EvBetPGH Instagram: February 2013

We've passed the halfway-through-February point! We're less than a month away from Daylight Savings! It's continually staying lighter later! Sure, out my window Gross Street may have a coating of snow right now, meaning getting groceries today may take walking instead of biking (considerably more annoying of a task when it takes three times as long to walk). But! We're nearing the end of the long, gray, dark tunnel of winter in Pittsburgh. Soon more outdoor adventures will happen. Soon long bike rides will be possible. Soon leisurely walks of discovery will return.

The older I get, the grumpier I get about winter. I'm okay with that. This year I've enjoyed a bit of a hibernation, which causes fewer posts here, but more time daydreaming about all the awesome things to come in 2013 when it doesn't hurt to be outside. [NOTE: I love hot weather, so summer does not really bother me much.]

In lieu of anything actually happening of PGH-related note in my life the past couple weeks, here's a smattering of the things I found myself doing in the first half of February. 

Working on my first PGH Filmmakers assignment! More to come from this later. The pictures and negatives are currently in the teacher's hands for grading. Grading! Getting learned is weird!

This is a legitimate t-shirt you could purchase. At the Army-Navy store on Liberty downtown. I am doing everything in my power to keep this from ending up in my dresser drawer, but I can't promise anything.

Tyler Kennedy was my Valentine. I'm okay with that.

PHIL COLLINS DAY HAPPENED! There are few days during the year when I wake up feeling pointedly excited. Phil Collins Day is one of them. I celebrated with friends who love me enough to indulge my weird obsession. For them, I am grateful.

When things in my life just make sense: dinos in the Land of Confusion video, something watched countless times during my youth. 

On Saturday a bunch of us caravanned out to Greensburg where we helped one friend's parents move. I have never moved a whole house before! Only ever apartments. It was an exhausting and fun day. It made the excitement about potential homebuying in the not-too-distant future return to my brain in full force. 

EvBetPGH Instagram: January 2013

January is cruel. At least weather-wise. Last weekend it was amazingly mild. This weekend we're dealing with howling cold winds and temperatures ready to drop into the single digits. I look back on these photos from the end of last week and can only look forward to the upcoming months when the weather begins a permanent improvement.

From the Hot Metal Bridge at the beginning of a long bike ride.

On the Eliza Furnace Trail, under the FIrst Avenue trolley station.

Along the South Side trail, soon the sign will be hidden by new green leaves.

Bike's in the Shop: My Walk to Work

In order to better the odds that I am actually able to make it to Washington D.C. by bike, I had to do something I really really hate doing: giving it up. Red had to go into the shop for some MAJOR work before the trip. I was going to be without a bike for both a morning and an evening commute. The worst possible thing. For no particular reason, I haven't been able to wake up very early lately. I've started taking cereal and instant coffee into work because there is nothing I can do to get up and have breakfast at home. Simply put: I don't wake up early.

However, take away my bike and force me to face the brutal reality of the bus? I will wake up early and walk. (Disclaimer: I believe the bus is a very important and vital tool to our city. I use it from time to time and it is something that really allows me to live without a car in Pittsburgh. I just like to use my own two feet to get around.)

Ultimately, walking to Downtown takes a bit longer than busing to Downtown. So I really would save time and sleep longer if I rode the bus. But it had been a while since I walked to work. I used to walk to work all the time in Boston before I got a bike. I'm never one to turn down a long walk, so I forced myself awake by treating me to a nice coffee for the way in.

And I took some photos along the way.

Flowers in Bloomfield

Looking over Lawrenceville into Millvale from Penn Ave.

I see this every morning coming down Penn. But I'm normally on wheels and not feet, so it was considerably easier to take a picture.

This place on Penn does great business in the mornings around 8:20 a.m.

If there were an award for most colorful building in Pittsburgh, Salem's would have to be a contender.

Troy Hill in the distance. Love that colored wall.

So, a few weeks ago, I started to see this mural slowly going up on the wall of Altar Bar. It's PRETTY incredible. We've got New Found Glory (which I initially thought was Meatloaf, cause it kinda makes more sense in my head that it would be Meatloaf), Hank Williams III (I think?), Snoop Dogg (because of course; he loves Pittsburgh, at least the Pens and Steelers), Leon Russell (???), and the Misfits. I almost hope they rotate new celebs up there seasonally. 

And I got to work *right* at 8:30; I couldn't have timed it better if I tried.

EvBetPGH on Instagram

Not having my computer is making me sad. It's also making me realize I had no idea how to use a PC. In other news, Instagram is available on Android now. Woo!

EvBetPGH on Instagram!

username: everythingbetterpgh