Finalizing projects

On Friday I finalized everything for the sites for next year's girls on the run program. I got everything into the right files and put it in boxes and stored it for good. It was such a relief. So I spent today making the prototype for the next lesson. Now all that needs to be done is to have the big book printed then glued on the side. It was so nice once I put everything together and put it on a CD. I could barely believe that I was done.

My next project is going to be working on Girls on Track curriculum ( for girls in middle school) I am creating a prototype like the one I made for girls on the run. It will be nice to know about how long it takes to put a packet together, so I can tell them for next time. The lessons stay the same for a few years, but then it will change and someone will have to take this job and do it again.

Euclid Avenue (Part 2) Friday May 27

So today I went back down Euclid Ave. a second time though instead of riding a bus through the Cleveland Clinic area en route from University Circle to Downtown, I got off down there and walked from basically one end of its campus to the other. However it wasn't so much the hospital that I was focused on: it was all the beautiful old stone churches that exist among the hospital buildings. All but a few are century or so old churches with high stone steeples and stain glass windows. Unfortunately, one of them recently burned down within the past couple years and now all that's left is a giant bell tower standing in a grassy field where the church once stood, except now there's a CVS placed next to it which I'm sure wasn't there before the fire.

The Cleveland Clinic, on the other hand, is - as we all know - HUGE. Building after building, block after block, yet there's nothing ugly or consuming about the system. It's a beautiful hospital and if Cleveland ever lost that hospital, we would be officially doomed. There would be this gapping hole down the avenue with hundreds of empty buildings and our economy would just about dwindle to nothing. Of course luckily, the chances of Cleveland Clinic leaving any time soon seem close to nothing based on the number of buildings they inhabit and the money that they've invested into the area. (Plus, they've got Cleveland in their name, so moving elsewhere really just doesn't make sense. Cleveland Clinic has got some nice alliteration going on.) Either way, the combination of all those lovely churches and the significance of the clinic makes this area of Cleveland both important and historical. Combined with all our other hospital systems, Cleveland will do just fine.

More on Four

There is one four-year-old girl in particular that I have been working with quite a bit this week. Upon meeting her you quickly realize that she is really, really smart and has a wild imagination. That being said, she understands perfectly well what is going on around her (in terms of doctors, medicines, ect.) which makes it very hard to trick her into doing what needs to be done. Unlike most four-year-olds, telling her it won't taste bad or it won't hurt does not work. She is also very insistent on doing what she wants, when she wants, and how she wants it done. She is certainly quite a handful.

While working with her, I have found subtlety is key. I do things like; "Yes you can paint my nails," then let her do it, but later ask if I can re-do them myself, (so they can be neater), but gets to pick the colors this time. Reasoning with a four-year-old directly may not work, but indirectly, it does.

Week 3

This past week at the refuge has been a little slow. With the Biggest Week ending, the number of visitors has taken a significant drop. When there used to be 500 or so people coming through the visitors center on any given weekday, there are now at best 75. However, while the number of birders has decreased the number of school groups that have been coming in have increased a lot. Almost everyday this week there has been some sort of school function taking place on the refuge. This ranges from guided tours through the park, where park officials share their knowledge of not only the land but also the wildlife that they may encounter on their trip, or even the traditional classroom setting in which Biology classes will come out and do a day long class in the refuges learning center.

I spent the entire day thursday walking throughout the refuges 9,000 acres taking pictures as I went. I am amazed at how close you can get to so many birds and just as you are about to take the picture they fly away. To say the least I know have many blurry images with at most the tip of a wing in the frame. I have seen all sorts of wildlife from snakes to tortoises and birds of all kinds. This has been a great opportunity to see all sorts of wildlife.

While we only have two days left out in Oak Harbor we are excited to see what we will learn and experience in the coming days to wrap up our senior project.

4 x 5

This week there were five, yes, five four-year-olds in Rainbow 2. There were definitely times I felt like I was trying to run a preschool, + the technical difficulties surrounding small children and IV poles... Let's just say I have no desire to be a preschool teacher.

Not to say that it wasn't rewarding in any way, because it was. But, trying to occupy and meet the demands of that many little kids is really, really hard. Some may say that the "terrible two's" is the hardest age, but I would have to disagree. There is something about four that makes the kids have a very "I do myself" kind of attitude. In addition, and quite to my dismay, they all seemed quite excited by scissors. Now I know why they make safety scissors. For example, upon seeing a package of play-dough that was taped shut, one of the four-year olds I was with insisted on opening the package herself, with scissors. *stab, stab, stab* It was kind of scary, to be honest.

Evaluations, Interviews, and Biographies

In the past, I’ve only taken one yoga class I actually enjoyed. It wasn’t at the JCC though, it was at Lulu Lemons. The class was two hours long but mainly consisted of savasana, which is where you lie on your back with your eyes closed and breathe and become absolutely relaxed. Yesterday, I finally took a yoga class at the JCC that I enjoyed. I believe it had to do with the instructor because she was able to crack a few jokes and modified moves for those less coordinated. She has been working at the JCC for twenty years and has literally taught and been certified in every possible group exercise. Most of yesterday I interviewed many instructors and wrote several biographies. We interviewed my sponsor and I knew most of her background because she often mentions or refers to it, but it was really interesting to know that she truly began the group fitness program at the JCC and is still with them. I’m amazed at how young group fitness is at the JCC, only about twenty years old, yet it still has affected so many people and has huge influence and power at the JCC. Today I took a cycling class and evaluated the instructor. To the side is a picture of the cycling studio. It is a class, regardless of the teacher, always has several participants. Additionally, Katie and I began to film our zumba class because in the actual zumba class, the camera didn’t record the entire class and for what it did record, Sergio blocked the lens. Additionally, we wrote up more biographies.

Rib cook off day 1!

This blog is going to be hard to write. Just because i'm too tired to move any part of my body. Lots of manual labor today. Moving things...and putting table cloths on tables. AND putting banners up. These banners were covered in a gross black dirt type thing that got all over my hands. I'm really excited for tomorrow because I never get to eat ribs! I saw all of the booths being set up today and I must say these recipes look impressive. I'll have pictures in my presentation. I got to drive a golf cart... but after the first time they didn't let me do that again. I also got a cool laminate that makes me feel important. Thinking about food is making me really hungry. I'm gonna go eat now :D I'll let you know about the second day of rib tomorrow. I'm sure you're all SO interested.

Remember... its free until 3 at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica!

