Donuts is always sure to have a sickeningly sweet vanilla long john with my name on it.
6. Fried Zucchini Sticks
My favorite appetizer of all time comes from The Blue Danube, a restaurant and bar north of Ohio State in the Clintonville neighborhood. But it's not just the zucchini sticks I crave from Columbus -- it's Graeter's ice cream, Skyline Chili and the Northstar Cafe breakfast burrito. And I don't care what anyone says, Hounddog's Pizza is better than anything you'll find in New York.
5. Ohio State Campus
My memories of campus are many and varied and good. The long days in the journalism building, working at the Lantern. Paul and I meandering around campus when the sun went down almost every night the weather cooperated. Not to mention that Paul proposed to me on the Oval. When we returned for a look around last week, I was shocked at how young the students looked. I wanted to call them "kids."
4. Libraries
Columbus' library system is so much better than New York's. Mostly I just miss the book drops, which seem to be an endangered species in Brooklyn. Visiting Ohio State's beautiful new library made me realize just how much there is to miss.
3. Un-overwhelming Availability
I don't mean underwhelming availability. I mean that Columbus has just the right amount of choices. Sometimes I think of New York as one big restaurant with a 15-page menu. I know that menu includes a lot of choices, but sometimes more isn't better. It's just more. New York can be unnavigable. I know what I like in Columbus, and I know what I want.
2. $3 Beers
And it's not even happy hour! Of course, it's not only the beers that are cheaper. It's nearly everything -- food, haircuts, mortgage/rent. The sticker shock of living in New York has mostly worn off, but it's still a nice surprise to see prices at half that of what I'm now used to.
1. Proximity
In Columbus, it doesn't take two hours to go 10 miles unless there is a rush hour accident that has shut down the interstate. When Paul and I drove to the airport at 5 a.m. Monday morning, accidents shut down two interstates -- both the fastest and second fastest ways to get to Port Columbus from his mom's house. We resorted to the third fastest route and still got there only 5 or 10 minutes after we had planned. Here? In the same amount of time it takes to drive from Columbus to Cincinnati, I may not even be able to leave New York City.
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