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.

That Time I Was Called a "Blogger" On WQED: What Makes Rick Tick

So. I was on television. A lot of people, hearing that, asked me if I also had been arrested. No. Thanks for all the votes of confidence though. 

Several months back, a producer from WQED contacted me and wanted to ask me some questions about Rick Sebak for a special about him to air in the fall. The interview was so long ago, I had almost forgotten it was actually going to air some day. And air it has. If you didn't catch the premiere on Monday night, you can watch What Makes Rick Tick on WQED's website. 

The special is pretty great, as is Rick Sebak, who is certainly worth thirty minutes of your time. 

(Psssst! When I watched this at home, I had to wrap aluminum foil around my crappy tv antenna because I don't actually get WQED on a reliable basis. Apparently, I missed the first three minutes while trying to figure out the best configuration of the antenna, myself, and my cats in the living room to get a steady feed. (My technology situation is...scary. And my cats never sit still when they're needed to.) And in that first three minutes? I declare my love of hot dogs. Just found that out tonight. While a friend was watching it. And said she liked what I said about hot dogs. And I said what about the hot dogs now? I am so proud.)

But in all seriousness and sincerity, I am so honored to have been a part of this celebration of one of Pittsburgh's treasures. Thank you, WQED! I'm going to try and get a new antenna soon, so that maybe I can watch you more often!

EvBetPGH Down Under: Making New Friends

What do you do when you've used up all of your vacation days traveling to all of Canada's provinces? You start using them on actual vacations, to places other human beings may one day want to experience too. Which is how I found myself just about as far away from Pittsburgh as I could possibly get for ten days. Over the past two years, I've had three Boston friends move (independently of each other) to Australia (two in Sydney and one in Melbourne). With a couple extra days off because of Thanksgiving, I was able to take my longest vacation in three years to visit them on the other side of the world. I left Pittsburgh on a Wednesday and got to Sydney on a Friday. I left Sydney two Sundays later and got into Pittsburgh later that night. Time travel. It will screw with your head! 

Peppered in with my Australian adventures over the next month will be new Pittsburgh misadventures as I try and enjoy the holiday season. (Seriously, I could give both Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch a run for their moneys.) But, for now, let's cover the most important thing I flew around the globe to do: make friends with so many goats. Wait, what? 

Okay, so maybe I should start at the very beginning and say that I am 100% committed to figuring out a way to one day own a wombat. 

Wombats are ridiculous and cute. They are like overgrown rat-badger hybrids. If you want to see the cutest thing in the world, watch this video. This little guy was one of the first animals we came across at Featherdale Wildlife Park outside of Sydney. PROTIP#1: Featherdale is awesome. Just about everything we did in Sydney was super crazy expensive, but this place was worth the $27AUS I spent to get in for the day. (PROTIP#2: Australia is super crazy expensive; if you go you will spend twice as much as you think you will.)

We moved on from obsessing over the wombat, to obsessing over wallabies! You've already seen the cuteness of these creatures in this post's opening photo. They are like smaller and darker kangaroos. The wallabies were not fully enclosed, so they could jump out and hang out with us humans. One did and we chased it around for a few minutes. We went back to the enclosure to check on the others. That is when I saw something I will never unsee. 

Listen. That is not what I thought the inside of a pouch was going to look like! Aren't they supposed to be lined like a snuggly blanket? That is just gross. What is worse is that I had to watch that baby wallaby plop out of the mess onto the ground. Then it kept sticking its damn head in there! Gahhhh! Nature.

Fortunately, it was time to get up close and personal with a koala, which helped to wash some of the wallaby trauma away. What I learned about koalas: they sleep. A whole lot. Featherdale has so many koalas and I think I saw two of them not snoozing away. Doesn't matter though, because awake or asleep, you can't look at these guys and not just sigh. They are adorable to an unbelievable degree. Sadly, it's against New South Wales law to hold a koala, but we were able to get up close to one for a photo.

I dunno... It kind of looks like Rob was eating some of that eucalyptus too.

PROTIP#3: Kangaroos are down with ice cream cones. We each bought a cone full of green grassy stuff (which you can see scattered all over the ground under this roo, along with his poo), but all the kangaroos wanted to chow on were the cones. 

That is the happiest kangaroo I've ever seen.

Another animal on the Allison wish list: a quokka. A what? A quokka. [Kwah-ka]

Rob with a couple quokkas, shown here for size.

