Last Wednesday, I got a bit of upsetting news. It was news I'd always expected to hear some day, and it didn't matter when I heard it, it was always going to be upsetting. My initial plan was to find a bar, someplace dark with cheap beer, and drinks some sorrows away. But, that plan has never really worked out before, so I put myself in my friend Eric's hands, and his company and a beautiful Pittsburgh night on the South Side took care of everything.
First objective was food. Being that I was still in an upset state of mind, I needed something quick and something comforting. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a comfort eater. I spent many nights toward the end of my time in Boston making pizza boats for dinner and eating ice cream by the pint. How I am not 300 lbs. is a mystery to us all (well, not really - not having a car will force you to exercise a lot more than you think). So, pizza it was.
I would like to wish for a Pizza Sola downtown, so I could have their delicious pizza at least once a week for lunch. The pizza was delicious and my drink, appropriate for my mood, was Cheerwine. In keeping with what will be an ongoing theme of things I always forget, I always forget there is a Pizza Sola so close by in East Liberty. I should keep a list by my front door with these things I forget.
I want to get back into the habit of actually buying music. A somewhat foreign concept in 2011, but I'd rather give $15 to a local record store a few times a month than download a bunch of random stuff and hardly listen to any of it. With that in mind, Eric and I stopped into The Record Exchange so I could pick up the new Washed Out album, which I then listened to about five times that night.
This was the exact message I needed to see on Wednesday. Thank you, anonymous street artist.
We walked all the way from Pizza Sola to the South Side Works. Eric and I walk more than any other two people I know, and it was time for both of us to get new shoes. Once we settled on new shoes, we put them on and made our way back up East Carson with a single destination: The Milkshake Factory. (Remember: pizza AND ice cream will solve all of your problems.) Eric settled on plain chocolate. I went for mint oreo. (And a fresh-squeezed lemonade.)
My only requirement for the night was that I needed to pick up cat food. From Twitter, I'd heard that the new Target in East Liberty was (finally) open, so what better place to go for cat food? That I can now bike to a Target and a Home Depot is such a pleasing thing. Not that I need these places to survive, but living in Boston, I was never able to get to these sorts of places without asking someone for a ride. Now, I can get there all on my own. It's freeing, in a way.
A couple years ago, I would have let the bad news destroy my night, and maybe my week. But I was in a different place then. Now, I live in a place where I think there is an adventure around every corner, a surprise down every side street, and a simple message on the sidewalk can turn my night around.
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