Holy Toledo!

...which is where I am, and which is thusly named, to my mind, because there are a TON of Catholic churches here. But really, who knows? After the two weeks we've had, all you can do is gloss things over.

Kolz and I have completed the move of Kolz-Wabes homebase to Toledo, which has involved a lot of moving things in large trucks, a lot of driving around the Midwest, and a LOT of schlepping things. I basically got to the point where I refuse to lift anything heavy; I have put a moratorium on boxes. Three moves is enough (1: from New York to Toledo, 2: out of my childhood home in IL, 3: to my folks' new/old place and to Toledo). I am only taking one - I swear - suitcase with me to Berlin in 2 weeks.

Last week was the sort of busy that leaves you bone tired and unable to process what you've just done - made the worse, I guess, by not really wanting to process selling the farm and house I grew up in - but also, surprisingly, the sort of week that makes you realize what you can do when you have to. Dad and I moved a lot of stuff, hauled it, unloaded it (thank god with help from family & friends), but we didn't wear ourselves out, fueled by Dairy Queen & Alongi's and on a sane schedule. And I had time to visit folks at home, with Mom and Dad doing more work than I did overall by a longshot. But now, here, I am content to help Kolz nest and get things set up an organized, and get back into a work-mode to really prep for leaving.

Toledo is nice - everything is convenient (especially when you drive - we comparison-shopped at big box stores that would have taken us a week in New York, and things are shockingly uncrowded on a Sunday). We've found some things we really like and some random surprises. There's a great greenmarket on Saturdays that I could just buy up and/or live in, and I'm tempted to drive out of the city and find some farmstands for the rest of the week. I still love the fried pickles and cabbage rolls at Packo's, and weThere are neat festivals here (German-American last weekend, Greek upcoming in two weeks) and it seems that that immigrant identity is still something that binds these little pockets of communities together here - my historian's eye is trained on street names and buildings, restaurants, trying to figure out the residential clusters, what the traditions are here. For the German-American Festival, there were a lot of non-German-Americans present and enjoying the beer, wurst, and potato pancakes, but there were also more people in lederhosen than I have EVER seen. And I've been to southern Germany. It was a wacky Bavarian extravaganza (which makes sense, given the Catholic bent here) but a lot of fun. The Greek Festival is coming up, and who knows what else.

As for surprises, the entry keypad getting struck by lightning, not so good, nor that baby cabbage leaves freaked out our disposal (or revealed bad plumbing, really). Hot and humid weather not a surprise, but massive nearby flooding was.

The big thing is our apartment, though (which I claim while I'm visiting, now & henceforth) - it feels like a real living space, at odds with our space in New York. It definitely has its quirks, and I realize the drawbacks of not dealing with an institution as your landlord, but I can flop down on the floor [carpeted] and look at the neato exposed beam ceiling, and we're here, and it's good. Plus, the electric stove is surprising me in being both responsive and speedy, so cooking has been fun, too. You can all come visit, and I will bake something. Tonight it's blackberry-peach cobbler. The other day it was sweet potato fries.