QOTD: "We can see California coming, and we're scared." - James Brady
Reading: Monica Ferris, Hanging By a Thread
Listening to: nothing
Decluttering accomplishments: did a bunch of household paperwork
I had a change of pace this week with a trip to Pittsburgh to take a work-related class. The Software Engineering Institute is run by Carnegie Mellon University and, while they do teach classes close to home (in Arlington, Virginia), the particular class I wanted to take wasn't going to be offered there until January. So it made sense to go to Pittsburgh for the class.
The downside of that is the massive roadwork going on in downtown Pittsburgh. Getting from the airport to the hotel involved an incredible maze of detours. I have the vague impression that an aerial view of the path I took would involve a spiral somewhere in the middle. At the very least, I'm sure that there were some inefficient loops that had me backtracking along the way. Once I actually got to 376 West it was reasonably straightforward. Except that I nearly missed the hotel entrance and managed to avoid another loop around only because there was little enough traffic that I could cut across two lanes to make the turn I needed to.
The worse traffic situation involved Wednesday night's venture to PNC Park, where the Pirates were playing the Saint Louis Cardinals. I was in classes all day and, therefore, unable to do any actual sightseeing. But I could still check off another ballpark. PNC Park is well sited from one standpoint. Namely, the view of downtown Pittsburgh from the ballpark is nicely dramatic. I followed the advice of the hotel desk clerk and parked downtown, then walked across the Roberto Clemente bridge to the stadium. The problem was that I'd figured the easy way to get back to the hotel was to use 5th Avenue, but I hadn't realized that the only way out of the parking lot would force everyone over some bridge heading north. Then I tried to follow the detour signs for 279 South to get to 376 West. Unfortunately, I never saw a sign for the latter road and ended up hurtling away towards the airport. Bu the time I realized I was heading away from where I wanted to be, it was a few miles before there was any exit to get off on. That led me onto a dark and deserted country road. Fortunately, I was able to get back onto the highway, heading back to the city and, eventually, found 376 West again. I am, however, convinced that the detours were different than they had been on Monday night. I had one more excursion through the maze of twisty little detours when trying to get back to the airport and, again, managed to be in just the wrong lane at the wrong time. Hint: if you put up a sign saying "detour to I-279 South, use right lane in tunnel" you might consider a second sign indicating that you need to be in the middle lane on the road you're on to end up on the right lane in the tunnel. The right lane (where I was) led me off into some other maze of twisty little streets, though it did eventually get me to the airport highway.
Aside from the roads, Pittsburgh was fine. The Oakland neighborhood (where SEI is, basically a sort of university district) has attractive enough somewhat Gothic architecture, along with interesting restaurants and shops. I was particularly pleased to find a restaurant called Road to Karakesh, which specialized in North African and South Asian food in a sort of teahouse like setting. The baseball game was exciting enough and the ballpark is a good example of the current style.
On my way home, I got to meet Jan and her husband, Rich, who are among the few residents of California who aren't running for governor. We had a couple of hours of fairly wide-ranging conversation. They were in town for a reunion and were staying at a hotel fairly near the airport, so that get-together was a convenient way to spend time between the end of class and my flight home. That was Thursday night and the power outage, while not affecting either Pittsburgh or D.C., did disrupt air traffic a bit. My flight was about a half hour late, which was irritating mostly because that meant I ended up getting the last train home.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention my new super power! I have the ability to invoke ice cream. Last week, on my way to California I was sitting in Dulles Airport and happened to think that I'd like some ice cream. But the ice cream stand was closed. I got upgraded on my flight and they served ice cream for dessert on the plane. Wednesday in class I was thinking that it was a nice day for ice cream and they served ice cream at our afternoon break. And then, on Friday, we had a luncheon and I was mildly disappointed that there wasn't ice cream for dessert. But, later in the day, we had another party at work and there was strawberry ice cream! The power to invoke large sums of money would probably be more significant, but I'll settle for never needing to actually buy ice cream again. Apparently, all I need to do is think about ice cream and somebody will give me some.
Copyright 2003 Miriam H. Nadel