Friday Photos- Just a small town girl & poisonous plants among other things

A look back at the week, Monday thru Friday, through photos 

Alyssa and I drove to Columbus to visit Ohio State for a campus tour one day this week. I have so much to say about this visit, where to start??

OK, I’ll start with the beginning of our day. Alyssa signed up for a 1:00 pm tour. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Columbus from our house. Alyssa really wanted to attend a couple of classes at her high school. She left her high school when she was able to go to the classes she needed to go to and then came home. We hit the road by 10:30. The rainy, yucky road. Arrived in Columbus, found a parking garage and were parked by noon. 

Gray day...

Alyssa said the Tikkers and the Tokkers were saying good things about Dave’s Hot Chicken and there was one really close to the parking garage which was close to where the tour started. The chicken you order can be customized with various levels of heat. We ordered ours in hot which was not the hottest. There were two levels hotter than hot. Oh my! Hot was too hot!! We ate the chicken and liked it but both of us agreed that hot was just a little too hot for us for optimal enjoyment and if we go again, we’ll get one degree less hot. 

In agreement with the chicken's face...

Graffiti meets humble bragging the story of the chain’s beginning meets decor

After lunch, we went across the street to the building where the tour began.

The tour started in the student union and there was a presentation before we started walking around campus. When the student tour leaders introduced themselves, they all engaged in virtue signaling for an issue that is quite mainstream but that is not steeped in truth, so it bothers me. An open mind is a great thing to have but the truth is the truth, and it trumps the latest cause of one particular political/ social ideology.

If someone you knew honestly believed that eating fruit from a can of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail was healthier than eating fresh fruit, would you affirm that? I wouldn’t. If an emaciated young woman told you that when she looked in the mirror, she saw a fat person staring back at her, would you give her diet tips? Of course not, especially not if her well being was important to you. So, to be in a room where these students affirmed an ideology that perpetrates a lie, that put me on the defensive immediately. I tried to get over it...

We learned some information about the school during a presentation. We learned that Columbus, OH is the 14th largest city in the country. I knew it was large, but I did not know that! Growing up, I thought that the largest cities were the ones that had professional baseball, football or basketball teams. So, I thought for instance, that cities like Kansas City, Buffalo, or Milwaukee were bigger than a city like Columbus since Columbus doesn’t have a professional team in one of those sports. It was not an accurate way to rate a city’s size but that was what my very much sports exposed/influenced younger self thought! 

They were not lying... I looked up city size information when I was at home:

One statistic that was not shared at any time during the tour is that Ohio State is the third largest university in the nation by enrollment. Now, everyone knows it’s a big school ~ I guess that’s the reason they would say they didn’t need to share the exact stat~ but I did think it was interesting that COLUMBUS IS THE 14th LARGEST CITY IN THE COUNTRY was mentioned numerous times but OSU being in the top three for size in the nation did not make the cut once in what information was presented to us.

The weather did not help when we went outside for the tour! The morning had been quite rainy but the forecast called for the rain to stop by early afternoon. Only... it didn’t stop. The rain didn’t stop the entire time we were there. Obviously less than ideal to be walking around in and trying to see the sites on campus. But walk we did and I took a few pictures. 

Inside the library

Guess what? If you rub the head of this guy as you walk past it, you’ll get an A on your next test. (Or so they say 😏)

Walking through the campus reminded me quite a bit of my alma mater, Indiana University. Both colleges are considered flagship state schools for their respective states. Now there are some pretty big differences. One difference of note is that IU is known for its beautiful campus. Now granted OSU was not looking its best on the dreary day that we were in Columbus (the 14th largest city in the country!) but even on the bluest sky, greenest grass day, the campus is not known for its beauty. However, what reminded me of IU was the campus’s large size. Both OSU and IU are large schools with big campuses (IU’s enrollment puts it at 18th in size in the country) that reflect how big the schools are.

A picture of a picture- this is from somewhere on IU's campus- I don't remember where. There were pretty spaces and beautiful buildings everywhere.

