Recently I received an email from a gal, who works at a local independent radio station, she was letting me know she used a photograph I posted of a local yoga studio for their rotation (#4).
I first met the owner of said yoga studio at a volunteer event for said radio station about three months into living here in Pittsburgh.
I know this for sure: the choice to volunteer at the radio station absolutely contributed to the success of me living in Pittsburgh; because the owner of the yoga studio has absolutely contributed to my ability to have a supportive, loving, magical community here in Pittsburgh.
I'm excited to discover what other amazing connections are waiting to be made in 2011~
I don't recall when I fell in love with the greatest game on ice; sports were not exactly big in my house growing up, and Colorado didn't have a pro team at the time, but some where along the line I became CRAZY for Gretzky, that little black puck, and the sound of two grown men bashing each other into the boards.
Due to limitedhockey viewing access, I boxed up my little winter sport passion and tucked it away. Until... May 13, 2009; I was in DC for my work conference. While out and about one evening I walked past the Verizon Center, where a critical hockey game was going on between the Penguins and the Capitals (it in fact was the deciding game in the Penguins moving on to the final series and winning the Stanley Cup). I came back to my hotel room and called Michael.
me: "Um... Pittsburgh has a professional hockey team..." him: "Yeah? [sarcastically] the Penguins, they're owned by Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby is their cap't... blah, blah, blah"me: "I guess I wasn't really aware of that. "him: "Are you really into hockey?" me: "YES, pretty much the best spectator sport ever" anyways, you get the idea. I think that had one of us not loved hockey, this past 7 months would have been even more challenging. There are a lot of games, and we are both dedicated watchers. I would even go so far as to call it date night for us. We take our place on the couch, the surround sound is turned up, the reminder is set to FSN Pittsburgh for Hockey Night. To be honest, I would go so far as to say that hockey is probably, if not the #1, at least the top three, common interests we have with the same intensity [maybe because he is a guy, and has just that much more testosterone, he likes it a little more].
So we love hockey, and in Pittsburgh the only kinda hockey there is = Penguins'hockey & and Penguins hockey is some seriously AWESOME hockey. The history of hockey in this town goes back to the late 19th century; that vein runs deep. It is a story rich with rewards and wrought with regrets, ups and downs, fall behinds and come backs... a story I can certainly relate to. A story that is now interwoven with my story.Though one thing that might not be in Pittsburgh much longer is the Igloo, the home of the Penguins for the last 40 some odd years. (Once upon a time it opened up, I can only imagine how heavenly that would have been... I digress). I didn't really imagine that we might get to see a game in the Igloo, since this was the last season the Penguins would be playing there... but after some serious persistence and sacrifice, I convinced a coworker to sell me two tickets for one of the last home games.... needless to say, that was at the top of the best moments we've had since moving to Pittsburgh, hands down. I actually giggled for the first 1/2 hour we were there. I will even go so far as to say it was up there with seeing Madonna at the Pepsi Center in Denver (and those of you who know me, know how big a deal that is). Some of the reasons for the amazing-ness of it all:
We had fantastic seats (despite the height we were at) right behind the visiting team's goal.
The game ended in a shoot out, more bang for your buck.
Michael and I experienced a timeless Pittsburgh "thing" together.
The team we were watching are at the top of their game and just might pull off the ultimate and keep the cup one more year.
I will be sad to see the season end, but the timing couldn't be more perfect... summer has arrived: there are lots of parks to walk, trails to explore, camping spots to find, BBQs to attend and have, and outside fun... and when it's raining outside, I will always have the photos:
UPDATE: April 2014, it appears embedded slideshow is broken,
After a few weeks of settling into a routine post-holiday chaos I started a new job. Two weeks later I started school and ummm... considering how much change we've adjusted to in the last six months... honestly I was exhausted.
I really love my new job, I can't say enough good things about it. I couldn't even compare it to my last job in any way, because in nearly every way the new job is fabulous and the previous one was not at all. But it is a new job and it has it's learning curve.
And school... although I am not exactly fond of the subject, Arithmetic Fundamentals; I am exceptionally fond of my teacher, Mr. O. Mr O has been teaching since before my mom was born. He doesn't have a gigundo wrinkle down the middle of his forehead, no he calls it "his dimple"... I am grateful for this opportunity and experience, and it is wearing me out.
So here I am adjusting to all of that, and still trying to do all the things I did before, being a mom and a wife, having a dog, grocery shopping, laundry, mail, sleeping... and out of nowhere (and I mean NO WHERE)... Western Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic is WALLOPED by the "4th largest snow storm on record in ALL the years that they have been keeping a record of snow storms. No freaking joke... I went to bed on Friday nite (Feb. 5th) with the little shiny flurries beginning to fall, and woke up the next morning with easily a foot of snow outside my front door, which was after the snow had started to stick. Within the next 48 hours Pittsburgh was under a 36" blanket of snow (in some parts). We lost power sometime late Friday nite, until the crazy eyes on our Wii remote controller charger woke me up around 5:30 Sunday morning. We cooked food on the camping stove, and listened to the Pen's game on the radio, then spent Saturday night downstairs so that we could be in front of the fireplace (always a fantastic feature in any home).
It was fun, sort of. Obviously we were overjoyed to have the electricity back on for at least one of the days we were home, there were chores that needing to be done after all. Unfortunately we were also unable to go anywhere, there would be no plowing our street for a few days. Thanks to the large evergreen tree attempting to mate with some wires and a telephone pole at the wrong end of our cul-de-sac.
HFG who had gone for a sleep-over down the street on Friday nite, finally made her way home on Sunday afternoon (that house had not lost power) to happily find no school on Monday. Ultimately I hadn't needed to contact my manger earlier on Sunday to notify her of my inability to leave my house on Monday, since in an unprecedented move work was closed for three days! The city was in total chaos, obviously we weren't the only ones with power out and snow filled streets in the area.
So although I didn't have school or work... I found it hard to resist the urge to hibernate, unless I was out shoveling out a path for the dog.
Several things I've said to describe the experience of being stranded in your own home during severe winter weather include:
It's like having an avalanche envelop an entire metropolitan area.
A few times I've experienced disorienting snow blindness.
Didn't you just shovel five minutes ago?
Didn't I just shovel five minutes ago?
Oh, is it snowing? I hadn't noticed because it just blends with the rest of the mile high snow piles.
So here we are nearly two weeks into some sort of snow flurry activity (either because it was actually falling from the sky, or the high winds were just blowing it around); and they are predicting measurable snow precipitation for the next week at least.
I'm a little obsessed right now with where we might live, work, go to school, hike, camp, grocery shop, when we move to Western PA; and so whenever I see any article, news story, weather info, etc. about the haps in the area I must immediatly read it, watch it, ingest it, process it...
I mention this all to Michael, who promptly says something to the effect of that would be like living in ___________ (insert your own "Other Side of the tracks" location, for me that would be Pueblo, or maybe even Canon City). I'm not sure why though this doesn't bother me. It excites me.
Maybe because it's a microcosmic version of the state of the nation, and I want to contribute to what can be, and not what was.
