June Trip: Cleveland Thoughts

As I'm contemplating the new cities and towns we'll encounter (starting TOMORROW!!!!), I thought it apropos to contemplate a city old in our memories and important to our family: Cleveland.

Cleveland was beginning to overcome the "Mistake on the Lake" label by the time I moved there for school. After we married, I loved our "off Shaker Square" apartment for it's convenience to so many great things--downtown free orchestra concerts and Yours Truly, to name two.

During our trip to Ohio this summer, we visited the church we married in, discovering that it's name had changed and it's congregation merged with another. It's now University Circle United Methodist Church, but many of our friends were still in attendance, and it was wonderful to see so many who nurtured us in our early years of marriage. We were able to hear about some of the youth that we had spent time with and their current lives and achievements. For the most part, all are well. Some have really excelled. And, when given the neighborhood they grew up in, you can see how the involvement of caring people helped them overcome their environmental limits.

I was sad to see the loss of the Arabica chain, which is very connected to my memories of the different areas I frequented. Each coffee shop had it's own nickname for where it was located (e.g. the Ara-geek-a on CWRUs campus). I also had been looking forward to the caffeine jolt of a cold mocha slide with an extra shot--which I probably could have gotten from another shop but it wouldn't have been the same.

Still, I was left with the thought that it's still pretty much the place we left. Things are shifted around--some things that were falling down are now renewed, some things that were relatively stable now seem to be falling down. I miss it at times, and think about moving back there in the future.

But then I think of the snow....

TTFN.