Marlana told me that quokkas pretty much only live on one island in Australia. And that on this island they eat berries that ferment in the sun. And that makes them a little tipsy. And that makes them awesome. Someone please get me a quokka for Christmas. We will make mixed drinks and he will drink them out of a tiny glass and my life with be perfect.

Photo by Marlana. Little bugger only posed when I was in the bathroom.

Hell, why you're out buying me a wombat and a quokka, you might as well add a tasmanian devil to the mix. Not exactly identical to the cartoon character, but this little guy did run around his space like a nutcase. He gets bones and new scents added to his enclosure often, so he can remain just as active as he would in the wild, sniffing and searching all over the damn place. Watching this guy run around in circles was hilarious. And then, kind of like my dad's dog Rocky, he just kind of collapsed and passed out once he had worn himself completely down. 

Some other creatures we came across:

Bats!

Turd lizards! (That's not really their name. But these things look like crawling turds. That are also lizards. Endless entertainment at Featherdale.)

There was a snake house. It was horrible. (Just cause I hate snakes, not because it was actually bad.)

Dingos! (PROTIP#4: Dingos do not bark. That is one of the main things that set them apart from dogs. So don't bark at one like an idiot for five minutes trying to communicate with it before the stranger nearby reads that important tidbit aloud from the very informative sign.)

The ever-horrifying emu. These things are just weird and do not make me feel like I'm not about to get pecked in the head over and over.

As we were closing out our afternoon at Featherdale, we had time to visit the petting zoo (even though a few of the animals had open enclosures, Featherdale was more zoo-sans petting-like). The petting zoo was basically an American barn. I'm sure they also have these animals in Australian barns. But we didn't come this far away from home to see chickens, pigs, and cows - so we had saved it for last in the event we ran out of time before having to head back to the city. Thank goodness we had time. Otherwise I would've never learned my true calling in life: goat whisperer.

It at started with this first goat, whose neck I scratched, causing him to physically smile.

When I got up to go check out the other animals, he got up and followed me. He wouldn't leave my side. He wasn't biting at me or trying to get in my bag. This goat was legitimately just following me around. As if his accompanying was some sort of sign, every small goat in the barn came up to me at once and started showing me some serious goat attention.

By the end of our time in the barn, I had amassed an army of goats that actually looked sad to see me go. I was a bit sad to leave them behind too. It was kind of awesome to have this little group of goats hanging around me like I was their leader.

So now, I think that brings my personal at-home-in-Pittsburgh zoo to a wombat, a quokka, a tasmanian devil, and four goats. Oh, and my two little black cats. Things will certainly be getting mighty interesting around here if all goes according to plan. 

Featherdale was seriously an awesome experience. If you are ever finding yourself in Sydney, try your best to get there for an afternoon. 

P.S. Oddly enough, as I was sitting down to work on the photos for this post, I was waiting for What Makes Rick Tick on WQED to beging. I was thrilled to be asked to answer a few questions about Rick Sebak for this special celebrating his 25 years making awesome shows about Pittsburgh and a dozen or so other quirky things. The special started out showcasing some of Rick's earlier work before he landed himself back in Pittsburgh (a fellow Bethel Park High School grad he is!). One of the clips they showed was from something he had filmed in Australia and showed kangaroos and a shot of Rick and an emu. (Rick also looked a little suspicious of the emu; they are quite a disconcerting bird!) If you have a chance to catch the What Makes Rick Tick special, enjoy my (not entirely awkward) segment. It was an honor to be included in celebrating him, as he as been such an influence and just all-around terrific Pittsburgh person.

"LIVE" Blogging Sebak: Things That Are Still Here

Last time I sat down to watch a Rick Sebak doc, it was about things that no longer exist. This time, I sat down to watch one about things that are still around.

Here are the thoughts I had while watching. Enjoy!

- I'm excited to see things that are still here. I already can't wait to see them for myself. I am a nerd like that.

- Starting with dinos. OKAY! (This goes along perfectly with the PGH Book I am reading right now.) The dinosaur collection at the Carnegie is the best on the planet, and it's such a thrill to be able to go see them whenever I want. I can still remember being a kid and walking into the dinosaur hall and feeling so small and so in awe. Also: There used to be a LIGHT SHOW on the dino bones? Bring that back, ASAP. Nominee for best quote of doc: "Her office is in the 'Big Bone Room.'"

- Mmmmmm. Donuts. This is just cruel right now, Sebak. I love it when people say things like "I just have to take a box of Orem's donuts with me when I go out of town." (I'm going to have to make a Paddy Cake trip soon.)

