Village Green/Town²

The term "third place" came up recently, at the Inner Arbor presentation at HCC. If you are not familiar with it, a bare-bones explanation: a place, after work and home, where people gravitate and spend time together. An inviting community space. Columbia doesn't really have a lot of those. Bill Santos has a great thing going at the Columbia Mall Starbucks, to be sure, but I am looking forward to the opportunities that the Inner Arbor holds out to us, as well. Yesterday, on Thanksgiving, I enjoyed photos of cooking and celebrations, descriptions of menus, declarations of thanks, and memories of Thanksgivings past. There were some great discussions about varying holiday traditions and terminology: is it dressing, stuffing, or filling? People were popping in and out as their schedules allowed: a s the day unfolded, it occurred to me how much Facebook has become a virtual third space to us. I first noticed this when we were all house-bound during Snowmaegeddon 2010 (or...

  To shop, or not to shop? I decided to enter the discussion after reading this post on Miss Zoot. After posting the link on Facebook, the following conversation* ensued: See... there are a lot of stories here, but it's just as dangerous to assume that these workers WANT to work on Thanksgiving as it is that they WANT to have the day off. For every story of someone wanting to work on that day, there is someone that does not, but if they don't take the hours, they could lose their job or lose more hours (getting knocked down in ranking).   AND... people also assume, "well, they are getting paid double or time and a half." Well, not necessarily. Extra pay for holidays is not mandated by law - it's decided on business by business. many of these people are working the middle of the night at the same wage as always. It's only if they go over the 40 hours a week (if hourly) that they can get overtime pay, even if they work a 12 hour day.   But what I d...

Parents who are also teachers can be the worst sort of parents when it comes to teacher conferences. We set high expectations, and we know a lot about know the system works. On the other hand, we also know what it is like to be a teacher in a parent-teacher conference. So it balances itself out. Today I will have three conferences at my daughter's school. My husband is coming to two out of three, but then he has to get back to his school to do conferences. You only get to pick three in middle school, even though your child has substantially more than three classes. You must pick wisely. What do you hope to achieve through parent teacher conferences? Do you find them to be generally helpful? What are the top issues for you this year? In the past, I have found myself at odds with high stakes standardized testing, too much passive learning, skill and drill programs, lack of recess. But this is Middle School. Even though kids still need active learning and more than a few minute...

Last Wednesday I visited Oakland Mills Middle School as a part of American Education Week. I got the chance to observe a GT Social Studies class and a Band rehearsal. I learned quite a bit from each class. Today I want to share something about what I experienced in Mrs. Reichl's Band class. Symphonic Band is for more experienced players. The room was packed. This is a class that students choose, and must audition for a place, and every bit of the room was filled. In fact, for the beginning of the rehearsal visiting parents had to stand because there was not one extra inch of space for chairs. Once the opening activities were taken care of, the percussion players went to their posts in the back of the room, and the parents were invited to take those seats. As a choral singer for most of of my life, I had never been to a school band rehearsal. Let me tell you, if you want to have the full experience, you should definitely sit behind the tubas and in front of the percussion! Hav...

That moment when something simple your child says makes you realize you have failed as a parent. Yeah, that. "Our teachers wants us to write something for the Fox Channel essay contest about Martin Luther King, but I don't want to. You know they throw him at us every year in school but that doesn't really have anything to do with us today. Really, what does he mean to us now?" Ugh. Here I am, a highly educated white liberal parent who grew up immersed in a world of the civil rights movement, watching the women's rights movement evolve, the gay rights struggle grow into a movement for LGBTQ equality, and my daughter doesn't understand why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is important to her today. Parent fail. Clearly the school has been doing its part, but somehow we have not done our part at home to make the connection in her brain: this is important to us. She is a very literal person and we have not connected the dots for her. And because she is white,...

A long-running thread through this blog, and, dare I say, my life, is a desire to be one of The Cool Kids. I don't know why it has troubled me so much over the years. It's probably rooted in a desire to be liked, combined with a rebellious streak that it doesn't really matter. At all. Not one bit. But it did. I've never felt as though I was "like other people". As I have gotten older I realize how many of us feel that way, almost to the point of it being a meaningless distinction. What on earth did I expect? That the well-dressed, popular kids in school went home, looked in the mirror and smilingly chirped, "I'm just like other people!" It doesn't work that way. Whatever insecurities I had, others had their own. As much as I felt an odd duck, so did others who perhaps I thought were the coolest of the cool. This week I found myself struggling with rejection and my first response was to flail about, desperate to get back into the inner ...

