Greek Festival and Memorial Day

Lesson of the weekend... you're 34 and you need to lift with your legs. All this moving caught up with me this weekend and put me down with a pulled muscle. Luckily for me I dealt with a bad back for most of high school so I knew to stretch, ice, heat, and repeat. The added knowledge of my 20's taught me that alcohol numbs the pain so I did that too. I'm still a bit tender but much better.

5/25/14 - Tremont Greek Festival

Gina and I headed to the Tremont Greek Festival again this year for some great food, music, and shopping. The weather is finally starting to turn our gray backdrop into summer and the cabin fevered masses came out to enjoy the holiday weekend. I loved seeing all of the people congregating to my neighborhood to celebrate summer, the Greek people, and their contributions to our great city. The 3 day festival is really a great time and is something you should definitely attend. You not only get to go and enjoy Greek heritage but the Tremont neighborhood is filled with things to do if you decide to venture out. 

Gina and I started out at the festival. The 2 block walk to the church was filled with people in summer attire. It was finally summer and we were ready for some outdoor fun. The festival was packed with people and I was happy to see that the crowd was bigger than last year. We grabbed some delicious gyros and a pitcher of beer for lunch. I felt compelled to order "yeeroes" so I didn't sound out of place by saying "jiroes". Kinda snobby but when in Rome... or... Greece right? We ate and listened to some authentic Greek music. People were dancing and yelling "Opa"! It was quite a sight. I learned that I look very Greek because some of the older people would speak to me in their native language and I had no idea what to say back. I mostly smiled, nodded, and said Opa! I think that was good enough because they were off to dancing again with a smile on their face.

We wonder around looking at the goods for sale. Gina bought a great ring and a flower clip for her hair. She looked great in both. The variety was impressive and the prices were right. These little pieces all come together to create an inviting and entertaining festival. These ethnic celebrations including Dyngus Day and the Asian Festival help us realize that Cleveland, like America, is a melting pot and our backgrounds should be celebrated. Each of these groups have come together and are a part of the DNA that makes up our great city. Their contributions have made Cleveland what it is today.

Afterwards we went to Edison's Pub and had a great piece of pizza and lots of drinks. It's a great bar and the bartenders and patrons were very nice and inviting. It made for a great experience and we'll for sure be back.

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5/26/2014 - Memorial Day

I spent 2 summers looking at this dock.

For Memorial day Gina and I got some delicious brunch at Southside and headed to an old stomping ground of mine, Atwood Lake. My parents had a cabin and a boat there when I was young. I also worked at the West Marina in college as a dock boy. I got bait and pumped gas. It was by far the best job I've ever had. My parents put their boat in Atwood this summer after it being at Berlin for the past few years. Since they were in North Carolina for my brother John's birthday, I decided to go for a joyride around the lake. The water was still a bit too cold to swim so we just cruised around. There was no wind and the sun was shining. It was a great day. I shared all my stories of working at the marina and living at the cabin for weeks at a time with Gina. It's a time in my life I hardly talk about because it's not as entertaining as other parts but they are fun memories to re-hatch.  We threw down anchor at the islands and dipped our feet in the water. I thought about my grandpa Ruflin who served our country in WWII. I love the stories he tells me about the war when I see him. I thought about my cousin Patrick who served in both Iraq wars. I remembered living with his family when he was overseas. I remembered my grandpa Vozar and even though he didn't serve, he worked at Ford and helped make this country great. I thought of him, my grandma, and my uncle Huddy who have passed and how much I miss them all. Memorial day is a day to memorialize all who have passed before us and their contributions to our country no matter what they did. We are all here because of them.

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Sammy Does Dallas

Dallas Art Museum If you know me, you know that I love art and free stuff. Well on Thursdays, the Dallas Museum of Art is not only open past 5 pm, it's FREE!... So of course we went. First impressions are everything and ours just happened to be the lady who yelled at us for being where we shouldn't, touching what we shouldn't, and trying to go into a tuxedo only fund raiser in... well, not tuxedos. We did our best to regroup and shake it off. I have to tell you though that we didn't really go into the best wing after that to change our idea of the place. I think we wandered into the kindergarten art fair room aka modern art because it was just not great. I had no idea if this was going to be the whole thing or what... boy was I wrong. This place had 4 more floors and multiple wings of great art from around the world. It's a very impressive collection and there's something for everyone. We probably walked around for 3-4 hours taking it all in. Not too bad for free! Moral of the story is enter through the north entrance.

