Be It Bereft Of Women
(there's no place like home)
This was the e-mail I mentioned a bit ago about what I felt about my new place. Here I reproduce it in (close) to its entirety:
It's pretty bizarre living off in Squirrel Hill after living in the South Hills all my life. You wouldn't think being in a different direction from the city would make all that much difference, and in some cities it might not, but in Pittsburgh it does a lot. The geography and social history of Pittsburgh are really different. The south had some affluence that allowed it to ride out the steel mills closing in the 70's, so they had some nicer amenities and their T (trolley) was the only one of the four that didn't go under and they built in a more expansive way. In Squirrel Hill everything's a lot closer together, not prohibitively so but in a way I'm not used to. All the houses have a little alley between them and that's it. It's a little weird.
And of course everyone uses buses. If I had to say there's one thing I miss about my old place it would be the T hands down. I could write an entire e-mail about how the given schedule times for buses are merely a suggestion, and how half the drivers are from Zimbabwe and drive according to those laws, and don't get me started on the relative seating and leg room for 6'7" computer and backpack carrying city workers. Thankfully we live semi-close to the city and it doesn't last much more than a half-hour.
The apartment is really neat. I'm beginning to love the linear layout of our apartment. It's cool because you can be blaring Rage Against The Machine or having a (rather raucous) celebration during the football game and if you're in your room with your door closed way down at the end of the hall you don't even know it's happening. This is good for reading, sleeping, and the general sense of sanctuary of having your own room. It works in reverse too, which is really good when you're with a girl. The walls are generally thick, though I think sound probably can make it one room across. Little does Nate know that since his room is in between mine and Dave's, both of us can hear when he's railing the crap out of Bethany. Haha! Well, ok, we can't because the man is very courteous and I have yet to hear a thing. But it's not out of the realm of feasibility.
The TV room-sunroom/arboretum/computer room is my favorite combo in the apartment. The TV room looks really nice because Nate and Dave scored a freaking AWESOME couch for $0 (of course - we'll come back to this) and we keep the doors between the two open, so I run back and forth and roll around on my chair. My Lazyboy chair is also in the TV room allowing for personal kickback action as required. If there's one thing we have to work on it's the reach of the PS2, but I'm working on a solution. Let me tell you, kicking back and watching the game or playing a game of Burnout Revenge is a privelege and an enjoyment. I also get to play with Christoph online some (a game called Warcraft III) and as I'm playing a light breeze will waft through the room. And if DW's watching TV or some such I can just close the folding doors between the TV room and the computer room and neither of us disturb each other. These are things you never find out until you experience them in person, and they're great.
The strangest/coolest thing of all is the way our lifestyles are all changing. There are a couple aspects of this. Being a pretty carefree guy I'm probably the messiest, though Dave isn't wild either. To DW's credit though, since he doesn't have a job yet he pulls his weight by doing things like general cleanup, getting grocieries, etc. I called him from work a week ago and told him I left him money to pick up a Brita water filter and he went and got it. The man even put away all my books I had lugged out to the main room to put in the bookcase. I, on the other hand, am never home, so I have yet to be very helpful. I haven't even done dishes yet - they just magically get clean as far as I can tell. I try and be helpful by taking on larger tasks, like washing the kitchen floor. As soon as DW buys some Lysol, we'll be good to go.