The biggest difference between Indiana U and OSU is not the degree to which IU is a prettier campus (though it definitely is) rather that Bloomington, IN is not a large city and Columbus, OH is (it’s the 14th largest city in the country!). In college, I had many friends from large metropolitan areas like Chicago and Indianapolis. They thought it was funny that I considered Bloomington to be a good-sized city!

Our Ohio State tour guide pointed out that a big college is as big or as small as you make it or something like that. And yes, I agree with that to a certain extent. I didn’t dislike going to a big university at all but at the end of the day, it was big and there was no way around that, no matter what you tell yourself.  If a prospective student doesn’t want to go to a big school, then OSU as well as IU wouldn’t be a good fit for the student.

Heading back into the student union after the walking tour

Odd!

Cozy!

Brutus the Buckeye-OSU’s mascot-  A buckeye is a nut from the buckeye tree which is Ohio’s state tree. The nut is dark brown with a light spot in the middle resembling a deer’s eye, ergo (sort of...) buckeye. Buckeyes are poisonous to eat. I proffer no commentary on that... except to say that there is a popular candy called buckeyes which I will talk about below.

I was hoping for parking validation (quite standard for college visits) but that did not happen. (We did get “discounted” parking so the parking *only* cost a little over $10.) What we did get for free was a buckeye candy piece. What are buckeyes, the candy? Mainly peanut butter, powered sugar and chocolate. The chocolate coating does not extend all the way over the peanut butter ball so I guess the thinking is that the candy looks a little like the buckeye poisonous nut? These are very popular candy in Ohio. I don’t remember them when I lived in Indiana but that is not to say that they aren’t made/consumed/ sold there as well. 

Alyssa liked the school pretty well and it is definitely her top local contender. We shall see. 

I was happy to leave the 14th largest city in the country and head back to our small town. Common sense, fresh air and less traffic? Yes, please!!

Speaking of poisonous, I can’t believe how much the rhubarb leaves are growing on my rhubarb plant (the leaves are poisonous) considering it’s only February. I was taking some items to the compost bin and noticed the leaves of the plant.  A couple of days later, I was again in the garden to take compost to the bin and I could see that the rhubarb leaves were noticeably bigger than they were just two day earlier. After placing the refuse in the bin, I went inside to get my camera to take a picture. 

This was how big the rhubarb plant got last year. 

In the kitchen, I made the most delicious creole seasoning to use in a dirty rice recipe. Bonus, adding all of the ingredients to a small jar resulted in a pretty looking concoction as well!

The recipe for the dirty rice that we all really liked can be found here.

I added this picture of the ingredient list for the seasoning mix in my Wednesday's post but here it is again:

Here it is online. 

We had some severe weather this week. One afternoon, I was running on the treadmill. I heard a loud clap of thunder and then a crash. Alyssa came down to the basement to tell me that some items had fallen off of the mantle and shelves. When I was done with my run, I took a picture of the items that fell before I put them back up. Thankfully the glass didn’t break on the frame. A couple of counties away, tornadoes touched down. 

I subbed a total of two days this week. I subbed two half days and one full day. My full day was in 8th grade and I had a lot of “my” students from my long term sub job when this group of students were in 6th grade. I can’t believe *my* kids will be in high school next year. They are growing up too fast! So many of these students like me- they associate me with their younger selves I guess (or maybe I’m just the bomb.com... kidding). One student came into the classroom a couple of minutes late. I was going over the instructions for the assignment when the girl walked in. When she saw me, she exclaimed, “Mrs. Rineer!!” in an excited voice and literally ran up to me and hugged me. All while I was talking to the class!! I received other hugs and lots of friendly salutations from the kids. Awww. It made me feel good about myself. Now the current crop of six graders do not like me at all. I have to be super stern with them. There are no hugs in my future from them or exclamations of delight at seeing me. So I feel extra joy at every 8th grade face that lights up at the sight of my visage ☺️

This was in the classroom. Now I don't want to touch anything.

I went to Sam's Club one day this week to return something. Naturally, I had to get an $.89 drink. When I came home, I noticed the colors on the cup matched the pen that I had out and thought that was neat. It's the little things for this small town girl!!