Last summer, I created a list of things to be completed--a summer bucket list, if you will. At the top of the list, where normal people put the title, it just said AWESOME!!! A lot of last year's list was based on exploring all that Cincinnati has to give--I figured I'd be leaving the 513 for college and it would be a shame to leave home without really knowing the place. Thanks to CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati List (2011's list found here), last summer became the The Summer of Cincinnati for me.
Here are some completed tasks:
-Check out The Esquire
-Play in some creeks, hopefully
-Shake it Records
-Go canoeing
-Stop being awkward around adults--they are people too
-Watch Toy Story 1, 2 and 3
-Don't be a bitch. Seriously.
-Go to Jungle Jim's and explore.
-But also buy candy at Minge's candy
-Volunteer downtown.
-Take a lick of Madisono's gelato
-Get free ice cream from graeter's, free food @ Noodles on 8/18
-Hit up the art museum, ponder abstract shat.
-Check out Findlay Market
-Go to Panegyri Festival (6/25, 6/26, 6/27)
-Bond w/ ALL my friends' dogs.
-Start writing down dreams.
-Visit Anderson and my old street
what i learned after last summer:
It turns out that Cincinnati is fucking awesome. It's not New York, it's not LA, it's not even Chicago. Cincinnati hums in a different way. Its history is more boisterous than its unobtrusive present, and this leads to a nostalgic kind of quiet that is reminiscent of summertime dusk, when the only disturbances come from a cricket's chirp and a lightning bug's blink. Cincinnati murmurs with the whispers of a city caught in the heaviness of time. Yet, in this background of bygone days, wonderful wisps of innovation (hello, Procter and Gamble! Children's Hospital! CCM!) and lingering cultural pride illuminate a pioneering spirit pulsing throughout the city. And thus, Cincinnati is not just the hum of a quiet summer dusk. Cincinnati is the hum of all the potential in a small gathering of friends drinking wine and dreaming and talking life goals in the backyard as the sun quietly sets.
Photo from last year's Panegyri Greek Festival, original post describing my summer bucket list here.
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