- Nicholas Coffee & Tea is one of my favorite places Downtown, especially when it's cold out. There's something about a Nicholas latte on a really cold day.

- I need to go explore these coke ovens outside of Connellsville. They look pretty rad.

- Watching these clay jugs being made is honestly fascinating. HOLY CRAP. It looks like it is someone's job in the factory to smash the imperfect plates. I am envious. The Fiestaware plant might be my favorite segment of this documentary. It's really enjoyable. I absolutely love these people waiting to get into the factory sale. Heartwarming times a million.

- Officially putting the Braddock Carnegie Library on the list of things to see this summer. What an absolutely beautiful building.

- Ahh, Ligonier Beach. An interesting place, to say the least. A bar and a diving board in the same location? Perfection.

- Lots of interesting facts about the mobile hanging in the Pittsburgh International Airport. Can't wait to share those.

- Oh! The Belts! I love the belts. When I was learning how to drive to Oakland, I had to remember to turn at the one Blue Belt sign going up that hill. (How you know you're a Pittsburgh: you could never give directions with street names.) I love how no one knows what the belts are or what they do. It's seriously one of my favorite weird Pittsburgh things. "It's a unique system, and it works well." Another good nominee for best quote of doc.

(Someone please find a way to get an Orange Belt sign in to my possession. Thanks!)

"LIVE" Blogging Sebak: Things That Aren't There Anymore

((I was recently approached by a producer at WQED to do an on-camera interview for a special they are airing about Rick Sebak in the fall, celebrating his 25 years with the station. The interview took place last week, but the special won't air until the fall. Hopefully I don't land completely on the cutting room floor. To even be in this thing for a minute or two will be such an honor, and something of a dream for a Pittsburgh-loving kid like me. It'll surely be a surreal moment to catch myself on WQED now and then for years to come.))

It's currently Sunday afternoon. It's a little rainy and kinda cool. Most people are off with their moms today, but I'm here, keeping myself company with a little black cat curled up in my lap and a new Rick Sebak DVD to watch. I've decided to "live" blog it, or write this post as it goes a long. Enjoy...Things That Aren't There Anymore:

- This starts out in South Park at the Allegheny County Fair, and Sebak notes that he lived only a mile away, off of 88. He doesn't say it outwardly, but he lived in Bethel Park. Where I spent the first eighteen years of my life.

- South Park had the THIRD drive-in in the world?! Speaking of watching movies outside: Movies in the Park 2012!

- Pittsburgh word! "Nickelodeon" I am so proud right now!

- "The perfect movie generation. We believed everything we saw."

- Isaly's s something I always heard my mom talk about, but never got to experience for myself. And now that I'm watching this, I am so upset I never did.

- KLONDIKES. I might need to get some of those to share with friends tonight.

- Chipped ham. Oh, to relocate to New England and realize that not everyone in the world gets their deli meat chipped. That was a strange moment for me. "Thank God for the man that invented the chipper." Adorable.

- We're back on the county fair. Is there still a county fair? I don't think there is, which is a shame because I always had fun at the Topsfield Fair in Boston.

- ROLLING. PIN. THROWING. COMPETITION. Ok. New idea: We have our own East End Pittsburgh Fair. We can definitely come up with some excellent competitions of our own. Proximity Brick anyone?!

- "At one time there was more rollercoaster track in Western Pennsylvania than any other place in the world." (Sometimes I learn things about Pittsburgh and go, yup - that's where I must get it from.)

- I don't think I can think of a sadder thing than this man explaining where everything in Westview Park used to be where there is now a strip mall with a Kmart and a Dunkin Donuts.

- Burlesque clubs and nightclubs. Here. We. Go. Pittsburgh at its finest.

[[Ruh....roh.... Something terrible happened to this DVD. Moment for technical difficulty...]]

[[OK. We are back!]]

- I want to appreciate baseball more. I really do. But I can't watch it and enjoy it. I have to play it. And that is why I'm joining a softball team this summer.

- Bill Mazeroski :)

- Watching this footage of people on the last day of Forbes Field is incredibly sad. And I'm not ashamed to say I'm tearing up.

