City Life

For me, it has been an interesting last month or so here in Cincinnati. While I still find myself being content with the city and my work, I also find myself having interesting thoughts about my experiences here. These observations - some reflections on the state of urban life, some funny, and some sad - all reflect how I'm adapting to my world. I think I notice these things because I spent most of my time growing up in the land of farms and main streets lined with Hershey Kiss lights.

So here it goes...my world lately.

• I go to "Fancy Kroger" or a pharmacy in Hyde Park to buy shampoo or make up because the stuff for white people in the local CVS has been sitting on the self for far too long.
• I bundle up in layers - sweater, coat, hat, gloves, and throw the umbrella in my bag when I go out because I'm always walking several blocks to my destination.
• Grocery shopping is not a simple task. I always feel like I'm setting out on a journey, braving the elements with my backpack weighed down with food. (Remember, I'm only 5'2".)
• It doesn't strike me as odd anymore to see the armed police officers in the local grocery store.
• As I walk only a few feet from them, I'm not surprised as I watch police frisk a man in front of the CVS.
• Riding the bus has become normal. However, I still find myself cringing on a crowded bus when a scruffy man brushes up against me as he is getting off the bus. I'm thinking bed bugs and germs.
• I haven't quite mastered my reaction to less than stellar looking men as I walk by them on the street. I used to think it was bad that I didn't want to look some people in the eye, but as I get call-outs when I walk by bus stops or busy corners, I remember why.
• I chuckle to myself as I realize for the first time that I've been walking by a store front for weeks and have not noticed the display of caskets and urns. I guess I just wasn't expecting a sales store on Main street downtown.
• I'm amazed at how something as simple as lunch and ice skating can bring such joy to kids, things I could have done over and over again as a child, but activities that some kids rarely get to do. I love that activities like this can bring all kinds of kids together, no matter their different backgrounds, they all get to just be kids together.
• I realize how transient the lives of the kids I work with can be. Children can come to church Sunday after Sunday and show up during the week for homework help and snack, then be gone, leaving us with only a vague idea of where they are. Yet just when I think I'm never going to see them again, they show up smiling. Its good to know I'm making a small impact , one kid at a time.

Just a small sampling of what I've been thinking lately. These very urban experiences have, of course, been punctuated with wonderful lunches and parties with church friends and being introduced to local products like Graeter's ice cream. I'm off to taste some of their black raspberry chip now!!

Blessings,

Anne