Back to busy work

Now that the run is over, I am working on busy work again. Since I figured out a new way to make the books, it is a lot easier and I am a lot more productive. Spent some time searching all the local staples and office max stores to see who sells the cheapest products. Just so everyone knows, Staples is cheapest for printing in large quantities. You will save a lot of money by printing in black and white instead of color, it triples in price if it is color printing. If you want a stack of papers bound by glue, so they can be torn out easily, go to office max. It is actually more expensive than kinkos, but I told them that, and they did it for 49 cents instead of 55 cents because kinkos sells theirs for 50 cents. I am now almost done with putting together the lessons. Once this is done, I will clean out the boxes used for the spring season and start over.

GOTR run (Sunday)

So I have been postponing posting on the wall because I wanted to get some pictures on the computer, but that hasn't happened yet and it is almost the end of the week. So the run went extremely well. Last year there were around 400 people and this year there were over 700. Since there were so many more people, it was a little harder than in years past. We realized that bathrooms were a bigger problem this year. Other than that, nothing else changed too much. It was raining, so at first people were not as happy. But once people started moving around it was all fine. It is very cute because there is a hair station, where the girls get their hair sprayed with different colors and they can create tiaras. Then they started the run. I call it a run because it is not competitive at all. People really took a while to start. I was the never-ending finish line with my friend. We have been doing this for a few years now. We have rolls of streamers, and we try to get each girl to run through it. It started because at normal races, the first person to finish runs to the finish line tape. But GOTR wanted every girl to feel like they are a winner. It was a lot harder this year because it was raining, so the paper streamers were breaking a lot more than they did in years past. Overall it was a great success

Tuesday, May 24

So on Tuesday I went out to Wendy Park, which is right over by Whisky Island and Edgewater Park, but is directly to the left on the river mouth. It's a small though certainly pretty park, with grass and trees and the sun was out that day so the lake was really blue. But I suppose the most interesting about all of those parks is that on one side is the lake and then on the other side are railroad tracks and mills and rock and sand piles and all of the flats. I watched a huge cargo ship - must have been at least 80 yards long - pull out of the river and back into Lake Erie. It had gone under a bridge so after it left the bridge lowered back down and then minutes later a train pulling coal and stuff went right over it. It was pretty cool to just watch and realize that all of these train tracks and mills and even the river are still in use. Afterwards I went west a little bit to Battery Park which contrary to belief isn't a park, it's a developing community. It was built on the site of an old battery factory (hence the name) and for a while the land had been so polluted and acidic that it was just a waste. But some people got together, were granted money from the city, and now they're building this little village out of it. It's right off of Gordon Square as well so it's still largely connected to the city but it also has a couple restaurants of its own, including one that's in the remaining building of the original factory. Plus, it has a beautiful view of the lake. I'm not saying that'd I'd ever live there, but it's a pretty interesting way to see how Cleveland can make good out of it's industrial past, and also how development in Cleveland isn't gone.

Cycling and Stretch and Firm

My sponsor wants me to focus more on evaluating the different cycling instructors as well as the stretch and firm instructors because there’s such a variety of teachers and teaching styles. As a result, I have been predominantly taking cycling and stretch and firm classes. Yesterday (Monday), I took a spinning class with Beth. Beth was a trainer who I had worked out with all summer for volleyball. She certainly hasn’t lost her touch, and I think she is so far my favorite cycling instructor because she always has fun music and varies the workouts from climbing to sprinting to sitting in the saddle to standing upright and so on and so forth. The stretch and firm class I took yesterday was with Patti who incorporates much more dance than lifting in her class. She relates extremely well with her class, but often had trouble focusing on others in the room because she always stared at herself in the mirror. Today I went to a cycle and sculpt class with an instructor named Jamie. Her class went a little long so I couldn’t make it to the stretch and firm class because the two classes are scheduled back to back and the JCC has a strict policy that you cannot attend a class if you’re ten minutes or more late to a class because you’ll miss vital warm-ups and will be a distraction to the others. In Jamie’s class, I was on a newer bike where the resistance gear is far more sensitive than the old bikes. Therefore, turning it just a little to the right to create more resistance is equivalent to a full turn on the old bikes. Jamie got off her bike and was encouraging others to push themselves. I was already pushing myself quite a bit and could hardly push the pedals any harder because of the high resistance that I was at. Nonetheless, Jamie turned my gear two full turns to the right and let’s just say I got quite a workout. It was, in part, my mistake though, because I wanted to try a newer bike and the only new one left was directly in front of her and the whole time I was trying to keep up to her tempo, so I made myself vulnerable. For the sculpting portion, we used bosu balls and did many squats, push ups, and ab workouts all while challenging our balance. Both yesterday and today, I have been typing up biographies of each instructor.

The Warehouse District is Cool!

Today I was downtown again and went over to the Warehouse District which is W. 6th onwards towards the river between St. Clair and Superior. I don't know if it's just because it was lunch break by the time I got there, but the streets were filled with people and cars and they were all talking and the sun had finally come out by then; the stores weren't vacant but filled and open for business and overall it was just really nice down there. One street over was were all the night clubs are so that part still was really quiet and deserted - like a Scooby Doo ghost town or something. But the rest of the district is really alive and moving. It's not crowded like NYC's streets are but honestly, Cleveland will never be NYC and the streets will never be that packed. But that's ok: it feels like a small town with downtown right next door. There are a lot of little restaurants and grilles there and Constantino's Market is pretty cool - it has a lot of prepared foods. Overall, it's a pretty cool place and I strongly suggest that you all visit there!

This is the part where I plug livenation..

So basically... nothing in my daily routine has changed. I do mostly the same things everyday which for someone else might be awful. I don't really mind at all.... because its not always in the same order. So it all works out... Also since I'm in chagrin I've been getting ice cream at Jeni's... so if you're in the chagrin area I suggest you go there... pretty awesome ice cream...

Okay so this weekend is the rib cook off! Its free before 3 so if you're free this weekend you should definitely come! The bands that are playing are Seether, Collective Soul, Bullet for My Valentine, and Bruce Hornsby and the Noise Makers. It goes from 11 to 11 friday through monday at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica! If you're not into any of those bands it's okay because the food is still going to be really good! There's a glee competition on saturday! So that should be really cool! If you're in the area you definitely should come!