The Sebak Challenge: Stuff Below the Surface in Underground Pittsburgh

The Sebak Challenge
Underground Pittsburgh

A couple weeks go, I shared with you my desire to watch all of the Rick Sebak Pittsburgh documentaries. Well, I'm off to a good start as I've already watched two and have scheduled a viewing of a third. I figure: it's winter. It's cold (but not freezing! thank you, Mother Nature!). Why not spend some quality indoors and under-blankets-and-cats time enjoying the ever enjoyable Rick Sebak taking me on tours of the best city I know? After living in my apartment for a year and a half, I finally figured out how to make watching WQED a reality (I don't understand how much technology works anymore. It makes me feel funny!) and was able to catch two Sebak Pittsburgh documentaries in a row! The first, Underground Pittsburgh, was exciting because not only would it be first, but it was first on my mental list of which ones I wanted to see most.

What follows are notes, observations, and possibly some anecdotes. Use this as a fun viewing guide next time it's on WQED!

• First featured is Laurel Caverns. Great place. Nice field trip idea in the summer because the caves are so so so cool and walking through them is an adventure. Put it on the summertime to-do list!
• Next Rick Sebak interviews a guy from a geological society whose offices are on Washington's Landing. First thought: I hope people are SUPER excited when they find out Rick Sebak wants to talk to them. Second, this guy is seriously fantastic. His enthusiasm is contagious. I used to call on geology professors when I was a textbook sales rep in Boston (yuck times about a bilion!), and they were always the nicest people to talk to.
  
• After that there is a segment about bugs. Gross. Just gross. However, that cicadas are crazy enough to know to stay underground for seventeen years? That is pretty insane.
  
• The tunnels are up next and the epic coming-out-of-the-Fort Pitt-tubes view is discussed. My immediate thought: If Perks of Being a Wallflower screws this scene up in the movie, I'm gonna be so mad. #1 Best Thing about Bringing People to Pittsburgh for the First Time!
• A couple segments later, the focus shifts to the T. I actually use the T to get to my dad's house in the South Hills. But, another EXCELLENT use of the T is in the trailer for a fantastic film called The Next Three Days:

• I had an honest to goodness freak-out moment a few segments later after the documentary switched from the T to basements. In the back of my head I was hoping for it, and Sebak delivered: THE PITTSBURGH TOILET. One of my absolute favorite weird Pittsburgh things. We had one in the South Oakland house I lived in my senior year of college. My dream Pittsburgh home will have one. It has to.
• The Iron Mountain facility is kind of the most awesome thing. Working there has to be completely bizarre and amazing. The lady who takes care of that humongous photography collection there is adorable. It seemed like she feels an amazing sense of duty doing what she does, and that is wonderful.
• One of the last segments features a married couple who have curated an expansive collection of coal mining memorabilia and materials. Their love of coal mining and their passion for preserving these items was envy-worthy. In the most honest sincere way, I hope I one day love something as much as these two do. The best quote of the documentary: "We are the guardians of this piece of history."
• Finally, everything wraps up where Pittsburghers almost all eventually end up: [six feet] underground. Not me, though. I want to be cremated and my ashes shot off in a firework against the skyline. (Credit to Rob for the idea. I only wish I were clever enough to come up with something like that on my own!)
  

My rating for Underground Pittsburgh: two very excited thumbs up!
(Pittsburgh Toliet FTW!)

The Sebak Challenge: Watch All Rick Sebak Pittsburgh Documentaries

Without a doubt, the most famous alum of my alma mater is Rick Sebak. The Bethel Park High School graduate has pioneered a style of documentary storytelling so unique and so enjoyable. It's his oddly soothing voice. The way he gets the best out of whoever he talks to. Charm. It's just so damn charming. I'd like to set out on a little quest to watch all of the Pittsburgh-based Rick Sebak documentaries. They're listed below (and if anyone wants to lend me their copies, that would be pretty damn charming too).

Rick Sebak's Pittsburgh Documentaries
The Mon, The Al & The Oh
Kennywood Memories
Holy Pittsburgh!
Our Neighbor Fred Rodgers
Flying Off the Bridge to Nowhere! And Other Tales of Pittsburgh Bridges
Things That Aren't There Anymore
Downtown Pittsburgh
Stuff That's Gone
Houses Around Here
The Strip Show
North Side Stories
South Side
Things That Are Still Here
Something About Oakland
Pittsburgh A to Z
Happy Holidays in Pittsburgh
Things We've Made
Fred Rodgers: America's Favorite Neighbor
It's the Neighborhoods
What Makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh
Underground Pittsburgh
Invented, Engineered, and Pioneered in Pittsburgh
Right Beside the River