My trip to City Hall

Yesterday afternoon I chanced to read an email from Green City Blue Lake, a local non-profit promoting sustainability in Cleveland and beyond, and I found out that there was a meeting today of the Cleveland City Planning Commission to allow public input on a proposed ordinance to allow (and regulate) the keeping of small livestock within the city limits: chickens, ducks, rabbits, bees, etc. Because this issue relates so closely to our food supply, I knew I had to attend, and I am so glad that I did.

I haven't been downtown too much since I moved to the Cleveland suburbs about 5 1/2 years ago, so just getting dropped off at City Hall by The Professor was enough of a new experience. The security at City Hall is not at all intimidating: a guy looked in my bag. Feh, no big deal. My only other municipal building experience in Cleveland was at the Police Headquarters where I went to fight a parking ticket (broken meter), and they had sent me through a metal detector and my bag through an X-ray, then confiscated my knitting needles. This time I took a crochet hook, and I got a fair bit done on a little project bag during the course of the meeting.


The City Hall building was beautiful and stately, with a huge atrium and broad stairways, and I wished I'd had my camera with me to take a picture of the beautiful marble water fountain I passed. When I sat down at the meeting, I noticed that I was feeling quite jittery. I think municipal buildings make me nervous, or maybe it's being anywhere near the workings of government, I am not sure. I was glad that I had some yarn to keep me calm.

I was surprised at how many people stated their names and then copped to owning illegal chickens and bees. I suppose that as of today their flocks are probably legal (depending on the size of the flock, because the ordinance did have some restrictions), but still, yipes. Actually, I think that was what had me so jittery, now that I think about it. Even though they said many times during the meeting that these ordinances are enforced on a nuisance basis (like, they aren't driving around looking for illegal henhouses and busting the owners, carting them away in the paddywagon; if you keep chickens and you don't keep their area clean and your neighbors complain, someone comes out and... I don't know, but you get in trouble), it still freaked me out.

At the very end of the meeting, I finally screwed up my courage, with the help of the guy sitting behind me to whom I confessed my fear of speaking at the meeting and who vetted my whispered version of my input and told me "Yeah, they need to hear that." My input was simple: I just thanked them for considering more liberal legislation for livestock ownership in the City because they would be setting an example for the region and leading the way for other areas, our suburb for instance, to follow suit. Now I just need to find out who, if anyone, is leading the charge to get a similar revision to the ordinance in front of our City Planning Commission.

I voted

Not that there was ever a question, but I went and cast my vote for Barack Obama for President today, and a mess of other things as well. By the time I was done, my line buddies (neighbors, that was a treat) were long gone. As I was walking to the polling place this morning, the library at the end of my street, there was already a line out the parking lot and onto the sidewalk. That line had dwindled by the time I left to being contained inside the library, but seeing it brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat. My stomach had butterflies that were like the cumulative effect of first day of school, first day of college, first date, driver's license test and every job interview I've ever had all rolled together, with maybe a little bit of kid-on-Christmas thrown in for good measure.

This election is the first time I've voted at my polling place on Election Day in a major race (not counting primaries and special election). In 2004 and 2006, I was volunteering to work for Election Protection all day , so I had voted early by absentee ballot. It was a new experience, and a good one. I hope the polls stay that busy all day, and that people are willing to ride out the lines to do their civic duty.

And now, we pray.

Walks

Yesterday we did 1.8 miles in the morning, and this morning The Professor had to leave early, so we did 1.8 miles after he got home from work. So far we've walked every day since Sunday when we started. It's only a little bit every day, but it's something.

Movie: The Oh in Ohio

Parker Posey. That really should be all I have to say. But I'll say a little more. Not only is this movie set in the town where I live, so you get a little view of our city's skyline, it's just a really cute movie. Parker Posey rocks, of course. And Paul Rudd is good, too, a solid performance. Danny DeVito, as well, quite a worthy contribution to the film. Good story, enjoyable soundtrack, a few laughs. I'd recommend this movie to anyone. It's light and funny, pleasant. And did I mention it stars Parker Posey? Really, that's all that needs to be said.

In other news, The Professor and I walked 2.5 miles yesterday morning, plus I did another 1.7 on my own. This morning we did another 2 miles. My left ankle is a little grouchy about it, and the weird histamine reaction I get when I do even low-impact exercise like walking (that's the one hitch to which I alluded before-- again, a topic for another post) has intruded slightly into my life, but I'm sure we'll go again tomorrow anyhow. Micromovements.

