• Personal

    The Hartman Rock Garden – A Dream in Pebbles and Miniature

    I found the Hartman Rock Garden (located in Springfield, Ohio) on Atlas Obscura. I was browsing fun quick stops for a multi state, week long, road trip. The pictures I saw online were beautiful. The statues and buildings were detailed and amazing and the plants among them were lovely too. The story sealed the deal though. Ben Hartman was laid off during the great depression and didn’t know what to do with himself so he just started building little cement things, fell in love with it, and didn’t stop until he died. I don’t have the best track record when it comes to recommending random stops to my husband so…

  • Personal

    Sleepover at the Dojo/That Time I Learned Karate

    I joined the Shotokan karate club in the spring of my freshman year. It’s probably the most athletic thing I’ve ever done. My boyfriend at the time was trying to help the karate club grow and recruited me along with several of our friends. The Sensei was a woman in the community with a black belt and a desire to teach. She was so nice, but she ran a tough class. It was a Tuesday/Thursday evening/Saturday morning situation. Though I usually didn’t make it out of bed early enough on Saturdays. The following fall we were ready to test for our yellow belts. The testing was all the way up…