can't leave my first love

I am beginning a blog post at 2:37a.m.
Why?
Because I can't sleep.
Why?
Heartburn.
Why?
Camp Washington Chili.

So Adam and Jenn carpooled to Indiana for Thanksgiving break last night and I met them for dinner. They were picking up I-74 just north of the city so I looked for a Skyline Chili at which to meet them but the closest one was inconvenient at best (as far as I could tell). And Camp Washington Chili was off Hopple, the exit immediately below the I-74 exit. How convenient!

I've heard of Camp Washington Chili. In fact, it was on my mental (however subconscious) Cincinnati bucket list. There's only one Camp Washington Chili (as opposed to over 130 Skyline Chilis) and it's somewhat of a Cincinnati icon.

Well I put the directions from Google Maps in my non-smartphone and eventually found my way there from Hyde Park via Madison/MLK. I stopped at the BP next door to pick up some Razzleberry Peace Tea (sweet nectar from heaven) for Adam and then enjoyed over an hour of fellowship with my camp buds.

In order to fairly compare Camp Washington to my Cinci chili standard (Skyline), I ordered the classic 3-way and cheese fries.

Here are the facts:
The portion was large, and the cheese was piled beautifully high.
The chili felt and tasted meaty in my mouth.
The spaghetti was thick and at least a little bit mushy.
The fries were thick (like Wendy's fries) and the cheese was amazingly greasy.
The oyster crackers came in a prepackaged little bag and were flat and not very salty.

Now on to preference:
I like the smoothness of Skyline Chili better.
I prefer firmer noodles. Camp Washington's felt to me as if they were overcooked.
I'm a skinny fry person--it's just my preference.
I like the little bowls of salty, rounded crackers at Skyline.
As regards portions, I still ate too much, unable to stop when I reached full (just one reason that I don't get chili weekly).   :)
Aaaaaaand it's 7 minutes til 3a.m. and I'm awake with uncharacteristic heartburn.

In conclusion, I like Skyline Chili better.
I understand that these are preference matters and I also understand one's first Cincinnati chili experience is very possibly where one's loyalties lie. (Please also note that this is an assessment of the 3-way chili, not any other menu item)

Now hopefully I can sleep some more before I have to work at 6:45a.m.

And sometime soon I've gotta go try a Goldstar and a BAC 3-way...

no pride, no shame, just trust

I am a college graduate. I had some pride in that accomplishment. I worked my tail off to pay my part of my education and still remember, very clearly, the stress that accompanied that work ethic. I worked 4 jobs the summer after my freshman year and wished I had understood the swift-heading-of-the-dollars-toward-the-drain that would ensue upon my first day on campus. I had no clue. Then, I did that which I had avowed never to do—I sat out a semester at home and worked my tail off again. In doing so, I opened the door to a teeny amount of financial looseness (I wouldn’t call it freedom) that enabled me to work at a camp for teenagers the summer following my junior year. How could I have known that is was there, receiving a biweekly paycheck of less than $200, that I would find my calling in life? How could I have known that the thing I love most doesn’t require a degree in any fashion?

Yet without the physical move to South Carolina that my life took my freshman year of college, I would not really have been in a place to apply for that camp. And I wouldn’t have worked at another camp. And if I hadn’t worked at camp I wouldn’t have known my crazy passion for teenagers.

And so my degree was merely a means of getting me to the place I needed to be. It doesn’t matter what the degree is in; it could be accounting, teaching, business, home ec, or history. It’s a moot point. The point is that I was physically in the stepping-stone-place to the place that showed me my true passion.

But my degree is in creative writing. And I’m looking for a job. Not a writing job. An office job. A nanny job. A waitress job. Possibly even against a warehouse job. I’ve done them all before. Not a single one requires ‘further education’. Not one of those employers needs to see that $50,000 piece of paper that I haven’t touched since the day I got it (over 4 years ago!). Not one of those jobs gives two hoots about my GPA or extracurricular activities. Not a one.

Sometimes I struggle with feeling inferior to who-knows-who/what because I’m not using my degree. Because I’m looking for a job that, technically, a highschool graduate could get. Because I tend toward blue collar work that pays hourly and doesn’t really have benefits. (Oh yeah…I should probably locate some benefits.) But anytime I review the last 8 years of my life, I reach the beautiful, consistent, joyful truth that God directed every single step of my living process. He didn't make one mistake and He used and is using every choice that I made along the way, good and bad, all for His greater good. (I mean, that's part of why I serve this God!) 

I think I could change Proverbs 3:5-6 ever so slightly to say, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him; and check out what He did?!-He directed your path! And He ain't stopping now!"  

I just love God and the way He works. I kinda love having no clue about what He is doing. Because knowing that He's totally got this lends itself to peace and adventure. The adventure of my life continues!   

I still don't have a job...and this post is full of loose ends about my passion...more on that later...