Micromovements

One area of my life I've long been wanting to improve is the whole fitness/exercise thing. When I lived in Philly, every day I walked, I biked, I skated, I stood around waiting for (or riding on) the bus or subway. I walked to the grocery store, I biked to work and to social events, I took full advantage of that wonderful location right near Kelly Drive for my last few years there, skating 45 minutes (about 8 miles) most days, except when there was some %$#&@! regatta happening. I did join a gym at one point, but frankly, I hate the gym. Other people's germs and sweat, having to worry about how I look and what I wear (not that I had to, but I did), showering in public. Honestly, the public gym is pretty close to my definition of Hell. Not to mention a lot of money. The one thing I enjoyed at the gym was the aerobics class on the mini-trampoline, but not enough to keep going, especially when biking and skating, despite a small up-front investment in equipment, are pretty much free.

Since moving to Ohio, a lot of the activity that was built into just propelling myself around town and through life vanished. Moving to the suburbs and having a car have meant I've gained maybe 20 pounds or so since I moved here. Not that 10 of those I maybe kind of needed to gain-- I see photos of myself from back then and I do look a little malnourished (of course, now when I see photos of myself I think I look, shall we say, overnourished, but there must be a happy medium). I also didn't eat too well in Philly, eating tortilla chips with cheese and salsa for dinner way too often, and I didn't realize it until maybe a year or two ago when I found out that I'd been consuming way too little protein pretty much ever since I started living on my own. I'm still working on getting my diet to a healthier place, and I'm renewing efforts to get the exercise piece going, too. Yesterday The Professor and I walked around the block, which is surprisingly just over a mile. That seems pretty big for a block to me, but great, I'll take it. This morning, we walked around a few blocks, totalling up to about 3.8 miles according to Google Maps. I am glad we did.

SARK talks about micromovements in her book, A Creative Companion. The idea as I recall (the book isn't to hand just now, and I don't want to break my stride to go find it) is that by doing one tiny thing that moves you toward your goal, eventually you will get there, and tiny changes are easier to make than huge ones. Not exactly a novel concept, but I like the way she presents it. Today's micromovement was walking a few miles in the morning. I'm hoping to keep moving forward toward having more regular exercise in my day-to-day life. Walking to my J-O-B is one way I can build in more activity, so I'll try to do that at least one day this week. There's one little hitch to the walking, one obstacle as yet to be addressed, but that's a topic for another post.

Movie: Evan Almighty

In the spirit of playing catch-up, one of the other movies I watched recently that I enjoyed immensely was Evan Almighty. I've been a Steve Carell fan ever since Little Miss Sunshine, which is in my top 10 favorite movies ever. So, I was predisposed to liking this movie, but even beyond his important contributions to its success-- the man is a master of comedic timing-- it was cute. Silly, sure, but it had a mildly positive message (sadly quite watered down and toothless, but it was a comedy, not a docudrama, so what can we expect?), and the interaction between Carell, Wanda Sykes and John Michael Higgins that occurs about 50 minutes into the film was priceless. It's just too bad they cast Lorelai Gilmore as his wife. No, I don't mean Lauren Graham. Apparently they cast Lorelei herself, only they took away her mini-me foil and had her tone it way down for this show. Ugh. But if she was the only down side to the movie, that's not too damning. The animals were wonderful, and the DVD extras were almost all worth watching, which is not often the case. I liked learning that the director endeavored to encourage a greener movie set by getting bikes for all the cast and crew who were willing to try alternative transportation and by donating the materials from the struck set to a local Habitat for Humanity. It's a nice step in the right direction. Anyhow, the movie is worth seeing. I'd recommend it to anyone, and if you see it and decide you hate it, just wait for the scene at the 50-minute mark before you turn it off. Trust me.

Movie: Notes on a Scandal

I've been lax in my movie updates. Watched this yesterday when I couldn't figure out what else to do with myself. Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy, it's got to be good, right? Yep, it was. It wasn't exactly an up film, but it was worth seeing. Bill Nighy was especially fantastic, even though his part was relatively small. I do think he is just wonderful and was delighted to see him in it; I hadn't realized when I picked it up, what with my know as little as possible about a film before I see it ways. It was the kind of movie that would provoke some good lively debate afterward, if one wasn't watching it at home with the cat. Heck, the cat slept through most of it, anyhow. But I'd recommend this movie. No major violence. Good score. Wonderful acting. Compelling story. And if you watch it (or have seen it already) and want to come back here for some lively debate, well, come on. I'd be happy to oblige.