A Little Slyce of Heaven

I recently rewarded myself after a particularly long work week with a trip to HomeSlyce. I wasn’t there for the pizza, though.

Baba ghanouj. Food of the gods. That heavenly roasted eggplant dip I used to get regularly at Egyptian Pizza in Baltimore. Quite rare locally. Wegmans sells something they call baba ghanouj which looks more like hummus and has mayonnaise as an ingredient. Sacrilege!

Back to HomeSlyce. I arrived well before the dinner hour and had my choice of tables. I received excellent service. Sometimes a woman alone can feel less than welcome in a restaurant. Not so here. Service was helpful and attentive but not over-solicitous.

The beer? A Dogfish 60 minute IPA. My appetizer was the aforementioned baba ghanouj. It could have easily been a main course in my point of view. It makes your tongue tingle with garlic. Nothing shy about it. I ordered a Homie Salad for my main course. While there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, the ingredients just didn’t hang together in my opinion. The chopped steak on top is some kind of “steak-um”-like ingredient, which I somehow wasn’t expecting.

On the other hand, the ingredients were so fresh I was able to eat my salad leftovers the next day. So there’s that going for it.

A couple came in with a young child and a sleeping infant in a carry seat while I was there. As I was leaving another such couple was wheeling their stroller up to the entrance. It seems that HomeSlyce is a destination for the early dinner with babies and toddlers crowd. Cool. So five o’clock isn’t just for the silver-haired or the middle aged women dining alone.

Have you been to HomeSlyce? What do you recommend?

Parks and Malls

Today’s recommended reading:

How a mall-turned-public park saved downtown Columbus

I especially like this quote, describing green spaces:

They are an experience you cannot get online,” Dunham-Jones said. “It’s that direct experience with nature. It’s that direct experience of social activities,” she said.

Of course the revitalization of the Symphony Woods land as Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods comes to mind. The response to programming at the Chrysalis has been overwhelmingly positive. But this article looks at what happens to failing Malls in the middle of a Downtown area. Ours is doing fine right now, but what would happen if it weren’t?

What if Columbia were not a city built around a mall? What then? I certainly don’t wish for the Mall’s failure. But surely there are folks out there somewhere who have to consider what would happen if it did. That’s a whole lot of land and a boatload of challenges. 

How important to Columbia’s well being is the continued success of the Mall itself?

Getting Through

I’ve been reading a lot online recently about stress and anxiety in teenagers, especially high school students. Instead of addressing that directly today, I have a question for you.

What got you through?

What was the thing (or things) that you lived for during those difficult years of your life? What made it possible to get up in the morning? What was the respite for you from the stress of school and adolescence?

For me, it was music. Listening to music, and singing in choral groups. Playing the guitar and writing songs at the piano. Oh, and creative writing. Much poetry, some short stories. Journaling.

What was it for you?

And what is it now for your child, if you have one in this age group? How can they release stress? What brings them joy? What gets them out of bed in the morning even if many things seem bleak?

Learning (and living) are meaningless without joy and the capacity to experience it. What are we doing to ensure our teens get enough of this essential ingredient?


Comments are welcome here:

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The Case of the Missing Blog Post

I look forward all week to Saturdays, when I will have more time to write. Today I woke up with that tell-tale pressure behind my right eye: migraine.

Ugh.

The sky still looks as gray as yesterday. Hopefully it will clear a bit and we’ll get a bit of blue sky. Here’s an event that will benefit from a little sunshine:

All are welcome: 17th Annual PFLAG Picnic Saturday, October 14, Noon to 3 p.m.
Location: Rockburn Branch Park Pavilion (6105 Rockburn Branch Park Rd., Elkridge, MD 21075) - located on same road as Rockburn Elementary School, at end of road to the left.
What to Expect:
Parents, family members, friends, LGBTQ+, allies and children of all ages
Lots of seating for relaxing and chatting
A large pavilion to protect us in case of rain
Cutest Dog Contest !!
What is Provided:
Charcoal and cooking utensils
Soft drinks and ice
Cups, plates, eating utensils and napkins
What to Bring:
Something to barbecue and a dish to share
Dogs on leashes welcome
Suggested Donation of $5 per family is appreciated

It will be interesting to see if this event attracts individuals running for office. I find it humorous to see who suddenly discovers the LGBTQ community only during election cycles.

