what a weekend!

in

what a weekend! don't even know where to start. ok, so on saturday i went out and got shoes for my new pedals.

went shopping at the giant eagle in squirrel hill, and my checkout "girl" was actually a transgendered individual. good for (s)him.

saturday afternoon was a wedding for two climbing friends... the whole this was so beautiful and grandiose. it was held at this fantastic cathedral, and the service was gorgeous. harp player, the whole thing. the reception was at the pennsylvanian, which was just beautiful. cocktail hour was outside on the rotunda, and the reception proper was held inside this gorgeous, high-ceilinged hall. the only problem was that with all the marble, it was hard to hear anyone talking on the p.a. the best man was turkish, and had a bit of an accent, so that combined with the echo i think i caught maybe one word in twenty. everyone at our table watched him very intently tho, and when he laughed, we all laughed. when we left, the groom (also turkish) was dancing, doing this this which i can only describe as the turkish equivalant of "russian squat-dancing". it was supremely cool.

sunday a.m. drove down to w.v. to do some bouldering. good day on sunday, and stayed that night with a very lovely couple who are 3 weeks from having a baby. i've never seen a more active 33-week pregnant woman before! she was running around like a maniac! went climbing again at the same place monday morning, but it got so stinkin hot that we went to this little cave a bit down the road from where the couple we stayed with lives. some fun cave problems there, and much, much cooler than hawk's nest.

i would have rode in with my fancy new pedals and shoes this morning, but we're supposed to get thunderstorms with hail and everything right around the time i'd be riding home. no thanks... i'll wait for tomorrow when the weather is going to be cooler and drier.

delicious moment of panic

in

woke up this morning around 6:50, and padded downstairs to the computer to check the weather for today, since i wanted to ride in. that's funny.. why does my computer's clock say 7:54? oh, crap.

seems as though my alarm clock was set to the wrong hour. luckily, the bus i wound up catching was the extra special one that not only uses the bus-only roadway to get downtown, but drops me in front of my building.

tracing back, the Special Lady Friend stayed over night before last, and i got up and left before she had to. she probably hit the hour button reaching for the snooze when the alarm went off (which goes forward), and then in trying to get it back around chose the wrong hour.

my co-worker theorized that she's actually trying to ruin my life, and she's starting in subtle ways.

at my new scary bus

in

at my new scary bus stop, there's some graffiti on the station. my favorite is some words that are spray-painted into the steps coming down from the platform. they're all in the same handwriting and in the same color, so i'm assuming it was the same person. on the first landing it says "reefer" on the next it says "crack cocaine" and on a step right by the bottom it says "go bowling"

is the implication that these drugs are taking over our inner city, and the solution is to go bowling? or that bowling itself is more addictive than crack?

karma

in

karma (if you believe in that sort of thing (and i don't)) is a strange thing. on the walk to the bus yesterday from work it rained. hard. "torrential" might be a good word to describe it. i already had my gore-tex jacket, but i figured with the sideways rain i should beef it up with an umbrella. so, i borrowed one from a coworker's desk (thanks ryan!) on my way to the bus, i saw this poor woman, probably in her early 40s, and totally unprepared for the rain. soaking wet, hair a mess, etc. so, in a burst of inexplicable generosity, i gave her my (ryan's) umbrella. and then proceeded to get drenched on the walk to the bus. good deed for the day done, right?

so of course i'm in a car accident this morning.

i'm in my car, driving down a road that's 2 lanes each way. i'm tooling along in the right-hand lane, doing about 40. up ahead there was a small truck/van in the left lane, waiting to make a turn across traffic and down a side street, with about 3 or 4 cars backed up behind it. being a defensive driver, i'm watching that line of traffic for someone to make their move into my lane, but nobody does.

...until i'm just even with them.

this dope pulls over when i'm so close to her that it's not even like i'm going to rear-end her; i'm going to sideswipe her. everything is moving in super-slow motion, just like they say that it does. i make use of the only exit lane available to me; the sidewalk. swerve over, hit the curb hard, and start sliding down the grass and concrete, trying to manuver between a steel signpost on my left and a line of trees on my right (thank you, anti-lock brakes!). there's a loud *bang* and i figure i'm dead. no, wait. i'm still alive. and the airbag didn't even go off. whafuh?

i get out of my car (with all limbs attached in the correct position), and trot back to her car.

me: "you ok?" her: "yeah." me: "ok, why don't you pull up on the sidewalk in front of my car."