Court of Appeals

This morning I went to the Court of Appeals. It is located down town (it’s in the building we had prom in). I shadowed a lawyer named, John Martin. He was doing an oral argument. Basically, the Court of Appeals is the next step up from the Court of Common Pleas. In this case, John was trying to argue for a new sentencing because the defendant during trial had not been read the guidelines for post release control (probation). However, a new case had already been ruled on earlier in a higher court that may have overturned the need to do a new sentencing if the defendant was not read the guidelines of his post release control during sentencing. John forgot to update the Court of Appeals with another brief in light of the other case that would have amended his argument. Thus, when he got in front of the Judges (there are three), they chastised him for not updating his argument / brief in light of the other case that had been ruled on in a higher court that changed the direction of his argument. So, that was quite awkward as this lawyer was getting reprimanded in front of me. He did have a strong argument despite the other ruling in the other case for at least the guy getting read or updated about his rights to post release control. However, because of his mistake in not updating / giving a supplement to his original brief the Judges basically threw out his argument.

One of the other cases I saw this morning at the Court of Appeals was one about breaking and entering versus burglary. In trial, the defendant was accused of committing a burglary. However, in the Court of Appeals the Appellate was stating that because the house was “vacant” for 25 months, and was thus not a place that constituted a maintained residence it was not a burglary, but merely breaking and entering. The State was saying that because the basic features of the house were intact and the gas, water, and lightening was being paid for by an outside company it constituted a maintained residence. The rebuttal to this by the Appellate was that paying for mere services is not maintaining the residence. He stated the guy who was breaking and entering the house was the one maintaining it not the company. There was a bunch of cases that backed up each respective side. Each person was basically interpreting the law in a different matter. As one of the Judges said they both had strong cases and appealing points of view. So, I’m not exactly sure what the Judges are going to decide in that matter.

The Court of Appeals was very cool because there was much more attention to the actual law. It was also interesting to see how three Judges worked together and listened to the cases. I’m normally used to seeing only one Judge up on the bench. It was also a lot more formal. I also found it interesting that each Case can only take 15 minutes. That forces the lawyers to make their arguments brief and to the point even though they must use a lot of case law to back up their points. I enjoyed viewing another branch of the Judicial System.

ZUMBA

This entire week I have been making up dances for my Zumba class that took place today. I went to several different classes with instructors that I haven’t had yet. I took a cycling, Pilates mat, Zumba, and Pilates reformer class. This whole week I had really been concentrating on the Zumba class making sure I wouldn’t forget steps. Literally all day, every day this week I had been practicing my Zumba moves.

The Zumba class had a great turnout. It appeared that the class had both a fun and difficult workout from all the sweat I saw. I give credit to instructors because it is really hard to both tell the class what to do and not get frustrated when they’re doing it incorrectly as well as breathe while teaching. The instructor is getting a workout, but it is so much more difficult when you have to look peppy, smile, and talk all at the same time. I think the Zumba class was successful in the fact that a bunch of people came up to me afterwards and said how fun it was, how they knew they received a great workout, and that they wanted to try Zumba again. Additionally, many, as well as people who were unable to attend, have asked me to post videos online of the class and the different workouts. All in all, I think it was successful and those who went understand that Zumba is definitely not jazzercise.

One last post for the Week

One day this week was almost entirely dedicated to a 6 month old. Her mother was not there, she was in a strange environment, and honestly wanted nothing to do with napping. This is bad news for anyone who has ever taken care of a 6 month old before! I tried to play with her, I fed her, her diaper was changed.... nothing would help this baby calm down enough for her nap. Her nurses and doctors checked her out, she was fine, just scared and unhappy to be in this strange place. Her exhaustion actually came to a point that she would put her head on my shoulder, fall asleep and wake herself up crying. Eventually, I found a mobile that played music, and that was enough to calm her so that she would fall asleep. Yay!

On a separate note. Remember how all those long term kids went home on Monday? Well, with them came the toys. It is hospital policy that all toys that enter a patient's room must be cleaned before being put back in the playroom. The long term kids all had a ton of stuff in their rooms, and guess who had to clean it all? I have to be honest, cleaning was a big on the boring side, I'd much rather be with kids, but at least they now have a ton more toys to play with!

Anyone want to teach me how to play video games?

I'm serious! I played an eight-year old in some sort of shooting game. Modern warfare, I think. I fell off a cliff. Three times. In a row. And I did it to myself. My job may be to try and occupy kids, but when you are helplessly bad at the activity they want to do.... thats when it gets hard. When I asked the boy if he wanted to play again, he said no, I'm too easy to beat. Haha. Oh well. At least some teenage boys were admitted who were able to play with him!

I did get to play monopoly though, it used to be one of my favorite games. But, once again I lost to a teenage boy, he had over ten thousand dollars in the end. So I guess its not just video games, I need to learn how to play all games that a teenage boy might want to play! Oh well, so it goes, at least they all had fun destroying me.

Preparations for the run and more

So since this Tuesday, I have been working more on putting together the envelopes, but I have also been doing final preparations for the run. There are odds and ends that needed to be done before the race, and I helped get those things done. I was talking with my mom about filling all of the envelopes, and we came up with a more simplified way to do them. So I told my supervisors about creating a book out of the worksheets instead of making envelopes for each lesson. They though it was a good idea and they are going to try it. I had already done about half the long way, so next season will be the test season. I will also make a survey for the coaches to fill out once the season is over. Hopefully the results will be even or favor the books because they will save people hours. I have been working for days on them, but it would take someone a full day to create the book on the computer. Then once they printed it out, there would only be a few odds and ends to do before they were done. It will save a lot of time if it all works out.

The run should be really fun and exciting. All of the girls are really looking forward to it. In the lesson I went to on Wednesday at Glover School, the girls were pumped. They really hope it won't rain. We made and decorated hula hoops with duct tape as a community service project for the school as a thank you for letting the group use the school's gym.

Zumba - All Day Everyday

Yesterday I went to a zumba class and worked on my own zumba dance moves for my class on Sunday. I had already taken the zumba class, but I wanted to see if the instructor had any good moves. However, she did the exact same moves as last time and often lost her class again. At the beginning of each song, she’d stop and talk about the dance moves, which I didn’t like because your workout begins to lose effectiveness if you take too many or too long of breaks. There weren’t any dance moves I wanted to take from the class, but it was fun regardless. I continued creating dances for zumba. I think the hardest part about it, was attempting to make sure people will be able to catch on to the dance. You have to make sure that the move is a multiple of four counts so that it fits the music, that it’s easy enough to learn, and that it is an effective move that will make a body part really work.

Today, I took a Pilates Mat class. I have had back problems for a while and they really peek during volleyball season due to over extension and over compensating different parts of my body for others. Though it was painful at times, I really could feel my core building and strengthening. In the future, if I have more back pain, I will definitely resort to doing more Pilates. After Pilates, Katie and I went over our zumba dances about three more times and realized that it wouldn’t last the full hour. As a result, we each added two more songs. Therefore, today and tomorrow I will be working my bottom off to finish and remember these dances.