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Sports Complexes

On Friday, before we flew out, we stopped in Arlington to see the football and baseball stadiums. This area not only has the 2 sports complexes, it has a Six Flags, a pretty impressive kid's baseball field, a water park, a regular park with a pond and walking trail, and a Walmart. It all covers a huge area and is really a nice place. It has a weird Richfield (coliseum) feel to it since it's between Dallas and Fort Worth but they really do treat that metropolitan area as one big city.

Back in the day I went to the 1st regular season Cowboys game in AT&T Stadium. On that day we had to literally park in Mexico but when we got close, I was completely in awe of... well just the entire thing. It was truly something that everyone should visit and watch a game in. It looks like giant space ship that is in the middle of transforming into a robot turtle beast. Totally impressive just on sight alone. That being said, I was still as excited to go back and take some pictures of the place years later. Globe Life Park is pretty impressive too but nothing holds a candle to the house that Jerry Jones built.

Globe Life Park	AT&T Stadium

Well I'm home now and thank goodness for that. The upstairs apartment at our place apparently has people living in it now. Let's hope they aren't always as loud as they were tonight at 12:30 am. I'm sure I'll meet them soon and everything will be fine. I in no way see me banging on my ceiling like a crotchety old man yelling at them to pipe down...

If you don't have plans this weekend, make plans to go to the Tremont Greek Festival! Great food, dancing, and ouzo! Plus all the wonderfulness of my little neighborhood. I'll be there but who knows when since now I have a million and a half things to do this weekend and oh joy none of them are in Cleveland again.

PS. This may be a painting of the ugliest woman ever...

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I'm going to the big "D" and I do mean Dallas!

Greetings from Dallas, Texas! I'm here for a week doing some training for work. I do love Texas and I'm always happy to come for a visit especially when I don't have to pay for it.

5/18/14 - We got into Texas in the early afternoon which gave us a lot of time to walk around downtown and sightsee. I tried to take some pictures of things I haven't seen before and of some old favorites.

A plaque by where Kennedy was shot.	Dallas County Courthouse. My favorite building in Dallas.
John F Kennedy memorial.	Dallas Museum of Art.
A jewish wedding outside of the County Courthouse.	Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive.
A shot of downtown from what we called "Balls Park" in front of City Hall.	Some random window art downtown.
The Adolphus Hotel. My 2nd favorite building in Dallas.	I really liked this sign.
This is a random elevator that takes you underground to a fancy steakhouse.	Confederate War Memorial. It's weird to see it from the loser's side.

Klyde Warren Park is on the north side of downtown. This park brings together the 2 halves of the art's district that are separated by Rt 366. How do you ask? Well by being built over the highway of course! I have been saying for years that this should be done over I-90 through downtown. More parks are always good and not having a highway separating neighborhoods is twice as nice! It's like the neighborhood keeps on going. You can really even tell that a highway goes under it unless you're at either end. Check out how awesome they made this look:

The park entrance.	A walkway with some colorful picnic tables and chairs. They're still planting sod.
An outdoor restaurant with mostly patio seating.	Fountains to cool off the kiddies.
Green space.	More fountains.
Nicely landscaped.

So far the training has been OK. It's like school so whatever but it does give me a chance to experience lots of Dallas and sightsee. It's really unbelievable how many tall buildings are going up in the Dallas area. There are tall cranes in every direction. It really puts what Cleveland is doing into perspective... and when you compare, it's really not close. The Dallas area is booming and this is real booming. Is having a winter really that bad? I'm really trying to find that things that separates this city from home. My co-worker Eli keeps saying that people down here are so nice as compared to people at home. They are nice down here. 

Well I've got a few days left so I'll give you another update from Big "D" before I fly back. If you don't have plans this weekend, make plans to go to the Tremont Greek Festival! Great food, dancing, and ouzo! Plus all the wonderfulness of my little neighborhood. C-ya'll later! Hook'em Horns!

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Neighbors Make a Difference Day

5/14/2014 - I promised myself that, if I did get the opportunity to move to Cleveland, I would do more volunteer work than my 0 hours in previous years. Sure this blog does some good by getting the word out to about 30 people and shows some of them the benefits of living in Cleveland... but it's all just talk, if I don't go out and do something to better my community. My 1st opportunity, Neighbors Make a Difference Day.

