One of my biggest pet peeves is people dissing Toledo. The TOL is what you make it and I think it's beautiful, hip, and strong. There is always something to do in town. From the Art Loops, to trivia nights, to hockey games, Toledo is loud and proud and so are the people in it. Tonight I ventured to Toledo soup with a close friend from work, Liz.

Cue cute pic:



So Toledo Soup is a semi annual fundraiser hosted in the Collingwood Arts Center in the Old West End. People from all around town come and pay $5 for a small meal that includes a bowl of soup (choices are provided from various chefs from Toledo).  I had a sweet and sour soup with mushrooms made by the chef at Balance Pan-Asian Grill. IT WAS DELIOUS 😀


All of the proceeds go to a cause that is presented to the audience while they are eating their meal.

Tonight there were four presenters (descriptions provided by Toledo Soup's Facebook page):

1) Morgan Fitzgibbons is hoping to win SOUP funds to help create a Post-It mural on the interior, north side of the Fiberglas Tower in downtown Toledo. The tower has been vacant for decades. Morgan said he has received permission to create the mural.

2) Soul City Boxing and Wrestling Gym, which won SOUP in 2014, is back again seeking funding to help pay the gym's Internet bill and to send a team of eight athletes to the Elite, Youth, and Junior National Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, in December.

3) Joseph Peterson is seeking SOUP funding to put on a “Family Fued” style event at Scott High School, in which students, staff, family, and “celebrities,” will compete for prizes by guessing the responses to survey questions.

4) Jerrod Witt is hoping you'll vote for his AudiblEye project. AudiblEye provides indoor navigation to the blind and visually impared through an iOS app. SOUP funds would be used to spread the application to a larger audience.

Each presenter spoke for 7-10 minutes and at the end of the presentations, we voted for the person we believed the funds should go to.

Toledo is such a great community, but if you don't go out and experience it, you'll never know.  So next time you have a free afternoon, go to the art museum, take a walk through the Old West End, turn your phone off and explore Oak Openings, take some cash out and go shopping on Adams.  Get out there, and explore your home.  Your views might change once you actually step out of your comfort zone.

***This "review" contains spoiler alerts


It's not often that I find a movie that is better than it's book counter part, but after reading the young adult novel, Me and Earl and The Dying Girl, I can confirm that in fact, I have.  The book had potential; I mean the overall story line was good, the main characters had diverse personalities, and the author (Jesse Andrews) had good diction, but honestly, the book was trash.  The 304 pages not only lacked compassion, but the whole book was built on "white people problems."


So the story goes like this:

1. Greg = sad boy
2. Rachel = girl Greg knows
3. Rachel gets cancer
4. Greg's mom makes him hang with Rachel even though he doesn't want to
5. Greg hangs out with Rachel and makes it known that he doesn't want to be there
6. Earl = Greg's bff
7. Earl joins in on the visits
8. Rachel gets more sick
9. Rachel finds out that Greg and Earl are filmmakers
10. Greg and Earl make a film for her
11. Rachel dies
12. Greg finally develops feelings towards their friendship

What annoyed me was the fact that the main focus was on Greg, the sad white boy who not only has a poor, uneducated, black friend who smokes pot, lives in the ghetto, and has an alcoholic mom and a non present father (stereotypical character, by the way), but also a friend who is dying of leukemia, yet his problems are some how bigger.

Yet, the movie shed a different light, and allowed me to see the characters represented slightly different.  For example, Greg was more compassionate, Earl was less aggressive, and Rachel was more passive.  In this case, the movie tied the best parts of the book together.

So kudos to the director of Me and Earl and The Dying Girl, because you turned a piece of shit into a tolerable motion picture that may or may not have made me cry.

Three weeks ago today, my sister Emma gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and my first niece Reese Abigail. I may be biased but she is perfect, just look at her!


From the moment she was first placed into my arms I didn't want to let her go.  I never thought I would love someone so much; being an aunt is such a blessing.  Over the last three weeks I have gotten to spend almost every night with Emma and Reese, and I have cherished every moment.  I want Reese to stay small and cute forever, but she is growing before my eyes.  Saying that, I am so excited to watch my niece grow and blossom into a young woman.  I will be there to help her in school and when her friends let her down.  I will be there when her mom can't.  I will take her to the library and teach her the importance of reading.  I will teach her to be confident and resilient like her grandmother.  I will act as her nurse, her taxi, and her "second-mom."  I will forever strive to be her role model.

I am so eager for the future and the opportunity to watch her grow.

Below are my favorite 5 photos from my "Urban Scan" of Toledo.  In my eyes, these photos capture the true essence of the Glass City. ~Enjoy~

I adored the exhibition "The Human Landscape"  at the TMA.  Jaume Plensa's work is incredible and put together so well. Our art museum is so lovely and a huge part of the Toledo culture, plus it is free!  I will definitely be venturing back soon to take another peak a his work.