When I was little in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, I loved to watch cartoons every afternoon on the Captain Penney show. Occasionally I would turn I the tv and see this: (Photo from : http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2012/04/jfk-press-conference-nov-29-1961.html) That meant there would be no cartoons. I just hated that guy with the scary eagle-snake-thing that got in the way of my cartoons. I don't remember the day Kennedy was shot, but I do remember knowing that he was dead and that it was a bad thing and people were upset. And I knew it was my fault because I had thought mean things about him when he had press conferences that interfered with the Captain Penney show. I started to have nightmares. (Photo from: http://curtismathes.webs.com/collcm2.JPG) In my nightmares, a large, imposing console style television in a dark wooden cabinet would appear in my bedroom. The only thing on the screen was President Kennedy, just a close up of his head, talking, talking, talking....

Yesterday on my way to teach I stopped at the River Hill McDonald's. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed that the entire drive-through area was torn up and cordoned off by traffic cones and yellow tape. I hesitated. Then I noticed a man waving. I pulled up. "Is the drive-through closed?" I asked. "I am the drive-through," he replied, holding up a walkie-talkie in one hand, and a laminated menu card in the other. Well, okay then. He relayed my order, and I drove around where another nice man, bundled up in the cold, took my money and brought back my change. Then I pulled forward where a shivering woman brought me my order. As I pulled away, I marveled at the clever response to their problem, but I also thought, "That's no way to run a drive-through." And it isn't. It is an ingenious solution to a finite, temporary challenge, and it shows someone in management is on the ball there. And yet, I don't think they considered how c...

A former choir director had a wry expression which has stuck with me to this day. When faced with in-house 'political' drama and uncharitable behavior in the workplace, which for him was the church, he would smile and say, "See how we Christians love one another." His expression came to mind when I read this article from the Baltimore Sun this morning about the political race for the House of Delegates in District 9B. It appears to say that the Democratic Central Committee went out to get a "real" Democrat to run because the other candidate, Tom Coale, isn't "Democrat" enough for them. I find that kind of disgusting. I make no secret of the fact that I am a friend of Tom's, and this blog is a friend of his blog, if there is such a thing. But my rather visceral response to this isn't about that. It is about how I feel about being a Democrat, and how I feel about political discourse, generally. Haven't you had discussions ...

  Location, position. Checking in. Locate yourself. Where are you in relation to others? In the middle, half way down, at the front of the line, in the back of the bus. Finding yourself. Defining yourself by where you are.   Perspective, field of vision, light and shadow. Glare. What do you see? The angle, the distance, a clear view, obstructed view distortion, disturbance, refusal, denial   Don't know, don't care Can't see. Can't find a landmark, a lighthouse, A sign or a map.   Stuck.   In a departure from my usual blogging style, I'm free associating. Why? After watching people talk past each other, reach out, get rebuffed, talked down to, exhorted, chided, pontificating, pleading, freaked out, fed up, and frozen out... Wait. I'm still at it.   hocoblogs@@@   Posted with Blogsy

Frieda: You're an absolute mess. Just look at yourself. Pig-Pen: [ looks at himself in Frieda's mirror and smiles ] On the contrary, I didn't think I looked THAT good. (From A Charlie Brown Christmas ) We've been looking at ourselves quite a bit recently in Oakland Mills. Last night provided us a truly "up close and personal" view of the differing ways that people in our village operate under stress. (I was not able to be there, so my comments today come only from what I have gleaned on social media.) From what I have seen so far, responses seem to be divided between those like that of Frieda, above, and Pigpen. Either: we're an absolute mess, or: I didn't think we looked this good. (Actually, more like: I thought it would be much, much worse.) And all of these responses came from people I know and respect. After all, who else do I know on Facebook? Ahh...lightbulb moment. Blog posts, private messaging, long Facebook discussions and ...

Tonight is the much publicized community meeting in Oakland Mills to address concerns about the county's purchase of the Verona Apartments. If you are going, a reminder to bring two things: Non-perishable food items to help feed hungry children who live in our Village, and Respect for the Village Board. I may not have an expert opinion on much in this world, but I feel confident speaking to this. Every time the board meets, and often even when they don't, they are working to make Oakland Mills a better place. I'll just give you a list. Hearing resident concerns, working together to resolve. Hosting community sessions to help resolve larger conflicts. Planning and administering community events that will benefit quality of life. Promoting Oakland Mills to future residents and businesses. Trying to get quality merchants for the Village Center. Working to support current businesses in the Village Center. Working with Cedar Properties to take better care of t...

