Village Green/Town²

Just a thought before closing out 2011--some of you may remember that I won an I-Pad in an online contest from the generous folks at Patch at the beginning of this year.  It has certainly transformed my life.  I use it in my teaching, at Village Board Meetings, for blogging, and when I happen to be having dinner alone at The Second Chance.  But the most unexpected change in my life has come from apps.  Yes, the game sort of app.  I never thought I would be sucked in.  Famous last words. Recently my husband suggested a cute little holiday app called "Santa's Village."  It is rather like "We Rule", in that you are forever building things and making things and so on.  But somehow this little thing has taken over my life.  It takes a very specific amount of time to make each kind of toy, and if you don't come back in time to collect it, these annoying little purple things, called Grumpkins, come in and destroy them.  And then ...

The Party's Over, it's time to call it a day. They've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away.  What if you had a party and nobody came?  How would you feel?  How would you respond? Consider the ongoing party in Columbia that we call CA Aquatics: In looking at traditionally underused pools in Columbia, a member of the CA Aquatics Staff suggested that the culture of certain 'populations' didn't promote swimming.  In other words, lack of pool use stems from lack of interest. Really?  Isn't this like saying to the starving French peasants that their predicament is caused by a lack of interest in cake? It's time to wind up the masquerade. Just make your mind up the piper must be paid. What if you had a party and nobody came because they didn't know they were invited? The CA experience, the way that Columbia "was meant to be" is unknown and largely irrelevant to many of our residents. Institutions like this just can...

Who is the "Face of CA" to you? Is it visionary James Rouse, or current President Phil Nelson? Is it the CA Board, your own Village Board, or Village Manager? Is it the staff you see at your local CA facilities? Is it the folks who make The Festival of the Arts happen, or the childcare staff at school? The People Tree is a powerful icon, but it is merely a symbol. Who, in your mind, is the living, breathing Face of CA? The Columbia Association is going through a process of rebranding itself. Choosing from a collection of twelve well-known archetypes, CA sees itself as Caregiver, Jester, Sage, EveryPerson. What do you think? I am neither an expert in archetypes or rebranding, so I invite you to stay engaged with the process and learn more for yourself. I raise this issue now because the "Ignite" event last week made me realize that I am experiencing a loss of faith, or "Face", if you will, as regards the Columbia Association. Don't misunderstand me...

This week I attended a Columbia Association event at the beautifully appointed Claret Hall in River Hill.  We were there to be "ignited", or inspired, I suppose, about what is going on as CA looks at re-branding itself and becoming more relevant to younger residents. A panel discussion, moderated by Brian Dunn, focused on engaging Columbia's younger generation and involving them in community affairs.  The participants each had a valuable perspective to bring to the conversation.  But there was just one problem--why wasn't I on the panel?  I'm a parent of a young(ish) child, I live in a starter home, I serve on a village board, I blog about community events.  What's not to like? Oh, yeah, Duh.  I'm not young. This second marriage, second child, second career, second chance at a happy life thing means I am always coming late to this party. Darn.  I am forced to click "Boomer" in the live polling, which galls me. Not because I disl...

I arrived at Tarragon Park a tad early, and sat in my car listening to NPR so as to avoid seeming over-eager. I brushed my hair, and checked that my ipad was charged. The door was answered by @Wordbones, gracious co-host of our event. "Come on in. We're just choosing the wines for the meal." Pondering the perfect choices with him were the wine enthusiasts of @vinotrip. I knew right away that the selections for our gathering were sure to be first-rate. I heard some banging from out back. "Don't worry about that," WB explained. "That's just @53Beers getting his tailgate operation on. He's determined to deep-fry a turkey out there." Delicious aromas wafted through the house. I headed to the kitchen, where @hocohousehon and @howchow were discussing the finer points of roasting vs. sauteing the Brussels sprouts. Heavy cream and toasted pine nuts sat nearby. My offer of help was promptly refused. @jessiex had arrived with her hoops, and...

Just in time for Thanksgiving I have a brand new reason to be thankful:  those chest pains and shortness of breath I felt on Sunday were not symptoms of a cardiac event. I'm not sure I really wanted this particular scare in order to feel thankful, in fact I know I didn't.  But I'm going to take it as a gift:  a chance to be alive and be healthier. I insisted that my husband take me to the ER because I knew that I was a bundle of risk factors:  middle aged, overweight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I knew that  a woman's heart attack doesn't always present with the same symptoms as a man's.  So, even though I wanted to stay home and not trouble anyone, I went.  I am thankful to my whole family for supporting me and taking care of each other.  I am thankful, goodness knows, for free wifi at Howard County General Hospital. I am thankful to my friends on Facebook and Twitter who kept me company with online messages of good c...

