Cleveland, Ohio....not sure how to label it

I am back. I wanted to go on about Cleveland. I just saw a story that Ricky Martin's autobiography will be published in November. Along with the Justin Beiber memoir, all I can say is "Who the fuck cares?!!!?". Do I give a shit about the 16 years in Justin Beiber's life? What exactly has he done? He will be gone in no time (Beibs better milk it while you can, remember Corey Haim--great Canadian reference). Ricky Martin? I thought you were gay when you had your "Livin' La Vida Loca" hit a good ten years ago. What have you done for us lately, except come out of the closet? Nothing! Autobiography? Who in the world gives a shit?



If you do give a shit about reading about either of the two, fuck off! Get off of my blog, you do not belong here.



Now, that bit of unpleasantness is done, I can begin. I do not recall if I mentioned that Cleveland is a weird sort of city. Back in 1978, I visited Cleveland and we stayed in a downtown hotel, as my uncle had his zipper job (coronary bypass surgery) done at the Cleveland Clinic. I recall arriving at the hotel on the Saturday and finding the hotel to be okay. On the Sunday, there were three separate and unrelated murders on the same street as the hotel. Wonderful city to visit.

Since that time (we were back in the area, suburbs, in 1994 as the Wife's sister, husband and kids were living there as my brother in law worked at a Veterans hospital as a neurologist to attain his green card. Once he got it, he moved, with his family, to Dayton. He wanted to be a big fish in a small pond as opposed to a small fish in a big pond (like Cleveland or Toronto). With the building of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Quicken Loans Arena (formerly the Gund), Progressive Field (formerly Jacob's Field where the Indians play) and Brown's Stadium, the downtown was not quite as dangerous. It was a bit iffy, but we did not feel in any danger.

As we walked the first evening there and all day Friday, I noticed a number of downtown hotels and saw an architecture tour. The downtown architecture was quite interesting as it was created in an earlier day, well before the Cuyohoga River caught fire, and when Cleveland, and all of the Rust Belt from Detroit to Buffalo, was a happening area in the US. That time is done.

All of the cities have tried to create a downtown resurgence with draws (stadii) into the downtown area. Driving through downtown Buffalo on the way to Cleveland was a bit brutal. I do recall my family staying at the Hyatt (right beside the old Aud, and new HSBC arena) in downtown Buffalo, once. Normally, we stayed and we stay in a suburban hotel (shopping and driving friendly), though given the utter crap at Burlington Crap Factory and the other stores we visited, there was not much shopping to be had, so the next journey that way may be a long time coming.

Cleveland is no different. In fact, that first night we wandered towards Progressive Field and ended up in a great little restaurant area near everything. We did have a good Vietnamese meal while sitting outside. The fried calamari that I shared with the Lad was awesome. This restaurant was right across from Lola, the restuarant owned by Food TV Iron Chef and personality, Michael Symon. It was a cool area.

We did hit a dead mall in the city center. It was a refurbished train station, but was seedy. That includes the people milling about inside and outside. We did notice that there was a lot of security and police (on bikes) hovering around. I did not feel unsafe just very aware of our surroundings. I wanted to keep moving as that makes us a more difficult target. The Wife and Lad do not seem to notice, or if they do, do nothing about it. It is left to me to do something and point it out to them.

This usually leads to "I don't want to think that.....". My usual response is "You have that thought partially correct. Stop it with "you don't want to think."" That often gets me in trouble, not for speaking the truth, but because The Wife does not want to hear the truth. So we go into a whole notion of "want" and what that means. Again, do not really care about the conclusions you "want" to draw, just need to know the conclusion and does it fit the facts as observed. Reality versus fantasy type stuff. No problem with the fantasy, but would like to know what will DONE to bring it about.

Anyway, we did get to wander in the heat of the city. It did not seem that busy for a midday on a Friday, but what do I know. Many banks and many homeless, not sure if that really differs from any US city, though.

The Wife says it was seedy in downtown Cleveland. I am not sure of her frame of reference, though. I have seen it far worse. I would not necessarily call it seedy. I have seen it, and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, I really have no burning desire to see it again.

The biggets upside is that while were away, the Wife's sister and family were in our hometown for a "visit". Again, my addle minded sister in law tried to pressure the Wife to accommodate her and the Wife actually held firm. We did come back on Saturday on the off chance that they would compromise their visit, but of course, that did not happen. We did not see them (I am not complaining and really could care less). The Wife was disappointed that she did not see her neices and nephew, but she had no desire to see her sister or brother in law (I did not care about any of it). Needless to say, the Wife has not called her sister and he sister has not called (I no longer pick up the phone when I see her number, I have nothing to say to her. She serves NO purpose in my life).

Ciao!