  I was stuck in a bit of traffic on Dobbin, sitting in the right hand lane, near the section where the fast food restaurants are grouped together. I saw cars in front of me trying merge left, so I thought there had been an accident ahead, or road work blocking the lane. As I approached the hold-up, I did a double-take. He was in his sixties, or maybe seventies, his thinning gray hair on the longish side. His gray jacket looked worn. And he was moving along in the middle of the right-hand lane in a motorized wheel chair. I noticed there was a police car to my left. I wondered if the police would intervene. They didn't. The man continued his progress. Nobody honked, they either merged out of the lane or drove along slowly. Many, like me, probably had no idea what was gumming up the works. I kept fearing for this man's safety, and also wondering if driving a wheelchair in vehicular traffic was illegal. One thing I didn't wonder: why he was in the street. That's...

Do you want to get away from it all? Put the cares of your life behind you? Maybe you don't have the funds or the time for a Carribean cruise. Let's face it, for most of us that kind of getaway is out of reach. But if you are willing to stretch a little... The Inn at Norwood is a bed and breakfast in Sykesville, Maryland. The rooms are decorated with seasonal themes, and each has a spa tub and a fireplace. A delicious and ample home-cooked breakfast is a part of your stay, and the owners have a living room full of restored antique arcade/carnival game machines and toys of by-gone eras. We like to eat dinner at E.W. Beck's . It used to be more of a smoky biker hangout, but since the change in smoking laws, it's a more welcoming place to a variety of folks. It's always busy, but we go on the early side and we've never been turned away or made to wait. You can get locally grown gourmet creations, or traditional pub food. Another favorite local business i...

Where do you shop in Columbia? Do you like to go to the Mall? Does the assortment of retail establishments there meet your shopping needs? I must admit I am not a fan. At this moment I can't think of a single store I would enjoy visiting. Here is my mall.   This is the Severance Center Mall in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, circa 1963, around the time it first opened. It is the mall of my childhood. It had a Woolworth's, record stores, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a German Delicatessen, a Hot Shoppes cafeteria where my grandparents used to take me and let me drink iced tea when my mother would have said no. ;-) If you grew up in Columbia, this is your mall . I've read a lot on the Columbia Facebook page. People have that same feeling about "the mall of my childhood" about the mall in Columbia as Cleveland Heights residents have about Severance Center. (There's a FB group for them, too.) These memories are about life experiences at the mall, s...

There was a time when wealth, and health, and all manner of good things were considered to be signs of God's favor. By the same token, poverty, ill-health, mental illness, disability and the like were signs of God's disfavor and punishment. Unable to conceive? Crops fail? Family starving? Parent of a disabled child? A veritable sign of your sin, for all the world to see. But, that was a long time ago, right? We know better than that now. Don't we? I wonder. It has become all the rage these days to say that those who are doing well financially are doing so by the sheer dint of effort. They worked hard, did the right things. And those who are poor are slackers. Clearly they didn't work hard, didn't do the right thing. It's as simple as that. This is nothing but a gussied up version of what was said in the Dark Ages. Except that, in this case, our subjects have put themselves at the center instead of God. I did it, I worked, I studied, I saved, so i...

This is the complete text of the letter I sent to Explore Howard/Baltimore Sun in support of the Horizon Foundation's HoCo Unsweetened initiative:   I have been following the Horizon Foundation's HoCo Unsweetened initiative since its inception. As a parent and teacher, I see daily evidence of how sugary drinks affect children and adults. I have serious reservations about high fructose corn syrup, a staple in these highly-advertised beverages. I applaud the Horizon Foundation's willingness to stand up to "Big Soda" and champion our kids. All summer long, I have been following HoCo Unsweetened through social media as they dispatched road teams to many outdoor venues to educate parents and children about Better Beverages. Their recent video, "Burp Better", was a delightful and pointed culmination of that work. Not a cute publicity stunt, it was an engaging way to highlight the many hours of public education that have already taken place in our ...

I have been reading about work on the Columbia Association's first Health and Wellness Center. It seems to me that the primary focus of the health and wellness concept is balance. Rather than treating our problems with a prescription medication, or responding by piling on more exercise routines, this is an approach that looks at the big picture. Definitions of wellness are rooted in two main concepts: awareness and personal responsibility, and the view that wellness is "...a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." - (The World Health Organization.) So wellness exists in a healthy balance of physical, mental, and social well-being. And the pursuit of wellness begins in awareness and personal responsibility. Awareness, and balance. Recent blog posts by Bill Santos of Columbia Compass , and Bill Woodcock of The 53 have examined the growing imbalance between certain demographic groups in Columbi...

