OOO #38: Outfits, Ohio, and Other Things I Like
On the first day too, the Merion Village Festival, and my summer camp
Outfits
Ohio
The Merion Village Festival took place this past weekend in Moeller Park. I grew up going to town festivals, and I love an opportunity to meet local vendors (i.e. buy jewelry) and my neighbors.
This year’s festival was fantastic: there were great food trucks, a beer tent with kegs from Parsons North, live music, and tons of vendors selling everything from soaps and candles to Columbus sports gear to books to Merion Village-related swag.
The Merion Village Festival is organized by the Merion Village Association. The Festival is one of the best-organized events I’ve ever participated in (the number of amazing volunteers and the smoothness with which the event operates is mindblowing). It was also just a really beautiful day of celebrating community.
If you’re in the neighborhood, keep an eye out for it in late summer next year. In the meantime, the Merion Village Association puts on tons of other events throughout the year like a chili cook-off, yard sales, story hours, and the yearly garden tour (my favorite), plus weekly fitness in the park.
Other Things I Like
A couple of weeks ago, I went to my childhood summer camp to celebrate a dear friend’s (and reader!) wedding.
I was very lucky to attend Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, ME from the summer of 2003 until the summer of 2011. I was a camper, counselor-in-training, counselor, registrar, and the office assistant. Camp Encore/Coda is a music camp that combines high quality music instruction with elements of a more generalized summer camp: sports, lake activities, inter-cabin competitions, and arts and crafts. It also might have the most beautiful sunsets on the planet… and a killer view of the night sky.
It was surreal to be back in a place that was so pivotal to how I turned out as an adult and to see (and I mean *literally* see since I wrote all over the walls of every cabin I ever lived in) how much I have changed since I was a teenager. I did a lot of things that I was too intimidated to while I was a camper: I kayaked for the first time, played foursquare, and shot a few basketballs (I’m not sure any went in though). I also ate a fresh vegetable at camp for the first time, beyond a leaf of lettuce on a veggie burger; I was the least healthy vegetarian on the planet until I met my husband in 2012.
One of my favorite memories from this weekend: I kayaked to the other side of the lake and could still hear the jam session going on in the performance hall as clearly as I could have if I were standing in the camp. I remember being a camper and hearing different groups all practicing at once: rock bands, jazz choirs, piano workshops, and symphony orchestras, and thinking how it all still worked somehow and indeed sounded like home. The people who live on Stearns Pond are lucky to hear that every day.
I loved walking around, hanging with old friends, and showing my husband a place that I still talk about often, even though I hadn’t been there in 12 years. I remembered every dip in the ground as we walked back to the cabin at night, and I think there is real nostalgic beauty in muscle memory.
Final note: this wedding had the best favor ever—a fanny pack full of everything you would need during a summer camp wedding weekend: sunscreen, a flashlight, earplugs, advil, hand sanitizer, and natural bug repellent wipes. Plus I’ve used the fanny pack since. A+
That’s it! Have a great rest of your week.
Must come to the Marion Village Festival next year, and, ahhh band camp :)