Juvenile Division

Today I spent the day in Juvenile Court. It is a separate division; I was previously in felony. I went over there firstly to see a different type of system, and because my sponsor is out of town. She is going to watch her daughter graduate from Elon. So, for the next week, including this Thursday and Friday, I am going to be shadowing different divisions with a host of different defense lawyers.

The Juvenile Court building is really rather gross, old, and awful. Thankfully, they are getting a whole new set up in I think 2012 (?) or somewhere around there. Sadly, that new building is on top of an old brewery and the premises was/is toxic. Why they decided to put the new Juvenile Justice Center there is beyond me, probably because it was cheap land. There is a random triangle of land in the premises that they couldn’t build on or plant because it was too toxic to even “clean up.” I found this out today from multiple lawyers who found it amusing to tell me. They were looking forward to the new center, but also kind of wondering out about this placement choice. Another problem with the existing structure is now before the victims and defendants go into the court room they are waiting in the same room together. This of course posses lots of problems as fights / arguments break out between the families in the waiting area. So, in the new building the victims and defendants will be kept apart separately. The problem now is there isn’t enough space to do that.

I shadowed too different Juvenile Defense lawyers today. I went into the detention home, next to the court, for children who have no families or no one who is willing to take them and have been thrown out of other foster systems wait for trial. I was in there with my lawyer visiting one of her clients. It was pretty bleak and dismal. It was rather a sad atmosphere to keep kids locked up for months waiting trial / filling out light sentences. We then met the same kid (defendant) again in the magistrates office (they are allowed to handle misdemeanors/ light felony cases). They are not the Judge, but each one is assigned to Judge to basically help them out and lower their case load. That way the Judge can focus on his trials and the more serious plea deals. This is not the same as in Felony Court. Juveniles that commit very bad crimes can be bound over to the adult Felony Court (where I was previously). This way they are tried and sentenced as adults. This happens usually in murder / rape / really bad assault etc. In adult Felony Court in the past couple weeks I have witnessed/helped out in two child bindover cases. One was a really bad assault (left the victim having seizures). The other bindover case was a murder of a Chinese food delivery man (couple of kids were being stupid and planning to rob the delivery guy. One kid spooked had a loaded gun and shot, and sadly killed the man). So the really bad Juvenile Cases are not in Juvenile Court. They get shipped over to adult Felony Court. So, I saw this one kid plea to a couple of misdemeanors from a felony. It was pretty routine.

Another case I witnessed was one that actually got dismissed. The witness didn’t show up. It was set to go to trial. A kid was accused of stealing a bike. The witness had written out a statement that accused this one kid. However, the kid had told the lawyer privately that someone else really had done it but because of his close relation with the real stealer he wasn’t giving over the name. This was just a really sad case. The kid had a learning disability, and had never been in trouble before. He obviously was the wrong guy. He was hanging out with the kids of which one of them stole the bike. He admitted that, but he denied actually stealing it. When this woman sees a African American youth sitting next to a Defense Lawyer and is asked, did this guy steal the bike? Sadly, a lot of the time they’ll say yes, even if it’s not a correct match. So, in this case it was really great that the witness didn’t show up so the case got dismissed. The victim and file another claim and try again, but the prosecutor was going to try to talk to the woman out of doing so. It was a really unfortunate case and showed a lot of the flaws in the Justice system. If this had gone to trial, the woman would have testified and the kid would probably have lost. Fortunately, it all worked out.

The biggest difference between Juvenile and adult Felony Court is the really the clients, which seems obvious but you have to be there to fully realize it. Maturity can be low in either place, but working with teenagers is really tricky. Many parents probably can attest to that. They are moody, with lots of anger, and most of the time they don’t understand what’s going on, either its just simply confusing or they pretend “not to care” and don’t really take the situation seriously. Working with teenagers (because most are) is definitely a skill that is acquired and patience is really key. They sometimes really don’t know how to act in there best interest where as adults usually are mature enough or have enough real life experience to know when to just be quiet and take things seriously (I’ve had exceptions).

Classroom Protocol

Before I say what I did this morning, I wanted to mention the classroom culture of group exercise fitness. It is typically women who take the classes, unless the exercise class is cycling or yoga. In cycling and yoga, the workouts are more self-controlled because in cycling you are the one in charge of the resistance gear, not the instructor, and in yoga, it is often your decision for how many body parts you want to lift off the ground and hold or sometimes for how long you hold that position. I believe, because these both are self-controlled, they’re more popular with men. Prior to the beginning of class, you can easily tell the cliques. In the back are the friends who sometimes show up, in the front are the ladies who tend to be in better shape, are always in class, they start warming up by stepping side to side, and wear cute (sometimes just weird) and different exercise clothes every day, and then there are the people who don’t know anyone and stand by themselves looking the mirror awkwardly, unsure of what to do. No matter what clique, they always are talking about how they ate that brownie last night and hate themselves for it or the weather. In class, never talk unless told to by the instructor, or else, trust me, you will get an awful glare from the front row. If you’re in the front row, people who are in the back are probably looking at you if they can’t see the instructor, so try and keep up. The next unspoken etiquette rule, though it is often broken and is a huge pet peeve of mine which unfortunately happens often, is to not go directly in front of another person so they can’t see themselves in the mirror and don’t get too close to them so you hit them while exercising. All I can say is that it is extremely obnoxious and people should learn to not do it. Once the workout starts, everything relaxes and people begin to have fun.

Today I went to a cycling and sculpt class, planned out my zumba class moves, and of course, saw all of you today at the Hawken School meeting!

Jess Weiner's Jazzercise

Guys, Jessie just wanted me to pass on that she is definitely doing jazzercise and not zumba for her class. She also wants you to check out the video of it......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir0vELNbvHU

On Going Home

Last week almost every bed in my division was occupied. Today, only a handful remain. Four children I had played with on a consistent basis went home between Friday and today. It's hard to know what to feel when you see a child you have played with and gotten to know over the course of a couple weeks go home. Yes, of course I am excited that they are well enough to go home, who wouldn't be? But, I also realize that I will probably never see them again, and will never know how they are doing, and at the same time I am hoping that I will not see them back in the hospital.

At least this afternoon, there was not much to do, because any children that were still in the division were either asleep or occupied in some other manner. I guess, sadly, I know I will have more to do this week, because there will always be children getting sick and needing help. This fact is inevitable, so I might as well make those children who have to be in the division a bit happier. My task for the week: get to know more kids!

