I do have a better job, but not a great job.
I spend a lot of time with these.
I'd rather be studying aquatic ecology or ornithology or about any species in which there is the potential to do some field work.
Alas. It's something I'm working on.
Ohio doesn't work for me for a number of reasons. A really, really huge reason is football. I've never liked football, but I didn't hate it with the intensity that I do now until I moved here. Ohio State ceases to be an educational institution during football, which is real bad if you have to study or work there on game days (I've had to do both). It's not even the sport itself that's the problem, its the extremity to which football culture is taken here. It's just annoying and dumb. Sorry, can't be nice about that one.
Another really huge personal reason is mountains. I love them and there are none. It was a fun moment the first time I went skiing in the area. About an hour out from Columbus I was really starting to get worried because it was still so flat and then we hit a little ripple in the earth called Mad River "Mountain". Something is better than nothing.
Columbus is the land of shopping plazas and subdivisions. This is great if you like to shop. The number one reason that people who like Columbus give me for liking it is shopping. It's the only town I've been to in which the residents routinely refer to their shopping centers by name. If you are in Columbus and someone says they are going to Graceland, they are not talking about Elvis. They may as well have said that they are going to Target. Do not be fooled by this trickery!
I'm not a shopper. Even if I had money, I wouldn't be a shopper. I'd be a traveler. Personal preference and all.
Along those lines, this place has horrific public transportation. I have a very basic theory that there is a much stronger tendency for flat cities to spread outward faster and to lose their original architecture quicker because it is cheaper to do so. Those hills complicate things. Columbus is a flat city and it isn't a very old city. I'm thinking that a lot of its original character was probably in all the little neighboring farming communities that have been sucked into carcinogenic Columbus. The only current public transport is COTA (the bus system) which lacks the funding to run reliably to the outerlying areas of town often enough to be of use for workers. This is a driving town. It's hard to work here without a car. Not impossible, but significantly more difficult than in some other towns.
A final personal problem is that most bands I like skip here or come here once and never again, because the first show they had drew a crowd of ~20-30. I'm just not in majority here.
In summation, Ohio sucks for these reasons:
1. football
2. terrain
3. sprawl & lack of public transport (problems that go hand-in-hand)
4. consumer culture
5. music scene
I do realize a few things:
1. In this situation Ohio=Columbus. I do not need Ohio residents pointing this out to me. I do realize that southern Ohio has some "hills". The other four problems are mostly still present in varying quantity.
2. For those of you about to point it out, I also like Cleveland and Cincinnati better, but when I move it will be completely out of this shit-hole state. I'm done.
3. Yes, I'm already trying to move. I am job searching and saving money. Do not tell me to "just leave it if you don't like it." I'm working on it.
4. Nowhere is for everyone. Ohio will be ok for some people.
Over and out.
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