Seriously. Growing up as a third generation Ohioan (on both sides of the family), I learned early to bleed scarlet and gray, root for the Ohio State Buckeyes, revere heroes like Woody Hayes (who famously pushed his car across the state line rather than purchase gas in Michigan and give "that state up north" any of his tax dollars), and most importantly, HATE Michigan. I mean, do children in any other state sing nursery rhymes titled "I don't give a damn 'bout the whole state of Michigan?" (refrain: 'cause we're from Ohio, O-H! I-O!) I distinctly remember a needlepoint my grandmother had framed and hanging on the wall that said "Thank God I'm a Buckeye and not just some nut."
I was reminded of these aspects of my childhood recently during the wedding planning process when the most difficult part of finding an agreeable Saturday in Columbus for my family to celebrate the beginning of the rest of my life mostly centered around avoiding the OSU football schedule, particularly home games, and especially (god forbid) the Michigan game. Part of me wanted to pick an important football Saturday just to see what the relatives would have actually chosen (though fear that I would lose to script Ohio and fierce Big Tem rivalries left me marrying on Oct. 21, following the guaranteed victory over football weakling Indiana).
Yet here I am in Ann Arbor for the first time, attending a conference put on by the William Davidson Institute about Global Social Innovations in the Third Sector (the things I do for the love of social enterprise!) It's been really interesting so far, especially sharing ideas and challenges with people from other organizations around revenue generation, sustainability, venture philanthropy, grantmaking, etc. Despite speaking last in the day on a panel that had already run overtime, I (hopefully) managed to speak coherently about the GG model and student contributions.
Conference aside I've been pleasantly surprised by my time in Ann Arbor...the sun came out this afternoon and I had a great run through the UM arboretum, enjoying the spring weather and attempting to keep to a training schedule for Boston. Dinner at Zingerman's was fabulous (as predicted by my coworkers) and merits its own post-- all I'll say for now is the sweet potato fries were the best I've ever tasted and the speech by Ari, the founder, inspiring. The UM campus reminds me a bit of Chapel Hill, and I think it must be the good public university vibe...lots of populist for the people by the people kind of feeling, mixed in with a healthy dose of state pride and leaning a bit lefty/crunchy/hippie. A few things have reminded me that while Ann Arbor reminds me of my college years, it's geographically closer to my hometown Columbus-- the car driver yesterday, when asked about good local restaurants or bars, offered up Buffalo Wild Wings and Damon's (and I promptly had a flashback of being 12 years old post-gymnastics meet and digging in to a Damon's onion loaf, one of the more sketchy appetizers I've ever eaten though delicious at the time). To top it all off, the front desk guy at the hotel reminded me I could get "ice and POP" just around the corner from my room. Thank goodness for the midwest, onion loaves washed down with pop, and bits of nostalgia even in a most hated rival town.
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