Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

Tag: Local 614

  • Otherworld: A journey

    Otherworld: A journey

    On May 30th we ventured to the East side of Columbus to explore Otherworld an interactive art experience in Columbus. Our party consisted of myself, my mother, my sister Traci and my friend Johnna. The exterior of the museum is unassuming and resides in an old strip mall.

    Once inside the lobby offers clues to what lies inside, with fun lighting, beautiful murals and interesting creatures. Once we got our wristbands we ventured inside.

    You can choose your own path, your own adventure. We wandered from room to room, exhibit to exhibit, laughing, touching, playing, discovering, and generally having an amazing time. Some rooms you have to crawl into. Crawling under a child’s bed in one room leads to a room with a giant narwhal and clouds you can sit on. A room full of neon spider webs had a ringing phone. Later in a control center we realized you can “call” the phone and speak to someone in the room. I am about to super photo dump. It goes without saying that this was an amazing experience and we plan to go back taking respective husbands and boyfriends.

  • 22 Days of Blogging

    22 Days of Blogging

    So, this is a little late. I had a big paper due this weekend, so I spent all day yesterday working on and refining that. Priorities, lol.

    I am super excited because the other day I received a package in the mail and no it wasn’t more stuff I bought online. Well…it kinda was, but not in the way my last post was talking about. I got my membership package for the Ohio History Connection in the mail. Ohio History Connection is housed in Columbus as the Ohio Historical Center building which houses various museum style exhibits, the Ohio Archives and Library, and The Ohio Village which is a recreated 19th century community where they hold events.

    With my membership I can go to the Ohio History Center for free once it is open to the public. I get reciprocal admissions from over 250 museums nationwide and reciprocal benefits at over 800. Free tickets to Ohio History Center/Ohio Village Events like Night at the Museum, All Hallows’ Eve and Dickens of a Christmas (I have attended the Dickens event and it is really fun). Plus many other amazing benefits.

    More than that, though, I know that I am supporting the preservation of Ohio history during a time when they could use that support more than ever. I am also considering buying a membership to the Columbus Museum of Art for a similar reason. We already purchased a COSI membership for the inlaws and the niblings (I found out this is the non-binary term for nieces and nephews and I love it.) We also still have our zoo memberships which Seth’s parents purchase us for Christmas every year. While we may not get much use out of these this year, we are supporting important pieces of our community.

  • Witch Walk 2020

    Witch Walk 2020

    On Halloween around the stroke of Noon, witches descended upon Goodale Park in Columbus Ohio in order to make merry and celebrate the Day. After grabbing a group picture we began walking down High Street in the Short North wishing a Happy Halloween to all we encountered. We stopped at Prologue Bookstore for some of our witchy companions to purchase tomes, and then at Roaming Goat Coffee to get a Mocha Latte for myself. We continued across the street to Rocket Fizz for old fashioned candy and novelties (I bought a racing possum!). We passed a salon where we waved to a fellow witch who was giving a blow out to a client.

    We stopped to grab a bite at The Eagle where I ordered a Grilled Cheese that features three kinds of cheese and apples, yum! It came out in the shape of a heart. Aww! Next a trip to Torso where I purchased a mask that says “Witch Please”, a gorgeous rhinestone mask and a bracelet that matched my witchy garb. A quick run back to prologue and then we made a stop at Bakersfield for a Margarita and a $3 shot of Hornitos.

    We witches can make a day of it!! Happy Haunting my friends until next year!

  • Weekends are Skaterdays

    Weekends are Skaterdays

    I am still madly in love with roller skating, which is not altogether shocking since I have loved it since I was a child. I skated both days this weekend and enjoyed every moment of it.

    Yesterday I met my friends Amy and Christina at The Warehouse, which is a parking garage set up for skateboarding and roller skaters by a church. The floor is so ridiculously smooth and it was easy to skate on and to practice tricks and such. I met several more amazing skaters: Sparky, Alex and Faego.

    Amazing sign on the wall at The Warehouse

    Today I met Amy, Hannah and Jake at Como Elementary for a morning skate. Como has incredibly smooth asphalt as well, and I made a short video of me skating a circle in the court.

    I have a color scheme.

    I recently put in an order for a new pair of skates, because mine are well over 16 years old. Skates are hard to come by right now, and mine are probably not going to be ready until early next year. I am excited for them though. I ordered Moxi Panthers, and they are a leopard print dream!

    Ack! So cute!

    I am having so much fun falling back in love with skates and skating. I am going to work on rehabbing my vintage skate case over the winter and get it ready to house my new skates.

  • Made Me Do A Double Take

    Made Me Do A Double Take

    Last night my mom, my sister Traci, and I headed down to District West to see the first mainstage show by the amazing Krystal Something Something, one of my favorite drag queens in Columbus, Double Take.

    First, the venue, which was recently opened by the amazing Virginia West and partners, is absolutely gorgeous. The colors are grays and blacks with mirrors and crystal light fixtures. They had beautiful succulents on each table with photo holder stakes in them holding the information for the performers for virtual tipping. The drinks were delicious, especially their mule mad with raspberry vodka.

    The show was amazing! High production value, great music, and a lot of laughs. The show was divided into halves, based on the two main characters Krystal Something Something and Tabatha from Dance. The Krystal half was slicker, and a little more rock. The Tabatha half was more comedic and involved an amazing early 90s Prom scene. No Spoilers, but if you are looking to watch a truly entertaining show you can even watch online Here. Enjoy some stills and support your local drag performers.