This is actually the first time I've heard of this day but it make sense since it seems to be a Key/Indians community outreach thing. One day a month or 2 ago my co-worker Eli came to me and asked if I was volunteering for Neighbors day. After he explained what that was, I didn't really have to think about whether to do it or not. I got to put a check next to the volunteering pledge I made myself AND... I got to miss a half a day of work! No-brainer in my mind. There were a list of projects that we could sign up for but because I'm new here and only know a handful of people, I said to just sign me up for whatever he was doing.

Not choosing a Cleveland project myself didn't disappointed me too much but only because I had a tie to where I was volunteering... Parma! Yes, my old stomping grounds and home to the pink flamingo yard decoration. We were going to pick up garbage and do some mulching at the West Creek Reservation Metro Parks off of Broadview and Ridgewood. Parts of the reservation were a dump long ago but now it is a beautiful 324 acre park with trees and paths and the newly built Keystone Reserve Shelter which is a pretty amazing picnic pavilion and our meeting place. It's rented out a year in advance so make your reservations for this little reservation today. Booo to word play!

When I pulled up the rain was just stopping and it was starting to get warm again. It was almost like Mother Nature knew I was going to be outside. Her and I have a thing. I got out of the car with my boots on ready to walk in some mud and pick up garbage. The first thing I noticed was that I was the only one not wearing a red shirt... I must have missed that part of the e-mail. Oops. No worries though. I zipped up my green jacket and just kept repeating "Sorry, I'm new." Needless to say I won't be making any promotional pictures or videos this year. All that handsomeness wasted.

The Metro Parks guy got us organized and off we went. Eli and I worked our way around the park picking up all sorts of goodies - beer and pop bottles, a pair of shoes, a flip flop, candy wrappers, underwear with skulls on it (Gina!), you know... fun stuff. I found a lot of Rolling Rock cans out there which must be the drink of choice for Parma burnouts partying in the woods. Back in my day we drank Zima but that was a different more care free time. I felt compelled to put a link in there for Zima after watching a recent Modern Family. Anyways, we covered a lot of ground, shot the shit, and filled our bags with garbage. We both began to notice the cold breeze that started to blow through the park around the same time and decided to head back to the pavilion before the downpour came. Again, thanks to my mythical boo Mother Nature, we arrived just in time to be out of the tsunami that hit the area like a watery freight train.

Even though my volunteering day was cut short by rain, it felt good. I selflessly did something for the benefit of the community. Volunteering is they way that the little things get done. It's the way parks stay beautiful, neighborhoods stay together, and people show that they truly care about the area that they live in. If you have the time, pick a project and volunteer your time for the betterment of your surroundings. Don't even worry about it being too small or insignificant. It's all about being a part some something positive.

I'll also be volunteering for the Gay Games in August so, if you stop down, look for me and say HI! I'll know more about where and when soon. I'm trying to work Ping Pong and Volleyball that the Convention Center or the Festival Village on Mall C.

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Click to Enlarge

In other news, I'm unfortunately going to miss the Cleveland Asian Festival for the 1st time in 3 years this weekend. I love this festival but have way too much going on Saturday to make it and then I'm flying out Sunday to Dallas for work. It's the fastest growing cultural festival in the state, is free to attend, and includes free parking! The food is top notch, the merch is great, and they always seem to get the best Asian entertainment. It also draws festival goers into an area that you may not usually hear about on the news or get into during a visit. AsiaTown is a neighborhood just northwest of CSU on the other side of 90. If you love Asian food or culture, you have to go to this festival. If you can't make it (like me) pick an afternoon and go to one of the many restaurants and/or indoor malls in the area. It way more authentic than what you find in a suburban strip mall. This little gem doesn't get the recognition that it deserves but it really should.

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Gladiators [45] - Kiss [42]

5/10/14 - On Saturday night Gina and I went to watch our Arena Football League team, the Cleveland Gladiators, play the L.A. Kiss at Quicken Loans Arena. I've never been to see an AFL game before but I got free tickets from work so... I dragged Gina on a walk through the flats to the Q to cheer on our undefeated football team (7-0). Man feels good to say that!

First impressions...

This game is quick and exciting! It's almost all passing and a WR's able to get a running start before the snap, you get some nice deep passes and quick scores. The field is also half as long as a pro field which only adds to the crazy offensive pace. It doesn't hurt either that you can play a kick off of the end zone nets. You really only get a chance to breathe when there are timeouts! The players aren't bums or old men like the Replacements either, so don't think that. Cleveland's got a great team and some of the players are really good and exciting to watch.