Putting everything together

Today was a pretty boring day, but very productive for me. I had been counting out pieces of paper, stickers, and other odds and ends for the past few days (I even worked some this weekend in hopes of finishing all of the work). So today I got everything together, after I had finished counting everything out, and started putting it in order. I realized that some things were missing, and went to get them printed and sorted at Kinkos. But now, by the end of the day everything is ready. I am going to be able to put the envelopes together efficiently. I have already put together some envelopes for some sites, but I got so frustrated that the process was so inefficient that I reevaluated what I was doing. I realized that if I counted everything before I put them together, putting them together should take no time. So hopefully I am correct. I guess I will find out tomorrow. Tension is rising with the leaders of GOTR because the run is this Sunday. Everything is planned, but we are all hoping that the weather will not be bad. Weather.com says that it is going to rain that day but it will be hot. Saturday is supposed to be nice, and the run is in the morning, so we are hoping that it won't rain until later in the day.

Carrying Concealed Weapon Class

On Saturday I went to a CCW (carrying concealed weapon) class that my defense lawyer teaches. It’s not mandatory that she teach the class as part of her job. She does it by contract as another way to supplement her income. The purpose of the class is to teach people convicted of carrying a concealed weapon why that’s wrong in the view of the law. The program was dreamt up by a Judge Griffin (this Judge was the man that put me in connect with my lawyer for Senior Project), social workers, and a few defense lawyers. These convicted people usually are made to take this class as part of their sentencing/parole requirements. This means they’re very unpleased to be there bright and early on a Saturday morning.

So, I got to the Justice Center (downtown) early on Saturday, and met my lawyer and all the other people who were taking the class. I first handed out the packet, pencils. This seems like no big deal. However, individually meeting each guy by name and handing out the packet was a nice way to break ice for me. I’m the nicely dressed young white girl, so it was a good way to at least start off and show that I’m not going to go hide in the corner the entire time and be judgmental. This class was mostly young African American males (under 20), one white man, and one African American woman. In a group setting like this it’s easier to see the racial / gender/ economic divides in the criminal justice system. My lawyer was discussing the other day about how the fact that 80-85% of all cases in her area are committed by male offenders. There really are clear divides, and in a group setting like this it was easy for me to see that. The biggest divide that I have seen really is economics (income). It seems to make the greatest impact on whether or not a person ends up in the system.

After I met everyone, we sat in a circle (very AA like) and each guy shared who he was and why he was here (what he was charged with, why did he do it, would he change anything). There was a wide range of stories. One older gentlemen was a teacher, and he accidently left his gun in his car when he went to school. A kid broke into his car and stole the gun. Since, he isn’t legally allowed to have his gun at school even if it’s in a car, he got in trouble and thus went to court etc. and got charged with a CCW. Thus, he is in this class. He got his teaching license suspended and it’s a huge mess. He actually did have a license to carry, but because he wasn’t following the law (even if you have a license you are not allowed to have a gun in school property) he was charged. He was older, took responsibility for his actions, and actually had a license to carry. So, that is one side of the spectrum. The other is a man who had 4 previous cases involving guns. He was carrying for self-protection. He has young kids, and lives in East Cleveland. He witnessed a man robbing his car and shot at him. He missed, hence why the robber isn’t dead and why this man isn’t in jail. Anyway, so he was required to take this class as part of his probation. Universally, the reason for why these men (and woman) carried guns was for self-defense. They lived in East Cleveland or Euclid or worked in those areas. Considering all the cases I’ve heard over the past two weeks, I’m really not surprised that they wanted guns for protection. It’s completely logically from my point of view. Despite my views on gun control in general, I certainly believe that these guys need for a gun was legitimate. However, if you are under 21 you cannot get a license. Many, in this class were around 18-20 and couldn’t get one. There were some older guys mid20’s – early thirties who should have gotten a license, but they’re lazy and didn’t get one. Plus there is a large mistrust with the law, and going into a police station is not something these men are going to feel comfortable doing. There is a lot of race tension between cops and civilians. Really if they are old enough and don’t get a license its there own fault, they should just go get a license. Many of these guys get caught with a CCW charge when they got caught for something else, or pulled over for some reason and the cops searched their car and low and behold there was a weapon with no license.

So after they shared with the group, my lawyer discussed the law with them. Basically she went through the exact laws and explained it to them. She also discussed how to get a license.

The class was really interesting. These men were already sentenced and they felt more free talking about how the felt about the charges. There was a lot of anger, resentment, especially towards the police. One guy felt that he was caught because the police felt it was a “bag a (N word) day.” The hostility towards the police, especially in East Cleveland was tangible. I felt I got more of a perspective of how these guys live day to day in some difficult parts of Cleveland. I think it was insightful for these guys to witness other people in the same situation, and maybe discuss that yea they can have a concealed weapon they just have to get a license. Many probably won’t, but the statistics from the class (they track each person who takes it) show that the people who take this CCW class are way less likely to reoffend in anything. I can’t remember the exact numbers but they were really shocking. I didn’t realize that this one little class that seems like a waste of time actually can have a seriously large impact on keeping people out of the system. The biggest thing learned though was people are going to carry in these neighborhoods if the situation presents itself where they feel like they need to carry for protection. The greater problem is really the general poverty and lack of social services that lead to crime to begin with. People in East Cleveland for instance are for sure going to carry weapons as long as they feel they need to. So in order to fix the problem they need to address the root of the issue. Until then, sadly, there will be many more people who take this CCW class.

I've remembered to do a blog!

So today was cold and rainy so my dad and I (and my mom too) drove up Martin Luther King Blvd through Rockefeller park and looked at all the cultural gardens along the road. Some of them were beautiful, especially the Hungarian one. Can you insert pictures on this thing?... apparently you can. So, that's the Hungarian cultural garden. There are at least 30 gardens all spread out through Rockefeller park. We drove all the way northward where it ends and there is the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse, which is like an older botanical gardens. It almost felt like a lesser Kensington Palace garden or something - gazebos and statues and benches with cut grass and tulips everywhere. Unfortunately there was a middle school field trip here so there were a bunch of kids running around with clipboards looking for the Helen Keller statue. They kept screaming, "Hellen Keller, where are you?" and I wanted to say back, "She can't hear you, she's deaf."

From there we drove over, up Superior, to Forest Hill Park which is right on the border of East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights. It was once the site of Rockefeller's home before in burned to the ground in 1917. Now it's a pretty big park with a lake and a baseball field or two. The interesting part was when we were driving there you could literally see in front of you this giant hill on the horizon which was the heights of Cleveland - Shaker, Cleveland, University, Richmond, etc. - all rising before us as we drove out of Cleveland.

