Home Is Where My Heart Is, And That's Always Pittsburgh

The week's worth of travels now behind me.

This morning I woke up in Canada.

I fiddled with my seventh different shower set-up in seven days, striving to strike the right balance between scalding hot water and chilling ice water. After twenty minutes, I had to give up and just get in and get out regardless of comfort level. I've never ever missed my own shower before like I did this morning. I also missed my own bed. And my cats. And my bike. And Pittsburgh, of course.

The past seven days were completely awesome. We spent them driving throughout Ontario, going to familiar places, new places, and places that even the Canadians we met didn't understand why we went to them. (Upon learning we had driven to Sudbury from Pittsburgh, our waiter at our fancy steak dinner - Mark - said, "Jesus, what the hell are you doing here?") I've been in towns this week with populations under 6,500 people. I slept next to a mosquito-infested lake in the literal middle-of-nowhere. I ingested so much Tim Hortons. Not only because it is delicious, but to two American travelers, the free and reliable wifi was essential to keeping up with the world. I plan to pepper in posts about my travels over the next several weeks. I won't inundate you with all Canada all the time. And there's a good reason for that! This is a blog about living in Pittsburgh.

But, in order to get re-excited about living in Pittsburgh, I needed an escape. I needed a break from my normal everyday life to appreciate my normal everyday life again. You see, I'm a big advocate for vacation. I think it's necessary to step away from what's always right in front of me to make sure it's still what I want to have right in front of me. I don't foresee ever wanting something other than Pittsburgh. But even though I know work is going to be absolute hell this week playing catch-up and also making good on all the promises I made to people before I left, I still can't wait to wake up tomorrow and get on my bike and fly down Penn Ave. I can't wait to sit up in my office in PPG One and look out on my city and feel at home. Cause home is where my heart is, and that's always Pittsburgh.