But aside from cleanliness, some of Nate's ways are rubbing off. Slowly but surely I find myself changing the way I think about things, particularly in monetary terms. I am now on the lookout for free ways to get things, most particularly food. For example, instead of just stopping by my house last night, DW and I helped my bro out with his math homework and we got a free meal (spaghetti) and took some salmon home for us all to split (which was tasty). I find myself making more cost-effective decisions at work too, and if I can find a way to support my large needs for bread (the primary problem being finding a time to get it from the grocery store) I want to start taking my lunch to work every day. Now this is not normally how I operate, but Dave was so committed to broadening his horizons - both literally and metaphorically - that I decided that I wanted to broaden my horizons too. Case in point, Nate and Dave decided to make a salad consisting of spinach leaves, carrots, and peppers. Normally I like only the peppers and wouldn't touch spinach if my life depended on it. But I decided to go for it and ended up liking it and put down three times as much salad as I normally do - with this being much healthier than what I usually pick at. It's especially important since my job is SO sedentary - its major minus - and health and exercise are at premiums. The neat thing about this is that I think we're rubbing off a little on Nate too. He went to Subway with us because I more or less determined that I had a craving, something he wouldn't do by himself. It's less of an effect I think because he's 1) not home that much and 2) has Bethany who reinforces his original concepts, but there's potential there. My eventual goal is to keep my mind open to other ways of doing things (Nate's being the most different from mine, they're the most story worthy). As a bonus, that means when I do things the normal way it's refreshing, reassuring, and a treat all at the same time. I still plan on eating with Dave (at minimum) at the Chinese restaurant next to us once a month, and a Sunday football Pizza Hut here has already become a tradition.
Hanging out with the guys is fun and alone makes the decision to move worth it. Dave has done a great job so far in getting involved, as he now is in two-and-a-half PSL sports and has joined a church choir. He's also hung out at a bunch of parties as Nate gets invited to one every two hours. This is where I skew a little different than Nate and DW, I'm not a huge party guy and while I like the occasional shin-dig, I'd trade any party in the world for last night, with Dave ranting about his fantasy football team and drowning his sorrows with a cold one or three, playing Burnout Revenge at halftime with Dave's help, and Nate coming home from class and racking out on the chair and blatantly looking for boobs on TV with our help. Still, I'm making a commitment to broadening my own horizons, so I plan on hitting up Karaoke tomorrow night with the guys (despite my singing voice having gone to shit) and am going so far as to invite some of my own friends to come. I'm also going to attend some of Nate's parties.
Sports are a blast and you look forward to them all day. Nate has started class and it's pretty well screwed volleyball, which is ironic since due to other unforeseen circumstances (injury, marriage) Dave has had to fill in twice for our volleyball team. This is a competitive league and Dave has never played the sport outside of gym class. Dave's record? 6-0. The man had a massive roof last game and we all went nuts. Dodgeball is also a blast and I think DW likes it a lot more (than volleyball). The idea of pounding women with flying projectiles just appeals to him I think, and now that he's got the basics down he's becoming a force with his right arm. We're just outside of second place and have a big match against the team in 2nd tonight. Dave really gets into it. Unlike basketball, where if you shoot as hard as you possibly can you'll send it over the backboard (as DW has), in dodgeball you are welcome to bring as much heat as you can (if you're a heat thrower of course), so DW can really let loose. Picture his face after a shot that doesn't go in on a hard drive to the hoop and the rebound's going the other way. Now hand him a ball and tell him to kill the girl thirty feet away with it. Yeah. LOOK OUT, INCOMING, WE ARE PULLING INTO ANNIHILATION STATION. It's a lot of fun. Basketball might be the best of all because of how much I appreciate playing with the guys. Remember what it was like senior year when Dave would come down and we'd all get to ball again? It's like that EVERY time. I'm soaking it in for all we're worth. We also play Tuesday nights at CMU (pickup) and that's men's and intense besides, so we cover the full range. Great exercise is important, as both DW and I could be in better shape. Nate, the running swar, has .3% fat on his body, and all of it is on his right big toe. His endurance is getting back to playoff-run collegiate volleyball levels, and that's scary. I hate playing against him at CMU because of it because he can run up and down the floor at will. I feel like I'm 90! Hahaha. Sad but true. In the end, bit by bit I'm feeling more comfortable. I already love the place and the guys and my goal is to learn and experience new things while still enjoying the old. To this end I think I'm starting on a good track. The next step is for Tom and Jeff to come down and experience the place with us. That's about the only thing missing at this point, besides the 6 ft cactus. But Nate completely blew it on that one. Sad.
The apartment experiment continues...