i walk back to my car and survey the damage. no damage to the body. none. both left tires were flat, and my sideview mirror's casing was cracked, and the mirror part of it had popped off and landed in my lap. the driver's side window had also been knocked off its track (presumably by the jolt of hitting the curb), but was in one piece. i went over and looked at her car; no damage. i hadn't even nudged her. some mighty fine driving on my part, if i do say so myself. i even had my wits about me enough to be laying on the horn the entire time i was swerving, braking, and cursing.

the woman was extremely apologetic, which was nice.

i wasn't nearly as shaken as i thought i would be, but it certainly woke me up. i did allow myself to think later on about what if someone had been on the sidewalk where i pulled off, but i'm pretty sure that since i had the sense to actually steer into the sidewalk and drive straight down it, it was probably because i had seen the exit lane and noted that it was clear. i'm just glad i didn't have to actually test that theory; seeing if i could make myself plow into the back of someone's car.

so, my car is at the dealership, and i hope to have it back very soon. we both have the same insurance company, which should speed things along mightily.

i am the scourge of buses

in

i am the scourge of buses. some background: i usually take a fairly long bus ride to and from work; local route, lots of stops. last week i get wind of a few express routes that use this buses-only roadway that makes the route ever so much shorter. so, last friday i go dashing from work in time to catch one of these magical buses. we're on the busway, careening along! no traffic! no lights! god is my copilot! and then, we stop. dead. buses (when they're running) always have this constant, low-voltage thrumming, so when a bus is totally silent it's a little strange. we get on another bus that kindly stops to bring us to the main stop at the end of the busway, where i pick up another one that goes pretty close to my place.

so, yesterday a friend and i make the mad dash in the insane heat to try again. we get on the bus, feeling smug. we're on the busway, and we pull over, dead. our driver restarts the bus, and we start off again with a collective sigh of relief. we make it maybe another mile, and then pull over again. same routine; close all windows, and hit ctrl-alt-delete. this time, while we're waiting for our driver to decide if she's going to try and drive this hunk o' crap another inch, a port authority repair truck comes cruising by. the guys in the truck talk with our driver for awhile, during which time she became increasingly angry. "i told them already that there was a problem with this bus! i asked them to not give me this bus again!" if you close your eyes, you can almost see her head moving from side to side. the repair guys wave her on... sure, it'll be fine... just keep restarting if you have to. another half mile. stop. wait.

another bus on a similar route comes by. our driver forgets she has a radio and starts screaming "wait! WAIT!!!" out the window at this other bus. she finally remembers her radio, and flags that bus down. we all pile on. keep in mind that it was a pretty full bus to begin with, and there were already people on the other bus. so, we all cram in like clowns into a VW, and off we go! we get about 3 stops further, and then when our new driver tries to pull away, nothing happens. the transmission simply won't slip into gear. he tries restarting the bus a few times. no dice. he tries goosing the throttle gently. nada. we're not too far away from the main hub stop, so my friend and i are about to get off the bus and walk back and pick up another when our old driver shows up at the back door. it was great; like a scene out of an action movie where the loveable sidekick that you thought was killed shows up at a critical moment for our hero and says "c'mon guys! what are you waiting for?!?" i swear, she actually said that! so, we all piled back on to the original deathtrap bus and finally made it safely home.

i really hope that this happens.

anyone else have hellacious travel stories? please discuss

productivity

in

wow! you can get a lot done in a weekend if you don't go away. went to a local "goth night". it was.... interesting. i was in the whole goth scene when i was at rutgers, but i grew tired of it. it was just like the cheerleaders and jocks that i hated in high school, but instead of how many drunk cheerleaders you felt up or what car daddy bought for you, people were swinging their music and clothing dicks around. "oh, i've got an ultra-rare sisters of mercy peel sessions. on *vinyl*." "nothing in my wardrobe hits a color level higher than purple." anyway, it was sort of interesting to see the people. of course, i was there in jeans and a white linen shirt, so felt like a sore thumb. there were people wearing white shirts, but they were of the poet/pirate shirt variety. one kid have full skull makeup on, like one of the bad guys from the first karate kid movie. one guy had his head shaved in a (un?)conscious imitation of the singer from the prodigy. one guy had on a shirt and tie, with a full-length white lab coat. ok.... there was also a woman there... stunningly beautiful. black hair, piercing blue eyes, and wearing a fantastic simple black silk dress. but then i heard her talking; pure pittsburgh. the good part of the night was the dj. he was spinning all sorts of good goth/industrial music. but he wasn't just playing a track, and then playing the next. he was beat matching, overlapping songs, *mixing*, you know? good stuff.

