So last weekend we went to Cincinnati for our 10 year college reunion.
And the group shot:
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| Thanks to Brian for the group shot. |
We all look pretty good! And we all seem to be doing well, too. I mean I guess you don't go to a reunion if you aren't happy with your life but it was good to see so many of us surviving this architecture thing (or getting out and finding happiness elsewhere). Anyways there was cake!
And everyone got to watch my toddler eat an ear of corn:
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| Shouldn't you guys put me at a table or something? I mean I'm just on the ground here. |
Before we headed to the riverfront for the Homecoming parade:
And some tailgating:
The kids had a ball:
Even if it was a bit insane to take them tailgating.
We spent the evening hanging out with some old friends and their new puppy. I hope we didn't overwhelm them with our crew!
The next day we all met at Washington Park in Over the Rhine. I KNOW, RIGHT? As Matt put it "If someone told me I'd be hanging out in Over the Rhine in my 30's I'd think that I had made some BAD life choices." That's literally where the riots were in 2001. But I trusted and went with the group's plan. It turns out they completely renovated the park and it's actually really, really nice now:
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| Music Hall |
Even has a playground that is beyond awesome. It has swings! And musical things! It's fenced in and is well designed so you can see the whole thing no matter where you are! But has many interesting paths for the kids to discover!
And... this thing:
The kids hang on and you spin it around. Flawless plan. I'm actually in favor of more diverse and interesting play equipment. Literally every playground I go to in any city I go to is the same exact stuff. I think kids need to take (measured) risks to conquer fear and build self-confidence. Playgrounds are a perfect and relatively safe place for that to happen.
Experts agree with me. So I highly recommend this awesome park if you're ever in the Cincy area.
The park even has a water play area that we did not explore b/c wet kids w/o bathing suits = NOOOOOOPE.
From there we walked to brunch at Motr which was perfect. We had the whole patio to ourselves!
It was so fun to spend some time with everyone. Brought back so many memories. Speaking of memories on our way back to the car we helped our daughter take pictures of numbers for her "Number Walk" school project. Because apparently even 10 years later we are incapable of being in Over the Rhine without doing some sort of school project.
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| Honestly her craft is pretty on par with the stuff I produced in the 5th year Over the Rhine/Kroger studio. |
From there we drove up to campus. The
last time we were there DAAP was grey. I wanted to see it with the new metal paneling:
It is awesome. I was quite impressed. SO SO much better than EIFS. We even got the kids out of the car and walked through the building. Turns out the DAAP staircase is crazy fun to explore when you're a little kid:
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| My kids on the DAAP staircase WORLDS ARE COLLIDING. |
I forgot so much about that building. All of the bridges. All of the nooks and crannies that serve no purpose:
It certainly is... something. Fun to spend 15 min walking through. Not as much to live in for 6 years. ANYWAYS! We even took the kids past some of the studios:
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| Peeking in the window of our freshman studio. aka where Matt and I sat next to each other. Aka WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. |
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| A little APX pride. Both Matt and I were charter members of the UC chapter! |
And then tried to get snacks from the vending machines which were broken. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE. They did put some shading up on some of this glass, though. Maybe those stairwells aren't horrifically hot anymore.
Campus looks great. Very different but pretty awesome. The Main Street plan has really come to fruition:
Driving around campus was... shocking. EVERYTHING is different. Very sanitized. "Look Parents! Your kids will be safe here because all of the same chains you eat at are on campus now!"
UUUUUUGH. But maybe I'm just bitter b/c this is what my favorite bar, Christies, looks like now:
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| Empty lot OF SADNESS AND WOE. They tore down happiness. |
Anyways I'm so glad we went. It was super fun to revisit that time in our lives. And in case you want to know what being in architecture school was like here's a crazy appropriate buzz feed List:
38 Things All Architecture Students Know All Too Well.
Heh.
GO BEARCATS!
