Hello, Cleveland.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with a band from Chicago that call themselves Bird Names. They played with my boyfriend's band, Megachurch, at a bar here in Cleveland called Now That's Class.

In the past I have been irritated when my boyfriend invites touring bands to crash at his place (which was at one time OUR place) because having so many strangers in the house throws off my general groove. I understand why he does it: it's a good samaritan thing and a good karma thing. These bands have no money and nowhere to crash. And often, my boyfriend is the band with no money and nowhere to crash. It's a win win situation. Two of the bands that stayed with us when I lived there (that shall go unnamed) were both kind of awful. One group consisting of three guys were kinda cool until we couldn't get rid of them the next day. The loafed around on the couch sucking up our air forever. The other band, consisting of what seemed like very young fellows, were dumb obnoxious pot heads who invited over a lesbian couple that none of us knew. Nothing against lesbians, but one of them peed on our roof (not OFF the roof. ON it).

Bird Names, on the contrary, were a lovely foursome who were polite and incredibly interested in the city of Cleveland. After hitting it off with them during the show, I agreed to hang out with them the next day, as they were only traveling to Columbus and didn't need to leave until late afternoon.

They had already bombared me with questions about how close we were to the lake (mind you, they are from Chicago...which has a lake as well) and other questions about life here. After they ate breakfast, and politely did all of their dishes, we headed off in their van for the mental snapshot of Cleveland that they requested.

It helped that it was a stellar day here, which can come and go especially in spring and early summer. We started off by driving from Lakewood on the shoreway, past Edgewater Park and a perfect view of the lake. I drove them over the Detroit bridge and right into public square, filling them in on any tibits I knew about the Terminal Tower, etc. etc. etc. Al actually requested to see the Free Stamp, and when I located it, he informed me that he was only joking.

There's the Rock Hall. There's Browns stadium. Here is our windmill. '

The ultimate goal was to get to Lakeview Cemetary, which houses John D. Rockefeller, Eliot Ness, Garrett Morgan and the immaculate James Garfield Memorial which was our ultimate goal. The cemetery is also the home of Wade Chapel, which has an interior designed by Louis Tiffany (one of four Tiffany Chapels in the world).

I've been to the cemetery before, but something about seeing it through the eyes of Bird Names gave it new meaning. They loved everything and questioned everything and wanted to know everything about everything. I'm not sure I've ever met a group of people so interested in Cleveland. I get the feeling that these folks are interested in lots of things, however, it was special to me that they seemed so enchanted by a city that is so often the butt of countless jokes.

When it was time for them to take off they thanked me profusely for my time and complimented my skills as a tour guide. I had hoped I wasn't boring them with my factoids.

While I felt adequately thanked, I didn't realize until later that I should have thanked them for allowing me to reopen my eyes to the beautiful and historic city that I have the privilege of living in.

Bird Names, if you ever come across this blog, I thank you for liking my city and rekindling a love affair that I hope never dies out again.