This was the e-mail I mentioned a bit ago about what I felt about my new place. Here I reproduce it in (close) to its entirety:
It's pretty bizarre living off in Squirrel Hill after living in the South Hills all my life. You wouldn't think being in a different direction from the city would make all that much difference, and in some cities it might not, but in Pittsburgh it does a lot. The geography and social history of Pittsburgh are really different. The south had some affluence that allowed it to ride out the steel mills closing in the 70's, so they had some nicer amenities and their T (trolley) was the only one of the four that didn't go under and they built in a more expansive way. In Squirrel Hill everything's a lot closer together, not prohibitively so but in a way I'm not used to. All the houses have a little alley between them and that's it. It's a little weird.
And of course everyone uses buses. If I had to say there's one thing I miss about my old place it would be the T hands down. I could write an entire e-mail about how the given schedule times for buses are merely a suggestion, and how half the drivers are from Zimbabwe and drive according to those laws, and don't get me started on the relative seating and leg room for 6'7" computer and backpack carrying city workers. Thankfully we live semi-close to the city and it doesn't last much more than a half-hour.
The apartment is really neat. I'm beginning to love the linear layout of our apartment. It's cool because you can be blaring Rage Against The Machine or having a (rather raucous) celebration during the football game and if you're in your room with your door closed way down at the end of the hall you don't even know it's happening. This is good for reading, sleeping, and the general sense of sanctuary of having your own room. It works in reverse too, which is really good when you're with a girl. The walls are generally thick, though I think sound probably can make it one room across. Little does Nate know that since his room is in between mine and Dave's, both of us can hear when he's railing the crap out of Bethany. Haha! Well, ok, we can't because the man is very courteous and I have yet to hear a thing. But it's not out of the realm of feasibility.
The TV room-sunroom/arboretum/computer room is my favorite combo in the apartment. The TV room looks really nice because Nate and Dave scored a freaking AWESOME couch for $0 (of course - we'll come back to this) and we keep the doors between the two open, so I run back and forth and roll around on my chair. My Lazyboy chair is also in the TV room allowing for personal kickback action as required. If there's one thing we have to work on it's the reach of the PS2, but I'm working on a solution. Let me tell you, kicking back and watching the game or playing a game of Burnout Revenge is a privelege and an enjoyment. I also get to play with Christoph online some (a game called Warcraft III) and as I'm playing a light breeze will waft through the room. And if DW's watching TV or some such I can just close the folding doors between the TV room and the computer room and neither of us disturb each other. These are things you never find out until you experience them in person, and they're great.
The strangest/coolest thing of all is the way our lifestyles are all changing. There are a couple aspects of this. Being a pretty carefree guy I'm probably the messiest, though Dave isn't wild either. To DW's credit though, since he doesn't have a job yet he pulls his weight by doing things like general cleanup, getting grocieries, etc. I called him from work a week ago and told him I left him money to pick up a Brita water filter and he went and got it. The man even put away all my books I had lugged out to the main room to put in the bookcase. I, on the other hand, am never home, so I have yet to be very helpful. I haven't even done dishes yet - they just magically get clean as far as I can tell. I try and be helpful by taking on larger tasks, like washing the kitchen floor. As soon as DW buys some Lysol, we'll be good to go.
