Guest Post: Another Part of the Country...Indiana, to be specific...is heard from

Here's a new guest post from Gloria, over at EdgeofGloria. Hope you like it. I did.



I decided to write a guest post about my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is located in what coastal people call “flyover country.” I complain a lot about Fort Wayne, but it isn't bad. It just depends on what you are looking for.

Fort Wayne is the second-largest city in the state of Indiana, with Indianapolis being our capital, and largest city. There's about 250,000 in the city, perhaps a bit more if you factor in the surrounding small towns. We have a professional hockey team, basketball team and baseball team. The Fort Wayne Komets have been operating continually in Fort Wayne since 1952. Hockey was the first spectator sport I ever enjoyed. My dad would take me to the games, and I liked to say I liked hockey before it got popular in the 1990s.

People on the coast sometimes think a lot of people who live in the Midwest do a lot of farming. We don't all live on farms. One of my co-workers at a local retail store lives on a farm, and the gentleman she lives with hasn't had a vacation in 13 years. My co-worker helps out on the farm, and also works full time at the store and refinishes wood in her spare time. So chances are if we live on a farm, we are also working another job as well.

If we don't farm, then what do we do for a living? Depends on who you talk to, but we have people who own small businesses, we have doctors, lawyers, dentists, vets, office workers, factory workers, mechanics, educators, writers and even filmmakers. We do have people who are active in the arts, but they usually have full-time jobs, and act in small local productions.

And speaking of actors and actresses, Fort Wayne was home to a few you might have heard of. Carole Lombard grew up here, and her former house is a bed and breakfast at 704 Rockhill Street. Shelley Long was from here; she was a graduate of South Side High School. Are you a fan of “Frasier”? Bulldog Briscoe, also known as Dan Butler, graduated from Northrop, my high school. He's in town directing a production of Our Town. Are you a fan of The Office? Jenna “Pam Beesly Halpert” Fischer was born in Fort Wayne.

Like Bill Blass's clothes? He was a Fort Wayne homeboy before he moved to New York City.

One thing that makes Fort Wayne great is the cheap real estate. Seriously, if you are single, it IS possible to own a house here. That doesn't mean you'll be able to afford to live in Sycamore Hills, or Devil's Hollow, but it is possible to own a place of your own.

We are not too far away from Indianapolis, if you want to catch a Colts game. Chicago is about three and a half to four hours away, depending on the traffic, and if you want to leave the country, Windsor, Ontario, is about three and a half hours away. We are also three and a half hours away from the best amusement park in the world (IMHO), which is Cedar Point. If you love roller coasters, this is the place to be.

We have some cool places and events here in town. A group called the Downtown Improvement District is organizing events to bring people back downtown, before the malls brought everyone out to the neighborhoods surrounding the city center. Fright Night happens near Halloween, and the Zombie Walk brings thousands of people downtown, dressed up as Zombies, or in other costumes to lurk around. The night before Thanksgiving, several lighting displays are ceremoniously lit downtown, with the biggest crowds coming to see Santa and his Reindeer. This display goes way back, when it was featured on the side of the Wolf and Dessauer building, which used to house a well-known local department store that had amazing window displays (I am too young to remember this). There's also the Festival of Trees at the Embassy Theater, a beautiful Art-Deco movie palace that was saved by the wrecking ball by a concerned group of people in the mid 1970s. Now, the theater hosts Broadway shows and concerts.

In the summer, we have a series of festivals. Greekfest, German Fest Food Fest, Rib Fest, and the granddaddy of the downtown events, the Three Rivers Festival. I never fail to see someone I know at the festival, which goes on for eight days, ending in a fireworks display shot off one of the buildings downtown.

Fort Wayne. I don't like it, but it has some things going for it, that's for sure.

Guest Post: We All Have our Happy Places...

Today's post is a guest post from Gloria, who writes at EdgeofGloria and at Recovering Bankrupt. You'll find links to both of her blogs at the end of this post, so go give her a read after you've read this post, about some of her favorite places. I'm happy to welcome Gloria and I hope you enjoy her post. I did.

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I was thinking about favorite places. I was inspired by something I read on Elaine's blog, I was just thinking. I complain a lot, but there are some places that really make me happy. Here they are, in no particular order.

My bed: I do need a new mattress, but I love my bed. The box springs are Stearns and Foster, which used to belong to my parents, which give you an idea of how old it is. They probably bought it in the mid-50s. So the mattress is shot, but I love my bed. I have a down comforter, and I like having my room on the cool side so I can snuggle under the comforter. I use the comforter even in the summer; where I crank up the fan, and sometimes even the air conditioner, so I can slide underneath. I use a CPAP machine, so sometimes I pull the comforter over my head, blocking out the light, but totally being able to breathe.

My house: I hate it sometimes, but I love it. It's familiar, as I never left the house I grew up in, and now I own half of it. It's the only place I've ever lived. It's conveniently located, and I love my backyard. Sometimes I sit in my backyard and grill out, and I look up at the sky through the trees, and I feel blissful.

Cedar Point: This place is an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. I love roller coasters, and Cedar Point has some of the best in the world. Millennium Force is the best, in my opinion. It's a very smooth coaster (steel) and the first hill is so steep, (it's an 80 degree angle) it feels like you are moving inward towards the base, instead of outward. It doesn't go upside down, so there's no over the shoulder harness. Instead, you are held in by a seat belt and lap bar. I always try to sit in the front seat. Since I usually go by myself, I have the whole row to myself. I spread out my arms, and flying down that first hill, I feel like I'm literally flying like a bird. It's fast (93 miles per hour) and the overbanked turns really do make me feel like I'm swooping around like a bird. There are two hills that are zero G, so I feel like I might come out of my seat when I hit those. I feel so happy when I ride this ride. It's the closest I can get to feeling like I am a bird that can fly.

Right after I am done with this ride, I feel like I can enjoy the rest of the park. I usually don't play skill games, but I might try a few video games. I enjoy walking on the beach of Lake Erie. It's fun to see what people are wearing and what prizes they've won. I usually try to avoid the food. It's quite expensive, and this last time I went, I packed a bunch of stuff to take with me. I did break down and have a Coke and some French fries, but the fries weren't that great. I take lots of pictures, and those are my souvenirs. I've been broke for the last four years or so, so I've had to watch my money when I go to Cedar Point. It's usually enough for the ticket, gas there and back, tolls (it's easier to navigate the turnpike than to try and figure out the highways to get there) and enough for a small meal. And that's it. This time, I had a little more money, so I had a snack, and also paid to play a ring toss game. I didn't win anything, but because I bought a hatful of rings, I got to keep the hat. At least I got something out of it, which is more than what you get from most skill games.

But Cedar Point also reminds me of trips I took there from childhood. Some of the rides and things they had back then are long gone, but I'm so glad my parents took me there. For a long time, I didn't go to Cedar Point because I didn't have anyone to go with. But then I decided I didn't need anyone to go with me. So I started going by myself and enjoying it very much. I just wish I could bottle the feeling I get from riding Millennium Force and take it whenever I needed to.

Cedar Point is open through the end of October, and of course from about mid September until they close, they have Halloweekends. I always enjoy the tombstones of rides/attractions they no longer have. I'm sad they got rid of the Funhouse before I got old enough to enjoy it.

But there it is, some of my favorite places. Check out my blog for some candid opinions of what makes me happy, sad and pissed off. Edgeofgloria.blogspot.com. I'm also writing a bankruptcy blog, and you can check that out at recoveringbankrupt.blogspot.com. Thanks to Elaine for exchanging guest posts with me, and I hope you will see more in the future.