The Last Sad Day: Moving On, Walking On

So. The bad news I got, that I mentioned in a previous post, ended up being the tip of the iceberg of bad news for that week. On Saturday, I received the phone call every child dreads. In the following days, I lived in a surreal waking state. I went through the motions. I planned a funeral. I gave a eulogy. Now, five days later, I sit in my apartment in Bloomfield, exhausted.

This evening, still not completely ready to be alone, I spent it walking around Friendship, Bloomfield, and along Penn Ave with my friend Carrie. We went to Twisters for ice cream and walked the streets, sometimes in silence, sometimes talking. I felt myself slowly coming out of the daze I'd been wallowing in. Pittsburgh. With its colors, its crazy inhabitants, and its familiarity. It began washing over me, and I let it.

And now, we move on. We take walks. Ride our bikes. Do our jobs. Hang out with our friends. We wonder about it. But one day, hopefully that last one will stop.

Oddly, I'm filled with hope and vigor. In a way, I feel like I lead a slightly different life now, with a major piece missing. It's a fresh start. At least, thats how I have to look at it, to get through it.

Here are some things we saw tonight, as we walked around the neighborhood.

There was a string of orange protractors, all down Penn Ave.

I asked Carrie to remind me to take a picture of "the man," something I've passed and admired many times, but have never taken a picture of.

As we walked down Penn Ave, we passed Grow Pittsburgh. In my fresh start, I want to actually make an effort to become involved with more organizations as a volunteer. I want to find a way to relax, and am looking into yoga classes at Yoga Hive. I want to look into a community garden plot, and start working toward a real garden, and only concentrate on herbs and ferns and flowers on my balcony. I want to be a more active participant in the city. I want to be a more active participant in my own life. If I've learned anything from these last few sad days, it's that life is too short. We need to live. Because one day, we won't.

Protractors - First Discoveries

My good friend Eric has been tracking the Pittsburgh Protractors for some time now. I, admittedly, have come late to the table. When the hoopla started, I kind of ignored it. I'm pretty sure these protractors are an elaborate tag. That they are numbered DOES make it fun for the rest of us not skirting around the city super-super gluing plastic protractors to mailboxes, garbage cans, utility boxes, etc.

He took down the map he was compiling online, but he is still tracking them on paper in his apartment (which happens to be in the same building as mine!), so I've been casually mentioning when I see one to make sure he's got it already. When I asked him today if he had 293, he said no - AND - that 293 was a really high number. Then he asked where I found out. On the South Side trail. And then he said this was BIG NEWS because there hadn't been any found on the South Side yet.

So, instead of my normal Smallman-Penn route home, I biked across the Smithfield Bridge and took the South Side trail to find the one that had caught my eye the day before. It was a beautiful evening for a longer than normal ride home. I got to the spot where I'd seen the protractor the day before, and it wasn't 293. IT WAS 296! Even higher than I'd remembered. Took a picture, kept on biking.

About 50 yards down the trail was ANOTHER!

And then I found a third at the corner of Swineburn and Second on the trail.

And then a fourth on the bridge in The Run.

And then the fifth, and final one of the night, on a garbage can on the Panther Hollow Trail.

Come to think of it, I actually found 6! There was another on a wooden post in the parking lot of the soccer field in The Run.

This is what I love about Pittsburgh. There's always something to look for. There's always something to figure out. There will always be missing pieces, but it's the search and the small journeys it'll take you on. If nothing else, I want this to be writings about new discoveries around the best city. It will feature the myriad of ways one can wrap themselves up in Pittsburgh's greatness. It'll be odd things/interesting things/wonderful things I see. It'll be yummy things I eat. It'll be the crazy things I overhear. There hasn't be a day in the year I've been back that I haven't absolutely swooned over this place. When I say that Pittsburgh is the best city in the world, I mean it.