b l o g o s

hypotheticals: Pittsburgh

It is both comforting and disconcerting to wake up in a city you lived in for a year, a city you fell in love with instantly and left abruptly.

JM, the bean and I woke up in Pittsburgh, to its snow-spitting skies, its ash-tinted slush, its gray, taupe, and brown buildings. We trudged over to the Rite Aid on Forbes, through the bottom floor of the Cathedral with all its gorgeous arches, where JM confessed he never went past the fifth floor (those elevators are pretty scary); by the little restaurants where we had drinks or an occasional lunch; by the bus stop where we shivered under coat hoods with other people heading to the east end, the other side of Frick Park.

As we walked, and the Bean stared with wide eyes at the store windows and buses and stone, we tried to work out what happened here, why we left, what might have happened had we stayed, whether we would have ended up exactly where we are now, whether we would have had the bean.

All these questions are as unavoidable as they are unanswerable. I tend to agree with the horse dealer in True Grit: "I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is is vexing enough."

Even so, we sure do miss the food trucks, the baseball, and the bridges.

october is cool midwestern cities month (for me at least)

Including, but not limited to, Chicago (yesterday), Madison (tomorrow), St. Louis (next week), and Bloomington, IN (in two weeks). Also including, but not limited to, a damn good haircut, great thai food, good friends, the Magnetic Fields, doughnuts, bodies of water, and some of my favorite people in communication.

return

Just back from London last night, the highlight reel from which includes a day poking around bookstores and boutiques in Oxford, the irresistible boots that brought my shopping to a screeching but delightful halt; amazing meals, such as an ethiopian burrito (ok, wrap) and a pumpkin-squash empanada, both at Spitalfields market; insanely delicious indian food; crispy aromatic duck, which combines the best features of pulled pork, fried chicken, and summer rolls; and an impromptu meal at the new best restaurant in London/England/UK called Le Cafe Anglais. It's French-English fusion, and despite my best efforts, I don't think my  name for it--"channel chow"--is going to stick. Oh, and the tromp across Kensington Park balancing a big bike box on our heads with football players stopping their game to shout "just ride it!" and an older gentleman offering a low, wistful "fahntahstic" when we told him that yes, it has a bike in it--a gary fisher mountain bike--that I'll be taking back to the States with me thanks to KM's unbelievable generosity. I've also got some cadbury treats for my seminar today, which I will offer in exchange for their reminding me what we are in fact discussing, since I read all the material before I left.

Oh, and if you ever have the chance to fly Virgin Atlantic, by all means, take it.

[UPDATE]: by request, here are is an iphone photo of the boots; click to enlarge if you like that sort of thing. (It's actually hard to take photos of one's own boots.) 

  

a.m. run in kensington park

sunken gardens

 

 

a frank gehry pavilion

 

peter pan 

 

london calling

I haven't been to London since I was in college and my team went there for a holiday tournament. I have flash-memories, then, of a gym where they served lamb burgers and beer, and where fans gambled on the games. They took odds, which meant that when our team was winning by too many points, our fans, who had flown over with us, would instantly turn against us. I recall shooting a free throw and thinking how odd it was that the orange section was yelling for me to miss.  More flashes include posting up against very strong russian women, going on a creepy Jack the Ripper tour, wearing cool eye masks and drinking champagne on new year's eve, and taking my teammates to the graves of a few authors in my Norton Anthology.

Heading back there today to hang with KM (JM's sister) for a few days. I've been working pretty hard to clear the time to go, and last night I managed to finish the last (i think!) of pressing things. When I get back, I'll flip the calendar to the new month, and we all know what that means.