Gladiator games are kinda like Cavs game in that they have gimmick or event nights and do some sort of give-a-way during most timeouts. The event that night was the "wear pink for cancer awareness" campaign. I participated by wearing the closest thing to a pink shirt that I had. It was also $2 beer night. I participated by choking down about 5 Yuengling lights before Gina saved my taste buds by buying me a Labbats. Sorry folks. It's a Pittsburgh beer that tastes like pee... and that's coming from someone who drinks Coors so suck it!

The game wasn't a sell out but there were way more people there than I thought there were going to be. There were fans with their faces painted, some were in costume, but most were casual fans of sport. There were a lot of young kiddos and families there as well which was great. At the end it really didn't matter why we were there though. The Gladiators kicked the game winning field goal as time expired and the place erupted in unison like we had won the Superbowl... and only we in the Q knew it. Cleveland fans, tormented for so many years, always need a reason to cheer and even though it was just a regular season AFL game, we were winners... and undefeated! By the way that "just" was in no way to lessen the AFL game experience or the league in general. It was a great experience and I'll be back for sure. The ticket prices are more than affordable. The games are fast paced and fun to watch. The staff, announcers, and cheerleaders keep you entertained during breaks. It's indoors so you don't have to face the Cleveland weather! Get your tickets and make a night of it! Dinner, game, and then casino! Unless you have kids then maybe no casino... and definitely no dinner at the Tilted Kilt...

I'll post my video of the winning field goal, if you want to see it, on YouTube and this post a little later today when I can connect to WiFi. UPDATE: Which is now...

Side story... so the LA Kiss (if you can't tell by the name) are owned by a group that includes Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS. Pretty awesome right! They have flames as the trim on their black and grey uniforms and their logo includes the KISS logo. Oh and these guys are the mascots... except me... I'm just cool!

Best picture ever!

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A Dedication for Dendrite

The pre-ceremony group. Click the image to enlarge it.

5/9/2014 - Thank goodness for the Tremont West Development Corp's e-mail or I would have missed the shindig in my front yard today! Our home's mascot Dendrite, which I've written about on occasion, got herself a coming out party. All the bigwigs were there to pay their respects and take some photos. Mayor Jackson, Councilman Cimperman, some people from Tremont West Development Corp, Land Studio, and the artist and mother of Dendrite, Olga Ziemska.

There was a good size crowd that gathered around Dendrite. I heard a lot of "What do you think it means?" from the group. I got to talk to a few of the onlookers and their thoughts ranged from "Love it" to "Waste of taxpayer money". I have no idea why these people showed up with such a bad outlook but to each their own I guess. It was nice to meet some neighborhood people and shoot the shit for awhile before things kicked off. Oh and they definitely wanted to make sure that I went to the block party at the end of the month at Press Wine Bar. If I'm back from training in Dallas, I will be there.

The speeches were short but well spoken. The TV20 camera guys took the angle down the street so that they could get the city skyline in the shot. Olga did a great job explaining her sculpture and made a nice speech which included an explanation of the sculpture's meaning. Mayor Jackson, as always, made a great speech and was very friendly with everyone in the crowd. He even shook my hand right before he left! Councilman Cimperman came in and set the place on fire. His personality is something to be admired. Friendly, outgoing, and ready at a moment's notice to come in and speak from the heart. He had to run or I would have shaken his hand too. Next time. He follows me on twitter.

All in all it was a great little ceremony and I couldn't be happier that it was right in my front yard... Oh and that it didn't downpour on us. Just a few sprinkles. I love that I keep putting myself in these situation. I find it exhilarating to see first hand a city rising up to be great once again. I couldn't have lucked into being in a better place during a better time.

Here are some pictures that I took from my front porch...

Click the image to enlarge it.

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Reason #5 for Moving to Cleveland - I'm a Sucker for an Underdog

When I was in Little Leopards... for those of you who don't know what that is (you're blessed), that was the name of the pee wee or Pop Warner football league I played in between grades 5-8... I was about the same height as I am now and probably twice as strong and fast. I hit puberty at about 3 and hit it like a freight train. I was a man among boys and I. was. awesome... but enough glory days talk. In 5th and 6th grade pops helped coach the team. He had coached JV and HS ball when he was younger and scouted at different times in his life so he knew his shit. He was tough too. Before practice, we talked football. After practice, we talked football. While I was dreaming, there we were talking football. And I get it too. Who knew that my growth spurt would end abruptly at age 13. I could have kept growing and became a college player or maybe even a pro! That was kinda the Little Leopard dream especially if you were a 2nd or even 3rd generation to play. You had generations of failed pro sports dreams pushing you to be the best you could be.