Holy Cranky...

I've decided that rest time is a good time to get these blogs done. 

Today has been a rough day for my class. First, during play time this morning they got out literally every toy that we own. The place was a wreck. It was also really cold in the classroom this morning so there were kids dragging blankets around and playing mommy and baby with the blankets. Everyone is also very cranky. They're having trouble keeping their hands to themselves. One of the little boys in the class decided today that he was in charge. His exact words were "GO BYE! I da boss not YOU!" as he stomped away to push one of the other kids... We also had library today. Instead of listening to the stories being told some of the girls would yell out that they had eaten whatever was on the page being shown. Oh, would you like an example of this creative way to be a distraction????? We were reading a story about rainbows, every time the page turned it was a race to see who could announce "I ATE THAT RAINBOW!" and logically a fight would ensue about who actually ate the rainbow. As we were leaving the library, one of the kids was devastated to find that he couldn't take home a book about trucks. It's been about 3 hours since our time in the library and he is still crying about the truck book. 

Monday + Rest Time = chaos..

The Biggest Week in Birding!

The Biggest Week in Birding came to a close this past weekend after 7 days of intense birding at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Oak Habor. This week attracted people from all over the country. I saw plates from close as Ohio to as far away as Texas and California. Several thousand birders came through the refuge just this past weekend to see the large variety of birds that come through North West Ohio on their yearly migration to the upper parts of Canada and the Arctic. Not only does it attract the birders but it also brings in experts in the field to teach other people what they know about birds. One such group was the Tropical Birding tour guides that came in to give guided tours throughout the refuge and teach people about the birds that they are seeing along the way. These people travel all over the world giving bird tours in areas ranging from the Middle East to the rainforests. The group is made up of people from all over the world as well and I met one guy who is a native Australian, who also happens to share my name; Ian. I have learned a lot about birds from these guys and the other people that have come into the park. The whole atmosphere of the refuge will be changing since the BWB is now over but that means that we will have more of a chance to get a hands on experience with some of the wildlife and I am really looking forward to that.

Some things this past week

This week I finished my first box of shredding!! But then since we have more interns they had to finish it! :D I'm glad I at least got to finish the first box though, I felt like that was between me and the box and no one else could do it. I got to move on to more important stuff. VIP packaging and mailing. I made 64 shipping labels on UPS.com which sounds like it wouldn't take that much time...but it took me two and a half hours. Slow computers >.< Then I had to pack them all up. I dont know if any of you know this but.... packing tape is the most infuriating thing ever invented. Ever. We ran out of label protectors so I had to use tape. It was awful. Then luckily we found more. Then, the other intern and I realized that we were 5 labels short... and that was of course my fault. Which was annoying because I crossed out every single name and made sure that I had everyone and somehow some of them didn't print. SO I had to spend more time on that. Luckily we got all 64 packages out in time.

Also! There's this cool woman who does marketing in the office and she has an english sheep dog! She's been bringing it in to the office, her name is fergie... She's up on top! Cutest dog ever! But she doesn't trust me at all... we're getting there....

Even though the shipping labels were a big job, it wasn't my biggest this week. I had VIP packages to put together. Each VIP member gets a certain amount of wrist bands, a certain amount of parking passes, and a certain amount of tickets to every single show. There's a long list of all this information. I have to make sure all the right tickets are in the envelope along with passes and wrist bands. Also something that doesn't seem like it would take that long, but it really does. The stacks of tickets are pretty big and you have to go searching through them to make sure that the VIP gets the correct tickets and the correct amount of tickets. It's kind of stressful. The longer you do it the more easy it gets. Here's a picture of that...

That's all I can remember.... Sorry the layout of the pictures suck :/

Last Post For Week 2

This week there was a 12th birthday for a girl in my division! At first sight, it may seem like a terrible thing for a girl to spend her birthday in the hospital, so it was my job to make sure that she had fun.

The day before, I choose presents from the donation room in the basement of the hospital. She received a bunch of small items, and two bigger ones. The one from the hospital was a light brite (which I think is awesome), and an organization that had worked with her for a while gave her a Razor scooter! I also wrapped most of her gifts (though I must add that the only wrapping paper the hospital had was infuriatingly thin). The volunteers also made her a birthday card from all of us.

When I came in on the day of her birthday, her room was already decorated with streamers and a banner, and several large balloons.

At 11 am on her birthday, most of the division gathered outside her room, sang happy birthday and watched her open her gifts. I had never seen a little girl so happy! Angela and I also brought in the game cart, and we had a wii-bowling party in her room! The girl scored 3 strikes in a row, and was jumping up and down with excitement. She plans to have a real bowling party when she gets out of the hospital. It was nice to give her a memorable birthday, even if it had to be in the hospital.

Second Post for Week 2

I feel needed!

One day this week, (I forget exactly which), there were so many things that needed to be done, that I couldn't possibly do them all. I was needed to feed and watch a 4 month old, watch 2 different toddlers, spend time with a 2 year old who was by herself, choose and wrap presents for a 12th birthday, and that wasn't even half of what was needed during the day.

So I guess this post is a plea to others to consider volunteering at a hospital. They really need volunteers to help the kids and families staying there! It's not scary (as I thought it might be), the kids in the hospital are just kids who want a little attention, or something to do during the day. Any time spent as a volunteer is greatly appreciated by the nurses because the tasks that a volunteer does are just a few less things for the nurses to have on their todo lists. Beyond that, its actually fun to be a volunteer!

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge

I am working out at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Oak Harbor Ohio, about 20 mins or so past Cedar Point in Sandusky. I have been going out four days a week for the past two weeks and have experienced so much. I am working with Mikey Baratz and we are currently helping the refuge calibrate their car counters. To do this we need to survey the people coming into the park. We try to find out how many people are in each car, what they intend to do at the park, and whether or not they visit the visitors center. By doing this we are able to figure out an average number of people per car, which will give them a more accurate count of their daily visitors from now on. The purpose to doing this is not only just to know the number but will also aid them in their report to the government. The refuge is federally funded meaning the government pays for the operation costs and the more people that they have visiting the more federal funding they can have.

The refuge mainly focuses on land restoration and is one of the biggest bird conservatories in the state. Currently the refuge owns 9,000 acres of wetlands, marshes, and fields for the wildlife to thrive. My father helped to build their visitors center which was opened three years ago and is the most visited location in the refuge. The refuge sits next to the Magee Marsh which is another bird refuge. Currently, the two refuges are working together to put on te Biggest Week in Birding, which runs through the 14th. This week attracts thousands of birders to the area due to the vast number of different species that make the area home on their trip up north. The most spectacular bird I have seen so far iis the Bald Eagle. There are five nests on the refuge and so far three of the five have occupants.