There are evenings when the words "Resident Speakout" can produce a certain anxiety in the hearts of local board members.  If you have had this experience, I don't have to explain. If you haven't, I'll try to make myself clear. Both CA Village and Board meetings have a time set aside for residents to sign in and speak about a topic that is important to them.  As you might imagine, most people are motivated to do this by something that concerns them.  They may be upset, offended, indignant, outraged, or just generally cranky. I'm pretty sure that it's rare for a resident to come down to a meeting to thank the board members for something they have done right. It may happen, but I don't think it is a regular occurence. It has been my experience that volunteer board members are not sitting around waiting for people to come and sing their praises.  Our board's most pressing goal is often simply to get through all the items we need to c...

I got an email recently from a friend I have known twenty-five years.  We met through church and music connections, and have spent most of the intervening years as members of a congenial group I call The Birthday Club.  We all get together and have dinner when one of us has a birthday, bring funny birthday cards, and catch up on the goings-on in each others lives. This fellow did me a special honor by giving me away at my wedding in 1999, as my own father was no longer living. "Pay attention," he said to me rather sternly, as we were about to walk down the aisle. "You need to pay attention. You're going to want to remember this." Those words came back to me as I read the following: Some time, when you are in Baltimore again and have the time, I would love to have lunch with you. You made a couple of comments at dinner the other night about politics and I'd like to pursue that subject a little with you. I give you my absolute promise to not make ...

In  a time that seems quite long ago, I joined neighbors and friends in support of  filling the empty commercial space at Thunder Hill and 175 with a Walgreen's store. I had, for 12 years, kept all of my prescriptions at the Bolton Hill Pharmacy in Baltimore because Oakland Mills had no neighborhood drugstore.  I was happy to champion the cause of a much-needed business located "within walking distance of my home." It's true that I even threw a party at my home when they broke ground, with many of the refreshments purchased at (the River Hill) Walgreen's, just for fun.  I normally get my groceries at the Food Lion, and that certainly hasn't changed. Friends of mine from nearby villages pointed out that it would be more convenient, and a savings of gas, to come to the Oakland Mills store when it opened.  And of course, I crowed, it would be"within walking distance of my home."  Walgreen's opened on a Friday in mid-June.  It has been a wonder...

I have been considering this week what makes me a loyal follower of some local blogs, while with others I remain a casual visitor.  We have quite the choice in Howard County: some are witty, some informative,some challenging, some acerbic, some downright depressing.  Some appear to be thinly disguised commercial ventures. The blogs that draw me, again and again, are ones whose writers appear to be following this simple process:  learn more, think more.  And then , they write. Perhaps this is the blogger's equivalent of "measure twice, cut once."  Willingness to learn more, and to really think about what is learned gives the blogger the ability to grow and change over time.  This doesn't guarantee that the blogger will necessarily always reach the correct conclusions, or that the blogger is then a "better person" than other bloggers, or even that I will agree with the resulting posts.  It means that Jane/John Q. Blogger acknowledges that she/he is n...

Yesterday was a big day for my daughter's school, Talbott Springs Elementary. Principal Nancy Thompson set the tone for a positive experience for her students. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman paid a visit to TSES, along with Howard County Health Officer Peter Beilenson, to support the "30 Day Soda Free" Pledge. Also there to show support was Superintendent Dr. Sidney Cousin of the Howard County Public Schools. . When reporters and cameras from local media outlets show up, it's an exciting occasion. This post is NOTabout the initiative, local dignitaries, Talbott Springs, or media coverage. It is about one child:  my child. And about how my involvement in local affairs has affected her. When asked about the event, she said, "I wasn't sure I wanted to raise my hand (to take the pledge) but it was Ken Ulman , and WBAL was there..." (emphasis hers) Yes, that's right. She was keenly aware of the presence of local politicos and the press. And...

No one is keen on the concept of mortality. We may understand it in the abstract, but it is just incomprehensible when it gets personal. The only way I can get my mind around it is to look at my beautiful daughters. If everyone lived forever and no one died, there wouldn't be room for them . And so we make room. Only love can get me that far, and not reason. I recently smacked up against mortality in a whole new way after I attended one of the Columbia Associations #AquaPlan meetings. It was extremely well run and I felt they had truly been doing their homework as they moved through the stated process. I came away feeling as though there were many possibilities. I felt hopeful. But I also had some questions. I wanted to know: how many pools are there per village, and is there any correlation between population and number of pools? When I asked these questions on Twitter, it appeared that this was too touchy an issue to talk about in a public forum. Some of the respon...

Village Green/Town Squared Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:20pm Print "Congratulations on your award," a friend of mine from the PTA mentioned in passing. "I have to admit, I didn't know you had a blog." Well...(wincing internally, here.) Yes, I did have a blog, at Columbia Patch. I wrote eight blogs posts in May and June of this year. The support from friends in the #hoco was encouraging. And then something happened that burst my blogging balloon, so to speak. I witnessed a decision which I felt was so stupid and wrong-headed that my righteous indignation went into high gear and I poured it into my ninth and most passionate blog post. And then I had to swallow the fact that it was better not to publish it. Until then my greatest fear about blogging was the specter of nasty comments. But it turns out that the deadliest poison was saying nothing. To choose to say nothing. It's true--sometimes saying nothing is the right th...