past present future in less then 2 minutes....

One of the things we've been meaning to do since we moved here is visit a place called Kennywood. Of course because he had been there when he was a kid, the huz wanted to take both the kid and I; but as teens are wont to do, she went ahead without us. Instead going with her friends on the designated day for her school. So after we shipped her off to visit in Seattle and we went on a day date.

It was nostalgic for him, and fun for me (I heart roller coasters). Unfortunately we were too early to ride the newest one which opened a few days after we went; but it will be nicely broken in by the time we try it out. Can't wait to go back with the kid.... now that I've gotten familiar we can better prepare. The pics are all with my new phone, I was sc'red to take the big kahuna camera, but there is always next time.

Jack Rabbit in action, or what I could see of it...



the second dip of the Phantom's Revenge, which goes under the Thunder Bolt

The Phantom's Revenge, I made Michael ride it twice!

reminders of a childhood spent in the south

• the weight of air
• the colorful song birds
• the way the grass smells after a blistering hot day, and then a good down pour
• the storms
• the fireflies (which are not that easy to capture on video, but I tried)
  

very short and you have to look closely, they are brief little flashes of light...

longer, but right off the bat there is one that flashed right before me...

remaining vestige of Seattle life

I haven't changed my cell phone number yet (it's nearly been a year since we arrived). I've had plenty of opportunity, but I'm reluctant to let it go. I'm sure if I dug deep I could determine the cause of this hesitation; but the basic fact is: in a toddler tantrum kind of way... "I don' wanna!"

It's driving the hubby mad. I keep telling him, "You can change your number, I DON'T CARE, but I'm not ready to change mine." He hasn't changed his either. He's the one with the 412 tattoo, not me.

I have wondered if cell phones were as prolific then as they are now, would I have hung on to my Colorado area code when I moved around way back when I was moving around a lot? I think it's interesting that both Michael and I grew up in certain area codes, his was 412, mine was 303 (but neither of those cover the areas where we grew up in any longer, they have since incorporated new area codes....)

I even got a new phone (I think I had my Blackberry the longest I've ever had any phone) recently, and yet it still has my good ol' 206 digits! Maybe when it's been two years!

home

We were very fortunate to get to visit one of the most famous American homes,
"Fallingwater" .
It was AAA-maZing!!!

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one;
stronger than magician ever spoke,
or spirit ever answered to,
in the strongest conjuration.
Charles Dickens

more validation, justification, whatever you want to call it...

"People know that Pittsburgh is a really great place for families because of safety, schools and the arts." says Wendy Hermann, director of student services for master's programs at Carnegie Mellon University. "I see students wanting that whether they're married or not. They see staying in Pittsburgh as way to say that's the kind of lifestyle they're looking forward to."

America's Best Places to Raise a Family

Seattle Love for Pittsburgh...

I was doing my usual clicking around on the interwebulars this morning and came across a blog from one of the Seattle weeklies and came across a bit about a Pittsburgh food place. I am super excited now, because my dear friend Monica, who is a foodie, will be visiting me at the end of July. I think we should check this out:

Seattle Weekly Voracious

"But really, it's the small, strange details that really give a place (and a scene) character. And now, Pittsburgh has this: Conflict Kitchen, a restaurant (well, a hole-in-the-wall, really--a literal hole in a wall) that serves, on a rotating basis, only foods from places where the U.S. is currently having a war. Or maybe threatening to have a war, considering that it opened and is going through its first iteration as an Iranian restaurant and, unless I missed something on CNN this morning, I don't believe we are currently in a shooting war with Iran.

Kubideh Kitchen

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes....

Strange fascination fascinating me

Ah, changes are taking the pace I'm going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

ch-ch-changes

Oh, look out, you rock and rollers

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

ch-ch-changes

Pretty soon now, you're gonna get older

Time may change me, but I can't trace time

I said that time may change me, but I can't trace time

David Bowie

Obviously there has been a tremendous amount of change in our lives over the past year; and this past weekend was no exception.

As I was telling the story to a friend of ours how I had decided to name my daughter (in her presence), I mentioned one of the other names I had considered… and without hesitation she said something like, “I really like that name, can I change my name?”; and similarly without hesitation I said, "If you're really serious and want to change your name then sure I suppose you can change your name."

Just as I understood that our choice to uproot our lives and relocate with no job prospects, no housing, and (if I were being honest) no real sense of what it meant to do what it was we were doing would be LOADED with implications, FRAUGHT with challenges, and otherwise not something to be taken lightly, this choice too will carry its own burdens.

I can only hope that just as our true friends loved and encouraged us through this process so will the people in her life. Already there are those who are fighting it, turning heads and whispering doubt, but more importantly there are those who are lifting her up, loving her no less (maybe more) and saying, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

For the last 14 years I have been blessed to know you as my daughter and for the next 14 and beyond I will be just as proud to know you as Lincoln Huntyr Griffin.