went to the karaoke thing last night. always a good time. there were two *ahem* mentally challenged individuals that got up and sang a few times. it was actually quite touching. one guy got up and did such a passable axl rose impression that if you didn't look at the guy, you'd swear it was a suprise g 'n' r show.

cleaned my apartment within an inch of its life, too. i threw my bathmats in the washer, which i've done in several occasions before. this time, however, they didn't really feel like playing. they sort of fell apart; all the rubbery stuff on the bottom coming off in large chunks, tufts of the carpet stuff falling off. i just found it interesting that they all decided to go at once. or, maybe it was the fact that i washed them in hot water... don't think i did that the times before. oops.

karaoke until the death

in

this weekend is the 21st birthday of a friend in our little climbing group. so, the thought it to take her out drinking sunday night. but not just anywhere; oh no... we're going to go to ryan's pub, which is famous for its karaoke. every week, scores of punk rawk/goth kids come out to play. and they are deadly serious about it, too. there's nothing quite like seeing some 6-foot guy with a mohawk, piercings and tattoos up there singing sinatra standards with a carefully controlled fury.

someone tried to bust a saucy cap in mah ass!

in

monday night i was the victim of a drive-by. i had just pulled up in my car after going to see Minority Report, and i'm turning the car off and taking off my seat belt, and there's a wet *thump* on the door. me: what the heck was that? friend: i think somebody threw something at your car. me: [notices a large smeary brown mess on the side] eeeew! i think someone threw a handful of shit on my car! friend: i don't think anyone would actually do that, would they? me: [sniffs the brownish goo with great apprehension] oh, it's just bbq sauce.

further investigation yielded the offending container (from the local mcdonalds) a few feet away. so, that got me thinking; did the person sort of just toss it out of their window? just a little flick of the wrist? or was it a malicious *winging* of said container? would the forward velocity of a 40 mph car have been enough to splatter the container that violently, since the momemtum would have been almost all forward, and only a little bit to the side?

then i started wondering why i was bothering to assemble my own warren commission over the whole thing, and went inside and got a container of water to rinse it off, in case it ate paint the same way raw eggs do.

*cue music* mem-ories..... what an

in

*cue music* mem-ories..... what an odd day yesterday was. early on went to a bbq/housewarming party/engagement party for two old high school friends of mine. they bought this gorgeous house up in the more rural area of where i grew up; on a large plot, and it even has a stream running through it. they've done a fantastic job (in just two short months) of decorating on a shoestring budget. that combined with seeing my old roomate's two-week-old house down in lovely ewing, nj has started me thinking about how nice it would be to be a homeowner. the idea that you could invest time in repainting, refinishing, etc. that would not just be until you moved to a bigger/better/differently-located apt., it would be until you _wanted_ to move, which could be never.

also, the more i think about it, the more comfortable i am with the idea of spending a good chunk of future time in pittsburgh. it's really not a bad city; it's clean, safe, relatively cheap. the recent climbing trip to denver helped cement it further in my mind; denver was a very pretty city, and rifle was fun for an alternative to the new, but i really, *really* like the climbing here, both the quality, and how close it is to civilization. the other options for a new place could be SoCal, or the pacific northwest (i'm still in love with seattle).

anyway, after the bbq, my good buddy john and i headed down to the trashy bar right across the lake from where my dad lives. ran into a handful of high school classmates; and oh, what a mind-fuck that was! the whole thing was almost surreal; people coming up to me, recognizing me instantly (although i think i look awfully different from 10 years ago, more metal and less hair). first of all, let me just say that i am *terrible* with remembering names and faces, so last night's encounters were the sort that give me terror-sweats. everyone (well, _most_ everyone) looked so different. almost all the girls i talked to had at least one kid. some of the people (male and female) had almost a funhouse quality to them... i remember them being so thin, and some of them had put on weight, which is hard to wrap your brain around; seeing someone that you so clearly remember in your mind as looking one way, that now looks like they've been attacked by a lunatic with a bicycle pump.

well, if anything, it's prepared me somewhat for my 10-year reunion, which is at the end of this summer (eep!).

also found out that there is a relatively crappy crag not 5 minutes from where i grew up. wonder what would have happened if i had discovered that earlier