2012: Definitely an Improvement

It's cliche, sure. But I cannot believe 2012 is already over. Tonight we usher in 2013, and I'm really excited. 2011 was a total bummer. I came into 2012 full of hope that it would be a better year, and it definitely was. (Truly though, the bar 2011 set was extraordinarily low.) I feel like the positive momentum of 2012 will carry into 2013 and whatever it has in store. As excited as I was for 2012, I'm just as excited for 2013.

In these final hours of the year, here's a look at some of my favorite moments and posts. 

I started the year by repeating a move that took me into the worse year of my life. I was a little anxious to kick 2012 off in the same way, but I figured I was more prepared and at that point mostly acting on gut decision.

Coming out of the Mon on New Year's Day. Love that this is becoming a tradition. Tomorrow will be my third jump in a row.

The brave souls who welcomed 2012 with an icy-cold dip in the river.

Ringing in 2012 with Rob and champagne and lots of dancing (and lots of '90s music).

Carrie and me at the river jump on New Year's Day.

There was hockey in 2012! Which, sadly, it seems like that may not be the case in the first half of 2013. I miss games! I miss my Pigman! I miss Tommy the Beer Vendor! I miss my hockey family!

Continued another good tradition of winter camping. I'm happy to have friends who thinking sleeping outside in the cold in a bag on the ground is terrific fun too.

Allie and I drove to Bethel Park, hometown of my youth, after Mitt Romney's Cookie-Gate broke, to pick up the most wonderful thing in the world: a Bethel Bakery cake. Oh, and we broke down and met a black pug named Petunia.

Hey, have you guys heard about how I like to bike and stuff?

My brother - my baby brother! - treated me to a night on the town. We went ate burgers. We saw a zombie musical. We went to a Halloween bar. It was pretty special.

My brother and me sitting in the splash zone in our ponchos at the zombie musical.

John took me on my first motorcycle ride. And I survived. (And I kinda loved it.)

Need a book to add to your list of things to read in 2013? I'd suggest a book about my new favorite Pittsburgher.

I may have missed out on the fireworks, but I think white-water rafting on the Fourth of July was a very American thing to do. (Beer on the river and jumping off a huge rock also seem that way too.)

Papa Rowland and me, at the Pirates Skyblast featuring Boyz II Men. 

I celebrated two years being back in the city. Is it weird that it's only now seeming permanent?

I. Rode. My Bike. To Washington D.C.

Dirty, scratched up legs on the C&O Canal.

Rode my bike to D.C., and then rode another bike past the White House.

I turned 29. I spent it in wonderful ways.

Celebrated my 29th birthday by going to an amusement park for kids.

I got to see and do some pretty super things because of biking this year. It's weird to think there was a time in my life when biking wasn't a huge part of it. Was I just bored all the time?

Trying to power up a blender to make margaritas at the Carrie Furnace. My long legs weren't long enough!

Made sure to sneak a trip up to The Hat this year too. Always a good thing. (Sneak Peek: There's a big adventure in the planning stages that combines two of my biggest loves.)

Found these dinos hiding up in Niagara Falls. (On the Canadian side, of course.)

My bloody knee after crashing my bike on Queen Street West in Toronto. (So embarrassing.)

Put my feet in Lake Ontario.

I stayed up all night riding bikes with a bunch of people I'd never really met! And it was a really really good experience. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Participants of the second leg of the DC-PGH 24-hour relay. (No one told me about the dress code!)

The Bloomfield Halloween Parade 2012.

We had a pretty epic fall this year. Thanks Mother Nature for the drought? Is that what happened? Whatever. It was so beautiful for so long.

Guys. This movie. This book.

Ross and I went to go see a Halloween laser show. It was not exactly what we expected.

I rode my bike 3,000 miles! (I was trying for 4,000 on a dare, but Australia and that whole lefthand-side of the road thing...)

Me and Corey at the Steelers-Eagles game. 

Someone thought it would be a good idea to put me on TV. Yeah. I know. I love hot dogs. (And I love WQED and Rick Sebak!!)

I went to Australia. And I had the best time.

Souvenir from a crazy night out in Melbourne.

And, finally, my biggest fans of 2012: baby Australian goats.

EvBetPGH Down Under: The Blue Mountains

On my second day in Australia, Marlana, Courtney and me took a drive to the Blue Mountains for a few hours of hiking. We went to the Three Sisters area and wandered along the trails. For the first hour or so, I was really concentrating on keeping an eye out for snakes, as Australia has something like eight of the ten deadliest snakes in the world. But eventually the fear subsided, and I could enjoy more than the ground under my feet. Here's a sampling of what I saw a couple hours outside the city:

The Three Sisters

Rules and Things

Tic Tac Toe

Hmmm. Looks almost like being back in Pittsburgh.

EvBetPGH Down Under: Melbourne

Most of my journey to the other side of the world was spent in Sydney. But for a day and a half, Rob and I lived a much faster life (well, a bit slower on the half of that day we were really hungover) in Melbourne. 

I like Sydney. Don't get me wrong. But if someone forces me to move to Australia tomorrow, I'm heading straight for Melbourne. What Sydney lacked in color (i.e. graffiti and street art - I'm pretty sure this is a top-five thing I want in a city), Melbourne made up for a thousand times over.

We spent our first few hours in Melbourne eating lunch and checking out the Parliament building. We spent the next twelve hours drinking. This didn't surprise me one bit, as my friend in Melbourne, Evan, was one of my favorite drinking buddies in Boston. We traveled around the city on foot, having a drink and then moving on to the next place. The variety of the establishments we patronized along the way (hey, I have to try and made a bar crawl sound somewhat otherwise than that) was awesome. There was a wine bar, a rooftop bar, a riverside bar, an outstanding Thai restaurant (ChinChin, where my picky-eater self tried EVERYTHING set down in front of me), bars down slightly scary alleys, and our own private karaoke room (which we were only in for an hour, but by the time we left it looked like we'd been partying in there all night). We ended our night a little after 2 a.m. down on the pier near Evan's apartment, hanging out with the wild penguins who live in the rocks. The whole day and night was an excellent use of our time. 

The next morning? A little rough. 

But once we managed to get ourselves (somewhat) together and put some food (and Gatorade) in our bellies, Rob and I set off to wander around the city and see what we could before our flight that evening. We saw a lot of awesome graffiti, something I saw practically none of in Sydney.

We saw this dragon, made of plastic bottles, in Chinatown:

We also saw this warning sign about the trams that go up and down the Melbourne streets:

The analogy here is that getting hit by a tram would be like getting hit by a rhino on a skateboard. Australia, I adore you.

We also saw this fellow, not really sure what he was doing other than standing around?

Something we did not see, though we did try and find, are featured in the following videos.

I'll guess I'll just have to go back and find those two next time. And I do hope there will be a next time! Melbourne seemed like my kind of place, and I would love to explore it more. A big thank you to Evan and Nary, who showed us an awesome time for the short time we had there. I leave you with photobooth pictures the four of us took, probably near hour seven or eight of drinking. They are an awesome indication of the night we had in Melbourne.