Pittsburgh State of Mind

So many things to still get caught up on. The good news is in my three days off in the last two weeks, I've started doing just that! I've read three books, cleaned my apartment, and well... that's just about it. The last book I read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky. Loved it. It was so well written and one of those books that is instantly relate-able and therefore in my opinion timeless. Everyone has a coming of age experience and the awkward transition that is middle to high school. The family story, the friend story, the personal story were all intertwined beautifully. I liked it so much that I ordered the movie on demand and enjoyed it instantly well. The whole thing put me in a Pittsburgh state of mind.

It's a place I had never visited before last fall and probably would never had visited had a dear friend not gotten married there. Now I have a sudden urge to go back just so I can ride under the tunnel completely free and utterly infinite with my hands in the air and my hair in the wind. And of course epic rock would be blasting from the stereo.

It is a remarkably beautiful place, and I'm quite grateful I had the opportunity to go. The thing I remember most about the trip of course is the memories made with dear friends.  There's something to be said for being able to get back together with our small group of three and not miss a beat. I had gone to Tampa with Ken the year before, and DC with Tricia the year before that, but the three of us hadn't been together since Key West nearly two and a half years previous.  And still when Tricia got in late that night, we all huddled in our hotel room to get caught up on everyone's lives. And it was as though we had never been apart.  Over the course of five minutes we went from Marfan Syndrome in Abraham Lincoln, to incest in West Virginia, to reconstructing a tympanic membrane, and wallpaper in home depot. Go figure :)

Ken and Sylvie's wedding was absolutely beautiful. Sylvia was stunning and radiant, the boat was the perfect setting, the music was fantastic, and the company was unbeatable. At the wedding another friend from NYC joined us, and it was great to see Heather and meet her fiance as well. At one point as the three of us were reminiscing about the good old days in the city, Heather's fiance just laughed at our stories and said, "Sex and the City is over ladies, you have all gone home." And he was right, and it was funny how well the analogy fit our time there together. And heather said it perhaps best in a line that hit me in many areas of my life. "Sometimes it wasn't meant to be. It was just a great moment." Beautiful.

Miss you Pittsburgh, miss you New York, miss you friends!