Due to the distance of the project we set up a schedule with the refuge that allows us to spend the night in their bunk house two nights a week. The house is equipped with two bedrooms/bathrooms, a full kitchen, a living room with T.V. and also a screened in porch. Being able to stay out in the bunk house has taught us a lot about living on our own and is giving us a small preview of what college will be like having to cook your own food and not having family around all the time. We did learn however that when cooking bacon, do it in the oven. We cooked breakfast one morning and our bacon was putting off a lot of smoke. We opened the windows, turned on the fan above the stove and not five minutes later the fire alarm went off. Since it is a government building the security system alerted the police department. There was NO FIRE. We sat down to breakfast after the alarm shut off and no sooner than we began to eat our bacon the doorbell rang and a police officer was there. We explained what had happened and we had a good laugh about it. Besides this one little learning experience the bunk house has been smooth sailing and a great part project.

We have loved our project and cant wait to see what we will be doing next. I am in the process of making a time lapse film of some of the different locations in the refuge and I will be posting it on here when I am finished.

2 of 3!

I found these neat photos today via the Cleveland Memory Project Photo Archives housed at CSU

As you can see, these are some photo collages of Coventry in the 1980s. Pretty cool!

- Alec Aldrich

This Week in Cleveland

Ok, so I'm really sorry that I've forgotten to write three posts this week - in my defense, part of my project is a blog so if you'd like to see what's going on please go to http://anagnostos.clevelandhistory.org/ to see what I've been up to.

This week I mainly stayed within downtown itself instead of wandering out to the further reaches of the RTA line. Instead I started out with Tuesday and Wednesday (Monday was AP day) by visiting two of Cleveland's cemeteries. The first was Lake View Cemetery which is an absolutely beautiful place. I went up to the top of the James Garfield Memorial and you can literally see the entire city of Cleveland, the Lake, University Circle, a lot of trees, and so much. Ironically, right before I went up there I was going to ask the guy at the front desk if there was actually a lake view there - good thing I didn't, that would've been embarrassing. I highly recommend that people go there! It's an incredible view.

The next day my main focus was the East Cleveland Township Cemetery to compare the two as they were both built with ten years of each other - Lake View in 1869, East Cleveland in 1859. The second is across the railroad tracks and Euclid Avenue and it lacks all of the beauty that Lake View has. It's smaller and more run down and the freight trains run right by it, yet there was something still pretty special about the history of the place. Later in the afternoon I went to this small museum on Euclid called the Dunham Tavern Museum which is the oldest house in Cleveland still on its original foundation. The most interesting thing there were all the maps and prints of Cleveland back when it was first being built and all of the buildings we associate with Cleveland now weren't even a thought yet. (Dunham Tavern is open Sundays and Wednesdays from 1-4 PM. Tickets are $3 yet free on Wednesday.)

I also took a while yesterday walking around downtown, mainly the waterfront which was a nice escape from the heat we had. I visited Voinovich Park, the Science Center, etc., and also toured the Q and Jacob's Field area. Unfortunately the one train line that would take me directly from the Q area to the lakefront only operates on the weekends so I walked all the way there - needless to say I was really tired by the time I got home.

Today I decided to keep in close to home, lucky because it poured today, and went to Larchmere, right off of Shaker Square, and photographed that area. Larchmere has was Cleveland lacks: the little shops and restaurants and bookstores that make it a really neat place to be. That and it's been there for so long.

So, week two is done - two weeks to go.

Hope to see you all soon.

Senior Project, PCP case / Death Penalty case

Today, I met a client who was charged with kidnapping, and felonious assault. He got high on PCP, again as mentioned in the last post BAD DRUG, ran out of an apartment building. He then went into a nearby drug store, only to leave quickly. He proceeded to then go to the window of a car waiting to turn left (?) at an intersection (near University Circle). He said people were chasing him, and going to kill him and asked the woman in the car to call 9-1-1. Scared witless the woman started to drive away, and the defendant proceeded to open her passenger side car door, grab the wheel, and pull the hair of the woman (not allowing her to exit the vehicle). The woman states she repeatedly drove over the curb to get the guy out of the car, and then hit the street post. The air bags deployed, leaving the woman with a broken wrist and the defendant minor head damage. When taken to the hospital he was found positive for PCP and cocaine. This case is a great example / follow up to the previous post of mine that PCP makes people do crazy things. The client hallucinated, thought people where trying to kill him, and in his attempts to “get away” managed to harm another person. What most people assume is these felons are horrible people who intend to harm others. In this case, the guy was simply very stupid and ended up taking a drug that influenced him to make even poorer decisions. People ask if I’m afraid in the holding cell meeting with these guys, and in most cases no. A lot of the time, the felons are people who have difficult lives who decide to make poor decisions that lead to trouble, most of the time due to drugs, alcohol or mental problems. The felons that disturb me are the crafty, cunning ones who know exactly what they are doing and plan it out. Sitting in this cell, I just felt really bad for this guy. His life is completely changed by one horrible, stupid decision to take a really nasty drug. Lesson learned = never do PCP.

My “homework” for this weekend is to read over a case and past history of a man charged of killing his girlfriend’s 2 year old son (head trauma due to “struggle” in the bath). It is not his kid. This woman knew him for only 6 weeks, and then allowed him to stay with her. Lesson, never invite people into your home to live with you who you do not know for an extended amount of time. My lawyer’s office is doing this “brainstorming” session about ways in which during the mitigation they can say why this man should not be killed by the state (death penalty). Mitigation is what occurs after the person has been found guilty. Basically, it decides weather or not this person should be put to death because certain “mitigating factors” like mental illness prevents the state from being able to kill convicted murders. Actually, only certain types of murders to begin with (killing a cop, child under age of 12, mass murder, prior murder conviction etc.) can even be eligible for the death penalty. So, I’m to read over the case / past history of the alleged killer (though its pretty apparent he did it, so that’s not the big issue), and find reasons why if charged with guilty the state should not sentence him to death. Learning more about the death penalty process was interesting, plus also witnessing how the office works together to brainstorm a theory for mitigation was insightful. Most people see lawyers as competing with one another or trying to be completely independent. It was nice to see them working together to see how to plan this guy’s mitigation theory.

