This past month I was able to complete a couple more ideas from my New Year’s resolutions list and actually cross off one goal altogether! Mentioning it on the blog is more for my accountability than your interest, so apologies.

The two items I recently tackled from my list are:

• Take part in at least two volunteer/philanthropic opportunities (Initial thoughts: Playhouse Square Partners, Cleveland International Film Festival)
• Go on four local adventures, visiting places within 2-3 hours of home I’ve never been (Initial thoughts: Cleveland’s West Side; Erie, Pa.; Detroit/Windsor; Wheeling, W. Va.; local state parks/sites such as Towner’s Woods or Brandywine Falls

Cleveland International Film Festival

This was my fourth year at the Festival, second year volunteering, and it was the best yet. We seemed to do a much better job selecting films this year than in the past.

We also seemed to pick a lot of documentaries this year:

• The Last White Knight
• Camp 14
• Lord Montagu
• We Went to War
• Pablo
• Casting By
• From Nothing, Something

We also squeezed in some shorts, although they weren’t as good as we had hoped. We went to the Judge’s Picks for best shorts on the last day of the festival, and although the awards part was neat, I think we might have liked the Audience Picks better than the judges, who were a little heavy on the artistic and light on the enjoyable.

I was also able to schedule my volunteer shifts in advance so I could better plan around when I wanted to view films. Hopefully next year I will have even better luck.

Towner’s Woods

Despite living in Kent all four years of my undergrad and living within half an hour drive for another four years following undergrad, I never made it to Towner’s Wood just north of downtown Kent. We had unusually beautiful weather the end of March so we decided to talk a walk. It was warm and breezy and a few other people were walking the paths. Although nice, it wasn’t much of a workout–the paths are pretty clear and there were limited hills, etc. Nice if you are looking for a literal walk in the park.

Brandywine Falls

Yesterday we finally made it to Brandywine Falls, another nearby spot I’ve been meaning to visit for about 10 years. It was a beautiful day– warm and sunny– and there were a lot of others with the same idea. We walked over to the falls to practice some photography, and then we hiked the Brandywine Gorge. It was a little more challenging, which was nice, but the 1.4 miles didn’t take anywhere near as long as it mentioned (1 hour). We were in good spirits heading back to the house to clean up for dinner.

A couple more local adventures done, a couple more resolutions checked off the list. Feeling groovy.