From a letter I wrote to the CA Board on behalf of the Inner Arbor Plan for Symphony Woods: "I am here tonight representing my entire family of five. Three of us live in Oakland Mills, and two in Owen Brown. We span an age range from the fifties to forties, to twenties, to almost teens. And I also speak, in a way, for the children my newly married daughter and son in law hope to have and raise in Columbia. I am here to share our hopes. ... We can't do better by doing nothing. We can't do better by living in fear of losing the past so that our efforts are half hearted and undecided. This is not good stewardship; it is neglect. ... This continues to be our responsibility to one another: To remain committed to a vibrant, diverse, accepting, and tangibly "better" community. Wasn't the whole point of creating Columbia that we could "do better"? Like the message of the People Tree: though many, though different, we connect with joy to make our co...

Happy:   Alice Kathryn Elisabeth-- "Out with my bestie of 26 years — with Julia Jackson McCready at Second Chance Saloon."   Sad:   A former student's death this week, at the age of ten, of a chronic illness. The loss of a high school student to an apparent suicide. The emotional toll on affected teachers, including my husband.   Fearful:   My younger daughter's discovery of "Sam and Cat" Fan Fiction. Will she enter a fantasy world and never come out?   Puzzled:   The new signs at the Oakland Mills Village Center look great. But does the one near the Interfaith Center seem to be at an odd angle or in an odd place to you? Or is it just me?   Angry:   Cutting off food benefits to hungry families who have no clout in government to fight back is no way to save money.   Proud:   Last night's Blog Party at the Second Chance Saloon made me realize that the Howard County Bloggers are so much bigger, ...

This tweet drew me in: @mental_floss: Jim Henson's Home Movies Were Lovely — The link led to a story about a short film by Jim Henson, "run, run". Set in the Connecticut woods in the Fall, it is what the title suggests. Two girls, Henson's daughters, run through the colorful leaves on a sunny day in 1965. Take a moment to read the article and watch the film. It isn't very long.   ***   What do you think of it? It made me think, a lot. First of all, I had a vague sensation that something was missing. After awhile I realized it was the pathway. In my world, the CA Pathway system is a given. When was the last time you ran in the woods, away from civilization and off of pathways? Lyme disease has changed how many of us feel about straying off of the path. It's the Big Bad Wolf nipping at the heels of childhood freedom. They were carefree; we are cautious. The girls ran. And ran. It gave me time to appreciate the dated quality of their clothing. Equ...

One of the aspirations of this blog, or more accurately, of this blogger, was to create a space that encouraged the sharing of thoughts and ideas about our community. Village Green/Town Squared is meant to be the place where Columbia and Howard County intersect. Not a physical space that can be registered on FourSquare, but a welcoming space in our virtual/digital world for listening, thinking, and sharing. Early on I lamented about my own perfectionism and the feeling that, if I didn't get comments, that I wasn't one of the Cool Kids in the lunchroom. The response I got from friends and fellow bloggers was simple: keep writing. Possibly the greatest motivator I have had to keep writing was my rejection at the polls last Spring when I ran for CA Rep for Oakland Mills. It spurred me on to use my voice in the best way that I knew how. Last week I posted a series of posts about the County's purchase of the Verona Apartments. For someone who started out blogging as a self...

What did you do with your hour this morning? Sleep in? Lie abed? Get ready for church, sports, watch tv, or like me, do laundry? Well, while we were doing that, two local guys got down to work at Starbucks. I can't wait until Wednesday night at the Second Chance to find out all about it. Join us! It starts at 5:30 and runs until about 8. If you are a Howard County b logger, a blog reader, or just want to know what Columbia Compass and Marshmallow Man are up to, come on out for some good conversation, great drinks, yummy food and legendary Second Chance Saloon hospitality. hocoblogs@@@   Posted with Blogsy

Oakland Mills is not impressed. Remember Blandair Park? Remember the neighbors who worried about what would happen only to have many of those fears come true? I wanted to believe nothing but the best about the coming park, but the truth is that concerns were addressed only after citizens resorted to angry meetings, name calling, and more. There were many, many missed opportunities leading up to that moment where the County failed to communicate, prevent, remediate. What if you were a Village in Columbia and you saw that you only received significant attention if you exploded in anger? What would that teach you? The information that stood out to me in CA Rep Alex Hekimian's most recent "Hot Topics" is that OMCA has retained an attorney to advise them in the matter of the County's purchase of the Verona Apartments. I am not on the village board these days, but I when I see that they are hiring an attorney I see people who feel that their legal rights may have be...