Now don't mistake this for the "My daddy's the coach so I get play short stop" bullshit. I'd got way more "do better's" than I got "Atta boy's". I had to fight for every sliver of attention during practice... I was a selfish kid looking for daddy attention, so what. Instead of bathing me in glorious praise like I wanted, he worked hard with the kids who needed it most like any good coach does. He was instantly there for the kids who had to walk 45 mins to practice. He slapped those runts on the back who hadn't and would probably never hit a growth spurt to take them over 5' 2". He was there to brush the dirt clumps off of the kids who had to wear a XL t-shirt with mustard and bong water stains as a jersey.

Now if you were to ask my dad, he'd tell you that you have to help yourself and go after your dreams and rah rah but in all of his stories I didn't really remember hearing about someone picking him up by his bootstraps when he was at his lowest and cheering him forward. Maybe the Air Force? I never really had thought that this was a learned thing except he was a teacher but I really didn't have much insight into that part of his life. My 12 year old mind didn't have the tools to see what was going on. All I knew was that I had to keep trying harder and harder to get some attention. I had no idea though that at the time my father was falling victim to one of the famous Vozar personality quirks. We fucking love an underdog! We love being one of the few on the front lines when the victory trumpets go off and our weak and feeble band of losers stand victorious over the seasoned veteran juggernauts fair and square. It can be in anything too. Sports, chess, cards, life, it doesn't matter what. We want to say that we helped you make the decision to take the road less traveled and cheered you on until you figured out that by doing so, it made all the difference. Then we'll high five you!

Now if you know me, I instantly hate what everybody else likes. I don't just jump on fads because they're popular. I like to do my research and if I do end up liking something, I kinda sneak up on the band wagon and just before it gets to top speed I JUMP on it and join in with everyone. Now it's not universal with everything in my life but I have made a conscious effort to play devil's advocate with pop culture. I saw my roommates do it in college and it almost added this whole other dimension to their personality... and in college my personality was .135-D. Not even 1-D let alone 3-D. My nickname was "Silent Sam" and I had nothing going for me. I liked everything everyone else liked so there was no real reason to have an honest to God discussion with anyone because everyone thought the same. It was the small town mentality and was as bland as the unflavored Almond milk Gina brought over this week. Like drinking purified air. 

My saving grace was that I was funny but unfortunately for me I lived with some ruthlessly funny bastards. I was a knock knock joke and they were Sam Kinison. They could take what you liked the most and make you second guess that and your whole entire life in just a night. A lot of times they liked the same thing they were ripping on but it was for the entertainment of the group... minus the few that were in their cross-hairs. It was like a great fighter punching himself out of a corner and knocking 3 guys out. Oh and God forbid you fight back. That only got you in deeper. It was really quite a thing to watch. Just ruthless... but the next day we knew it was all in good fun. We brushed off our shoulders, kept drinking, and watched wrestling. No hard feelings.

Now that's not the origin story of that personality trait but it is where I honed my craft and saw it as something that I could add to my empty bag of mental weapons. When you play that way though, you have to have things in your life that you like that are off radar. You do not want them to become ammunition. No one can know anything about it and if they do, they need to know very little while you know a lot. You'll need to have that tiny upper hand if shit got to that point. It was fun going back and forth like that but in order to be good, I had to take a look at my life and shed some dead weight. No worries, if you knew me then and know me now, I'm basically the same. I really didn't have to jettison anything too important.

All of this gets me to where I'm at right now. Cleveland is the underdog city and that's my kind of town. It's the punchline of joke after joke. Hell we've heard them all and baby... they're all old and worn out. It doesn't even hurt to have them directed towards you as much as is hurts to hear jokes as lame as a chicken crossing the road over and over again. Even the nice things people say about the city are just hidden insults that you may not even notice. "This city has grit"... Thanks rich people for the scraps of a compliment. Unless you're helping us out please, shut up and continue enjoying being rich. Move into city limits and pay taxes... then you can say anything you want. This city is like any other city out there. It has a past, a present, and a future and even though we may not be proud of where we've been, we need to stand up and take notice of where we're going. Unfortunately there aren't more people out there that treat cities like my dad treated pee wee football players. He didn't get paid, he was a relentless cheerleader, and the more you needed him there... the more he was there. We're not the rich kids who came from a successful family and had every perk growing up but we were great once... and we can be again. We just have to continue to fight 3 guys out of this corner.

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If you liked this, check out my other equally entertaining reasons by clicking on the links below:

• Reason #1
• Reason #2
• Reason #3
• Reason #4

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