  • Headstones and Hitchcock

    Headstones and Hitchcock

    .A couple of weeks ago, Seth and I set off to explore Green Lawn Cemetery. Green Lawn is a large historical cemetery in Columbus.There are a number of “famous” Columbus figures buried within the cemetery and the abbey. I am a huge fan of walking in cemeteries, and this one was beautiful to visit. The grounds are full of beautiful trees of all kinds: oak, maidenhair ginkgo, various evergreens, and Ohio buckeye.

    I brought a plastic bag so I could pick up litter as we walked about, and Seth was happy removing branches that were laying atop grave sites and making piles under the trees. We cleaned grass off of markers that had been covered when the mowers moved through. We are talking about making a kit to take with us to make our cleanup easier next time with a small broom.

    We found a headstone of a type which I have never seen before. Where a headstone may say mother, father, sister, brother, etc. this one said Aunt. I loved it so much, and even more interesting was the fact that the Aunt in question had the fist name Salome. I believe that Aunt Salome is my spirit sister. I am absolutely in love with anyone who dies and is best known for being an aunt.

    The abbey at Green Lawn shows films outdoors to raise funds for upkeep during the summer. We went last Friday to see Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock. We got to visit the actual abbey, which is gorgeous with white marble and wrought iron. The film was entertaining. It was a Hitchcock I had never seen before, but it was very entertaining. There was an absolutely insane drunk driving scene that made me very tense, but Cary Grant who was actually in the car with the drunk driver Ingrid Bergman seemed generally unfazed. I love a good spy thriller though, so generally it was a good time. Next month they are showing Laura and in August The House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price. We intend to see those as well. There is something so lovely about watching a thriller with the abbey looming above us.

  • Support Your Local Independent Bookstore!

    So, in Columbus we have this amazing bookstore called The Book Loft. It is a 32 room amazing monstrosity of a bookstore that is rambling and confusing in the best way. My friend told me that once former President Clinton wanted to shop there, so the secret service came in to check it out and promptly walked back out and told him that it was impossible to clear and he could not go in. It is unclearable by the secret service amazing!

    Of course with the pandemic issue they have had to close their doors to shoppers but they are still running their online business. Last week they announced something new they are doing, Malamarkus (the skeleton god of the book loft) Mystery Boxes. You pay them $69.99 and give them a genre, book style, or theme you like as well as your t-shirt size and then they send you a box with several new books they choose for you as well as some extras and a Book Loft t-shirt. It is a brilliant idea, so to get some new books and support my local bookstore I bought one.

    I ended up with a lot of books and adult mad libs and a gray book loft shirt. I am so chuffed by my new reading material. This is absolutely worth the price. Look at all this gorgeous bounty.

    So overall, support your local bookstores, and if you would like a Malamarkus Mystery Box you can order one here. Honestly support all your local businesses. Please. They need you.

     

  • Finally Feeling Fine…Lost Weeks and Drag Queens

    I had the flu, or something similar to the flu the week of the 27th. I was achy, coughy, sleepy, barely moving and just generally blah for approximately a week. I watched a whole lot of Netflix (the new season of Sex Education is beautiful) and more crappy rom coms than I can shake a stick at. I lost an entire week being barely conscious and incredibly icky.

    Then on the first day I was almost feeling human (Sunday) I went with my mom and my sister to a brand new drag brunch in Columbus at Local Cantina called the Moustache Riders Drag Brunch (interesting note the name of their house margarita is The Moustache Rider.) The food, and drinks, were delicious. The entertainment was top notch. We will definitely go again.

    I am finally feeling truly better and healthier and I am trying to get myself back on track.

  • These Are Things that I’m Gonna Do.

    I had so much fun working through my bucket list for the last quarter of 2019, so I decided to do more of them in 2020. Here is what I have so far…

    • Create 2020 Vision Board – Done!! Photos Below.
    • Get prettied up for Shrimp’s Cocktail Party!
    • Meet Dirty Martini at Shrimp’s Cocktail Party! on Saturday.
    • Buy a pair of Veronica Lockhart’s rhinestone cockroaches.
    • Go with the Wenches to Pub Sing at Dub Pub.
    • Wench wine meet up in February.
    • Be under or close to 200 lbs by my birthday March 14.
    • Visit Prologue bookstore.
    • Sew new Viking garb for Seth.
    • Write 30,000 words in my work in progress.
    • Go to Mustache Ride Drag Brunch
    • Go to Archery Range
    • Visit Elizabeth’s Records
    • Set up new Entertainment Stand.
    • Set up Stationary Bike.

    Vision Board – The lovely Molly Roberts held a live event for her Patrons all about creating a vision board. I decided to get in on the action and began building up images and words for my board. I just bought myself a brand new Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (as previously stated my favorite dictionary) so my old falling apart one became fodder for my vision board. I found these battery operated lights I bought at Target a couple of years ago that have glitter in bulbs around the lights and I decided they would look amazing on my vision board. I bought a shadowbox style wooden box to use and painted the inside neon pink and the outside silver. I used glitter infused mod podge to place my images on the board. I began with bright colored images and then added words and pieces from the dictionary. I found some star shaped push pins and attached the lights to the edge with them. I am really happy with how it turned out. It is going to live on my new altar for 2020.

  • Heels of Horror XII

    Heels of Horror XII

    Last night I got to see Heels of Horror XII starring Columbus Drag Queen and Miss Congeniality Nina West. My sister Traci and I took our older sister, Krystie, who was in town from Oklahoma this weekend. The show was absolutely amazing, as always. I laughed, cheered, sang, hooted and hollared. Well done again Nina and cast!! Can’t wait til next year!