Fall in Cleveland

It's September 15th and a drastic drop in temperature has brought fall upon us in Cleveland. Not the wood stove burning, I can see the leaves turning kind of fall, but a brisk walk to work in the rain kind of fall. I'm starting to notice why people complain so much about the weather, especially downtown. You don't really get to reap the benefits. I miss the crisp central new york autumns, and runs where I could go almost two miles breathing in the deep comforting aroma of wood stoves. I miss apple picking and the hearths in homes I know.

Of course there are things I appreciate about this city too. For a city, most of the time, the air is clean and refreshing. The restaurant below my apartment has a wood-burning stove and once and a while I get to smell home. Every so often though on a run, I'll get a whiff of the distinct odor of despair. It smells like piss and death, not exactly something you want to drink deeply of as you approach the two mile point. It's like this little reminder as you're chugging along, thinking you could really start to like it here, that it's Cleveland. Your family is hours away, your friends are spread out across the country and despite the fact that you've been here eight months, you still feel like you don't belong.

The thing about all this is, it creates a city wrapped in contradiction. And while it's certainly no walden pond, it does supply it's own depths of creative inspiration. The people are a study in and of themselves. If you weren't raised here, you probably moved here for a job, but it surprises me just how quickly they not only adapt to but adopt the city they live in.

It's not what I ever thought I'd be doing, writing search engine optimization by day and blogging or journaling at night to get my creative fix. At the same time, it's better than what I expected at this time last year. When you go from no job, to writing for a living, you don't exactly have room to complain. And to be honest, for the experience I had coming out of college, I'm lucky to have gone a total of zero days on the unemployment line.



9/15/11