Tag Archives: pennsylvania

LIVE, OBSESS

marketspace


Finally got a chance last night to dig around with some of the snaps from the trip up to PA…

One series is of particular interest… The old Laurel Mall which sits mostly abandoned, (yet still open), in the town at the base of the mountain from Chad’s parents.

The newer “fancy” mall in the neighboring town has all but turned this piece of 60’s architecture into a ghost town… Only a handful of tenants remain which include a dollar general store, a cinema and a candy vendor.

There’s something creepy-cool about strolling through an old mall like this…

It reminded me of the old South County Mall where a lot of my youth was spent either in tow behind my mom and grandmother or working my first retail jobs as a teeny bopper…. (*chessking anyone?)

Thanks to neglect – this mall actually had a lot of the original finishes and fixtures unlike the marketplace of my youth which has undergone facelifts in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s.

Nonetheless, the boys were extremely patient as I ran around in a nostalgic daze with my tripod and made studies.

Recapping.. not blogging.

LIVE, OBSESS

that roadtrip


So we were able to slip out of town a couple of weeks back for a road-trip. I’m going to refrain from calling it a “vacation”. It was more like a pleasant, but exhausting, chain of in-law visiting, toddler fawning and series of “family activities”…

All of that leaves me quite certain that the only “vacation” part of the excursion was the couple of days we spent sitting around burning time and devouring Cinci-chili with Mr. Glass and the few hours of a break I got driving back from PA to curl up in the passenger seat with a book I’ve been trying to get through.

Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t a bad trip…

It just wasn’t “Vacation.”

….and I’m still feeling exhausted.

I’m going to take the next couple of days to go through the snaps from the trip…. And not blog about anything that catches my eye or tickles my memory… Like the cool little 60’s dinner we stopped at for breakfast outside of Cincinnati on the way to PA… Country fried steak, realllllllly good gravy and probably the coolest parking-lot light fixtures I’ve ever seen.

LIVE

back

(the camera is still packed)

The drive home was a flavor of grueling only made tolerable with good company and audio books.

Stopping once to sit down and eat – the trip took exactly ten hours from door to door… and one tank of fuel. (insert plug for the Volkswagen TDI cars).

I headed straight to the bathtub to soak my right ass cheek which had gone numb from mashing the accelerator to keep us at a steady 80MPH. (insert gripe about how the cruise control went on the fritz and the occasional, odd electrical problems of Volkswagens).

Ex-urban fantasies about being held up in an isolated cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania aside,… everyone agreed – it’s nice to be HOME.

Deprivation is the best route to appreciation – and at the risk of sounding corny and metaphoric, “the route” was a ten hour schlep down highway 70 which landed us in the driveway of our little home we’ve worked so very hard for… a sense of gratefulness I’ve not felt in a long time overcame me.

We agreed we should keep dreaming of the mountains – but as a second home if it should ever come to fruition.

It was great to spend time with Kevin and Chad’s families.

It was great to meet a couple of LJ-folk.

It was great to change our scenery for a while.

It’s great to be home.

It’s great to not blog.

LIVE

planet sweden


he only photo taken yesterday

Had an early lunch with Chad’s sister and headed on into Pittsburgh…. Not to see the museums or tour the pretty downtown… Nope… To go to IKEA.

It’s hard to explain to anyone who lives within striking distance to the Swedish crap peddler just how much of a treat it is for us.

We got lost for two hours and left with a bag full of stuff for under a $100.

A few phone calls later and we found ourselves at our rendezvous spot for the evening called “D’s Six Pack and Dogz” – a tiny dive accommodating more different types of beer than patrons.

We weren’t there long before our escorts for the evening arrived. In sauntered a beard that walked like a man… It was bleepkeeper! Through the miracle of blog, (or non-blogs) – all the awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time was non-existent and we were carrying on in no time. Later we were joined by Dan’s partner Brian – a sweet soft spoken man closely resembling an off-season Santa.

About an hour later a hip-kid with smart metro-urban bag, headphones and purple hair showed up…. It was dutin.

The dirty blue collar vibe of D’ s left us longing for more of the same – so we headed out and wound up in another dive called “The Holiday”.

By 9:30 we needed food… BAD… so Dutin took us to a sandwich place called “Primanti Brothers” where they put french fries and cole-slaw directly onto the sandwich…. I had the fish.

Headed back to Dutin’s, located in Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The ultimate bachelor pad – it reminded me of places I’d regularly pass out at in college… (Lots of computers, “found” furniture and a sense of decor screaming for a woman’s or homosexual’s touch).

My 30-something metabolism kicked in, (more like gave-out), after eating the big-as-my ass sandwich and was conked out by 10:30…

We got up early enough to get back to the mountains, shower and nap before the thanksgiving feast put on by Chad’s grandma.

Time to return to St. Louis tomorrow. It’s time… I’m starting to miss our stuff… the cats… our friends…

I’m not missing blogging of course.