But aside from cleanliness, some of Nate's ways are rubbing off. Slowly but surely I find myself changing the way I think about things, particularly in monetary terms. I am now on the lookout for free ways to get things, most particularly food. For example, instead of just stopping by my house last night, DW and I helped my bro out with his math homework and we got a free meal (spaghetti) and took some salmon home for us all to split (which was tasty). I find myself making more cost-effective decisions at work too, and if I can find a way to support my large needs for bread (the primary problem being finding a time to get it from the grocery store) I want to start taking my lunch to work every day. Now this is not normally how I operate, but Dave was so committed to broadening his horizons - both literally and metaphorically - that I decided that I wanted to broaden my horizons too. Case in point, Nate and Dave decided to make a salad consisting of spinach leaves, carrots, and peppers. Normally I like only the peppers and wouldn't touch spinach if my life depended on it. But I decided to go for it and ended up liking it and put down three times as much salad as I normally do - with this being much healthier than what I usually pick at. It's especially important since my job is SO sedentary - its major minus - and health and exercise are at premiums. The neat thing about this is that I think we're rubbing off a little on Nate too. He went to Subway with us because I more or less determined that I had a craving, something he wouldn't do by himself. It's less of an effect I think because he's 1) not home that much and 2) has Bethany who reinforces his original concepts, but there's potential there. My eventual goal is to keep my mind open to other ways of doing things (Nate's being the most different from mine, they're the most story worthy). As a bonus, that means when I do things the normal way it's refreshing, reassuring, and a treat all at the same time. I still plan on eating with Dave (at minimum) at the Chinese restaurant next to us once a month, and a Sunday football Pizza Hut here has already become a tradition.
Hanging out with the guys is fun and alone makes the decision to move worth it. Dave has done a great job so far in getting involved, as he now is in two-and-a-half PSL sports and has joined a church choir. He's also hung out at a bunch of parties as Nate gets invited to one every two hours. This is where I skew a little different than Nate and DW, I'm not a huge party guy and while I like the occasional shin-dig, I'd trade any party in the world for last night, with Dave ranting about his fantasy football team and drowning his sorrows with a cold one or three, playing Burnout Revenge at halftime with Dave's help, and Nate coming home from class and racking out on the chair and blatantly looking for boobs on TV with our help. Still, I'm making a commitment to broadening my own horizons, so I plan on hitting up Karaoke tomorrow night with the guys (despite my singing voice having gone to shit) and am going so far as to invite some of my own friends to come. I'm also going to attend some of Nate's parties.
Sports are a blast and you look forward to them all day. Nate has started class and it's pretty well screwed volleyball, which is ironic since due to other unforeseen circumstances (injury, marriage) Dave has had to fill in twice for our volleyball team. This is a competitive league and Dave has never played the sport outside of gym class. Dave's record? 6-0. The man had a massive roof last game and we all went nuts. Dodgeball is also a blast and I think DW likes it a lot more (than volleyball). The idea of pounding women with flying projectiles just appeals to him I think, and now that he's got the basics down he's becoming a force with his right arm. We're just outside of second place and have a big match against the team in 2nd tonight. Dave really gets into it. Unlike basketball, where if you shoot as hard as you possibly can you'll send it over the backboard (as DW has), in dodgeball you are welcome to bring as much heat as you can (if you're a heat thrower of course), so DW can really let loose. Picture his face after a shot that doesn't go in on a hard drive to the hoop and the rebound's going the other way. Now hand him a ball and tell him to kill the girl thirty feet away with it. Yeah. LOOK OUT, INCOMING, WE ARE PULLING INTO ANNIHILATION STATION. It's a lot of fun. Basketball might be the best of all because of how much I appreciate playing with the guys. Remember what it was like senior year when Dave would come down and we'd all get to ball again? It's like that EVERY time. I'm soaking it in for all we're worth. We also play Tuesday nights at CMU (pickup) and that's men's and intense besides, so we cover the full range. Great exercise is important, as both DW and I could be in better shape. Nate, the running swar, has .3% fat on his body, and all of it is on his right big toe. His endurance is getting back to playoff-run collegiate volleyball levels, and that's scary. I hate playing against him at CMU because of it because he can run up and down the floor at will. I feel like I'm 90! Hahaha. Sad but true. In the end, bit by bit I'm feeling more comfortable. I already love the place and the guys and my goal is to learn and experience new things while still enjoying the old. To this end I think I'm starting on a good track. The next step is for Tom and Jeff to come down and experience the place with us. That's about the only thing missing at this point, besides the 6 ft cactus. But Nate completely blew it on that one. Sad.
The apartment experiment continues...
posted by Mat | 12:38 PM
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