A Lesson in Painting

Last night I was rereading old blog entries from the MySpace days, and I found this gem that I had completely forgotten I even wrote. Now seems like the perfect time to dust it off and reintroduce these thoughts to the world. Read on...

An ignorant man once said, "Fuck Pittsburgh, Virginia's the best state!" I beg to differ. Pittsburgh, obviously, is not even a state. But if it was, it would be the best one. Here is a short list of what I love about Pittsburgh:

• the sports-loving people (post-super bowl blissfulness leads to the most peaceful "riot" in sports history)
• the eclectic mix of architecture (cathedral of learning, meet ppg place)
• cheap beer (25 cent tuesdays, dollar drafts every day)
• yinzer pride (n'at)
• affordable cost of living (hello to having my own place)
• good thrift stores (though laurel thrift will always have a place in my heart)
• the hills and rivers/geography/topography (the view from mt. washington)
• the fact that a blue collar past has led to an adamently liberal politcal present (no republican mayor in more than two and a half decades)
• diversity (south oakland was home to both dan marino and andy warhol... what a great dichotomy)
• tradition (not that pitt contributes to this, but the rest of the city has it right)
• being undervalued (no bandwagon yinzers in sight)

So with all these wonderful things filling me up with joy everyday, why am I so antsy? Why am I dying to hop on a plane?

The answer is in the first part of this post: Pittsburgh is not a state. It's not a region. It's not a nation. It's a dot on the vast planet Earth. The people and things who make this place so great are tiny little drops of paint on an infinitely larger canvas. I want to explore the other dots and see each as what it is: an individual part of the masterpiece that is this world.

Pittsburgh isn't a state, but it is a state of mind. And when I go elsewhere, I won't really be leaving this place behind.

Planet, I am going to leave my footprints all over your fine canvas. And the paths I cut, the lines I draw, the corners I strain to reach will all be connected on one looping, crazy trail that ends where it began -- Pittsburgh is the best state.

-December 18, 2006

A Big Move

With little fanfare but much nervousness, today I told everyone at the Union Project that I will be leaving on July 13. And not only that, but I'm leaving Pittsburgh. Yikes.

I've been offered a job teaching English in Tehuacan, Mexico starting August 18. I've also submitted an application to the graduate program at Simon Fraser University's School of International Studies in Vancouver. Today I got offered a place in a volunteer program in Granada, Nicaragua helping to build low-cost homes.

I don't know the details of the Nicaragua thing. I don't know if I will be accepted to the program in Vancouver (or if I am ready to go back to school). I don't know where I will be come September. But I know where I won't be -- the United States. Some other country is gonna get me before the summer ends, just which is yet to be determined.

I'm so ridiculously excited for this summer -- Deep Creek, Cooperstown, Lewes, and some international destination yet to be determined. It's going to be a big transition; saying goodbye to this place I love and the people I share it with will be one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it's time for me to move on. This departure isn't final in any sense. The door is wide open for a return to the Steel City at some point down the road. I will take so much with me when I pack up my Corolla, roll down the windows, and whisk myself through the Squirrel Hill tunnel for the last time in the foreseeable future.

I was going to make a list of the things I will take with me, but there is no way it could ever be complete. What the hell, here's a feeble attempt:

-love for the Steelers
-pride in the invention of the aluminum beer bottle
-appreciation for the damage that can be done by 6 inches of rain in 24 hours
-the ability to navigate an city of curving, hill-kissing streets, none of which bear even a remote resemblance to a grid
-memories of walking more than 30 different miles of city streets
-an obsession with Dave & Andy's ice cream, and the way it can make even a statistics class at the top of a monstrous hill on a hot day seem worth it
-the incapacity to pay more than $1.50 for a beer without feeling cheated
-hope that UPMC and PNC Bank use their ridiculous power responsibly
-a habit of putting french fries on my salads
-a wish that every 4th of July can be spent on the Fort Pitt Bridge, wrapped in the arms of loving friends
-the tendency to speak words like "dahntahn"
-a complete intolerance for anything other than Heinz ketchup
-a belief that Central Oakland really only exists between Forbes and Fifth Ave
-the need to growl whenever the Pitt logo is shown on TV
-the knowledge that SoCo mixed with root beer tastes like bubble gum (Thank you, Brendan. And to answer you question, maybe I don't remember because I was full of Soco and freakin' root beer. My goodness... Steve!)
-absolutely no ability whatsoever to walk through South Oakland without tripping over the sidewalk
-parallel parking expertise
-the keen eye of a yinzer when it comes to finding the silver lining in every season of Pirates baseball