In the meantime, it’s light out for me until the migraine medicine kicks in. Have a great Saturday.

Casting the Net Wider

You may not know Lina by name, but if you followed the #hocostudentwalkout at Mount Hebron High School, you know something about what she stands for. I first became aware of her during that time as students challenged us to #stopthesilencestartaconversation . I’ve been following her on Twitter since then and have found her to be refreshingly honest and insightful. She’s a straight-talker. You want the truth, unvarnished? That’s Lina.

Lina is now asking for help so that she can settle some debts and begin an education in the arts. You can read her story here. I have donated, and I encourage you to read her appeal and consider helping out. She’s an activist with the soul of an artist. Or maybe it’s the other way around. So is another product of Howard County Schools, Bree Newsome. Who knows what great things Lina’s future may hold?

The arts inspire, empower, transform. Lina is choosing this path for herself and is willing to pursue it even if her family can’t/won’t understand and support her. Maybe I indentify with Lina because my parents decided during my senior year that I was a bad prospect for college and that they wouldn’t give me any money to continue my education. I ended up moving out, working for two years, and receiving the incredible blessing of meeting an alum of Mount Holyoke Colkege who encouraged me to apply as an independent student.

Mounts Holyoke gave me an almost 100 per cent total scholarship. Without them, I would never have gone to college. Without the businesswoman who befriended me as I waited tables at Friendly’s, I wouldn’t have known that Mount Holyoke was even a possibility. I majored in music, by the way. I’ve been working in arts in one way or another since I graduated.

I know that most of us have been giving and giving and giving to support hurricane relief, but if you can spare even a little, Lina can use it as a launching pad to greater things. She wants to make a fresh start. She is trying to build a new life. So I’m casting the net wider to see if I can help.


Comments are welcome here:

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Big Deal or Little Deal?

I look forward to Thursday mornings when I get the Columbia Flier in my inbox and can see what’s happening around town. This morning’s came with pointers about how to use the New Digital Edition. Along with stories on redistricting, a Hopeworks vigil, high school sports, campaign finance reform, and a first responders expo, there was an article I was surprised to see.

Oops.

This must be quite the important article, because it also appears on page 33.  (And on page 32 in black and white.)

Everybody makes mistakes. Most of us don’t have ours splashed on the pages of newspapers. As a teacher, I talk a lot with children about how it’s okay to make mistakes. My co-teacher likes to ask the students, “Is this a big deal or a little deal?” to help them put things in perspective. Often they come to the conclusion that ”hardly a deal at all.”

I’m torn about the new digital edition of the Flier. As my mother always used to say, “If something says New and Improved!, it probably isn’t.“  But that’s a rather jaded view of the world. It presumes that there are no improvements left to make. If the Columbia Flier (and its parent owners) are still trying to make changes and improvements to the reader experience, well, maybe it’s a sign that it’s still alive and kicking.

And, with the state of journalism these days, especially small-town journalism, I’d say that’s a good thing.

P.S: I scanned the photograph for a good thirty seconds-looking for signs of a a Mercury rocket before my brain processed what I was really seeing.


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Whatever Happened To...

And odd by-product of yesterday’s post about togas was an off-shoot about something called Colonial Day. Parents were lamenting the disappearance of said yearly event from the curriculum.. I had never heard of it. I’m pretty sure there was no Colonial Day at my daughter’s elementary school.

Fill me in, oh gracious readers. Did your child’s school ever have a Colonial Day? What did they do? Is your school still doing this as an annual event?

While the idea of dressing up, doing hands-on activities and even cooking (and getting to eat what you cook) sounds awesome, I can also see some issues around the “Colonial” theme that could be problematic.

Not all of us identify with whites of the American Colonial period. Native Americans had land stolen. Africans were brought here as slaves. We don’t spend a day re-enacting those historical experiences.

Also, I wonder if an event like Colonial Day is something that depends on the involvement of many parent volunteers. In less affluent areas, where parents are often working multiple jobs just to get by, that kind of volunteer pool is unavailable.

It’s altogether possible that Colonial Day fell victim to the mindset of our not-too-distant past where things were deemed worthy only if they could be tested. And that would be sad. Taking away multi-sensory experiences from education definitely finishes the learning experience. If Colonial Day is no more, what other engaging, interactive learning experiences have we put in its place?

Tell me more. I’m interested.


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