Senior Project, Mental Health / Jail

On last Friday I shadowed a different public defense lawyer who works in mental health. Judge Villanueva, who does mental health cases, conducts a special session every Friday for his mental health patients. He invites the parole officers, social workers, and the defense lawyers into a conference room and discusses each upcoming mental health case for the day. This way he is better educated about each case before going into court with the mentally handicapped person. It gives him a chance to figure out more solutions with the parole officers / social workers being present to offer advice on what certain punishments/ treatment options could be. It gives him more latitude in his sentencing. This special meeting before actually going to court for mental health cases is something unique Judge Villanueva does. No other Judge in the Justice Center does this special before hand meetings. I went to the meetings and the subsequent cases and could clearly see how it was beneficial for the Judge to spend the extra time talking to the social workers / defense lawyers before hand. He was able to give alternate options besides straight prison for the mentally ill criminals, and it kept the courtroom more calm because the mentally ill defendants were less confused by a Judge who had already heard and understood their individual cases. I have met most of the Cuyahoga Judges by now, and I was incredibly impressed by Judge Villanueva’s extra work and dedication. There are certain Judges who by now I know would never consider going out of their way to that extent to ensure the best possible situation for the defendants.

On this Thursday, I spent the morning inside the Justice Center like normal meeting with my lawyer and her clients, doing plea deals, sentencings etc. In particular there was a young man who was caught with Heroin /addict that needed to plea, so I was there for that as well as meeting with him to discuss what was going to happen in court / what was going to happen after court (how to get a parole officer etc.). I also talked with Judge McGinty for a while in his office with my lawyer. Mainly chatting about his love for running marathons, and past cases that involved PCP use by the defendant. I agree they were rather separate topics of conversation. I can’t really remember how PCP came up in conjunction with marathon running. The lesson learned there was, never do PCP, not a good drug. It makes people do really stupid things that endanger / kill family members / loved ones.

Then in the afternoon I went to the jail connected to the Justice Center. We (my lawyer and I) were there to meet with a client for the first time. This is the chance for him to explain what happened, and a little about himself prior to his case. Supposedly according to the police/victim report, he hit another homeless man in the back of the head with a brick. However, he had a conflicting story, most likely lying to avoid getting into trouble. It’s my lawyers job to sort of figure out what was really going on and to then defend him. He clearly had mental issues, and she is getting a social worker and mental evaluation for him. He admitted to hearing voices. Depending on the results of that evaluation, she will decide what to do. If he is found unable to assist in his own defense due to mental health issues, there will be special different procedures on how that is tried (mental health cases mentioned in the first paragraph). So, as of now, we’re just waiting on the result of that mental health evaluation. If this ends up going to regular court, (he doesn’t accept plea deal and is found mentally stable), it would be a difficult trial. He is already had a long criminal history including theft, robbery, and sexual battery dating back to 1985. Plus, he did admit to injuring this other homeless man, but instead of a brick a cane. He is also charged with drug possession because at the time of his arrest (he had a gram of cocaine in his pocket).

Third Post for Second Week Jessica

Yesterday I took two classes, a cycling class and a yoga class. The cycling was challenging, but to be particularly honest, it seems like the easiest group fitness class to actually teach. It’s a class that’s very difficult to do incorrectly. For instance, if you’re simulating what would seem like a mountain, you just turn up the amount of resistance. On a bike, you can either push down on the handle bars to work your triceps, you can increase the amount of resistance, do intervals from sitting to standing, and change your position from sitting in the saddle to standing to leaning forward. One is able to make it their own, which is one of the best parts of spinning (not to mention it really works your legs and abdominals), but there’s not too much you can do. The yoga class I took was only alright. We quickly changed positions from “warrior” pose to “triangle” pose to “downward dog” pose to “plank” pose. For me, it was too quick of movement and I like to think of yoga as more relaxing and slow. I also sent out emails to all of the instructors yesterday about interviews, I finished making instructor manuals, and like everyday, I met and spoke with my sponsor.

Today I also took two classes, a kick and sculpt class and a stretch and firm class, I scheduled appointments with instructors in order to interview them, and spoke with my sponsor. The kick and sculpt class was extremely difficult. It was essentially a kick boxing class with intervals of high intensity and intervals of weight lifting. The stretch and firm class was like a dance class for seniors, so it was very easy for me. Towards the end of the class, we used bands for an upper body workout.

1 of 3 Posts for Friday!

Well, I've more or less sequestered myself from the world this week in an effort to work on the literary-journalism component of my project. It's been much more challenging than I expected, mostly because I am only now realizing the full extent to which my brain has been completely fried by writing a 33,000 first draft of a novel for senior thesis.

The main angle that I am pursuing at this point is the indelible similarities between the counter-cultural hub of the Midwest - Coventry Road, and the surrounding "white bread" suburban developments such as Forest Hill. During the era of the Vietnam War, when the Beat Generation's message of sticking it to the man, and free-love (albeit tinged with a good deal of misogyny at its root) achieved its zenith in the grand historical spectrum of the past century, many people in the suburbs actually shared many of the base beliefs of those crazy hippies hanging out in those now-dingy apartments that flank the Coventry commercial district. Both groups really did find fault with the War, and even before the social explosions of the 1960s, housewives in their ranch homes began to find fault with the so-called "American Dream" and the overvaluation of capitalism. It is immature to suggest that the hippies were something truly unique - in fact, they were simply the amalgamation of the beliefs of Americans all over the country. History has painted a dichotomous tale of hippies fighting against the suits, when really, most people at the time seemed to be thinking critically about where they stood in regards to their government and their nationalism.

Happy project!

- Alec Aldrich

First week of project - Tuesday and Wednesday

The second and third day of project I spent taking pictures at some abandoned farmland near house. There are a few barns and some old equipment there. I also spent a lot of time uploading and editing these pictures. When my internet allowed me to do so I was doing some research on some cool places that I could drive to in order to get some new pictures. I plan on going to Centerville Mills (near Bainbridge and Aurora) because there used to be an old mill there a while back. I am familiar with the place because I went to camp there. I realized that I am going to need to do a lot more in-depth research in order to find out who owns the property so I do not get in trouble for trespassing. I have already started making phone calls and have gotten permission to a few places. One place that I am looking forward to going is called Faymores Castle. It is in Elyria Ohio and has an interesting story behind it. The short version of the story is that there was a doctor who was going to build a huge castle and was arrested before it could be finished being built. He died shortly after he was released from jail and the home was never finished. So the walls still stand in the middle of the woods. I am really looking forward to going there! The people that owned the property gave me permission to come take pictures there on Saturday May 14. I am trying to set up an account on Flickr to post my pictures as I edit them. When I get some pictures up I will post the link!