Two Quick Stories

Today felt like the longest Monday ever, but I really just need some Thanksgiving holiday after last week. Even with all the tiredness I can think of two amusing things that happened today.

First, this morning one of the girls commented how everyone in"our generation" was going to reference what class in high school they were when 9/11 happened. I started chuckling simply because I had been out of high school for just over four years when that happened.

Second, I was eating a small dinner before my evening class when I hear a girl scream, "Elise!" I turned around to look who it was and found someone screaming at a completely different Elise.

Ok, that last one was funnier in person.

Coming to a library near me.

I don't know much about his music, but I am still super excited that Bruce Molsky is playing in the library in a few weeks.

Aged Pumpkin

I threw out the pumpkin I carved today. I was surprised it went this long without getting smashed. I suppose if it had been in Oakland it would have been a goner Tuesday night. But it survived to become the grumpy old pumpkin below. I suppose it had a good long life then.

I'm just amused at how much it does look like it aged about 70 years.

Blue Night in Pennsylvania

After hearing blue night at the Rockwood many a Tuesday night it occurred to me that this past Tuesday was a real "blue night", as my state and many others went blue to elect Obama.

Actually it was interesting being in Pennsylvania for this election, though I missed the parties in the streets of Brooklyn and the general good feeling that has been reported in New York. I was impressed by the persistence of the Obama people in Pennsylvania. They came to my door at least three times, first to check that we were registered in September, then to check that we knew where to vote last Sunday and then to check that we had voted on Tuesday evening. There was even a doorknob hanger that was on my doorknob Tuesday morning reminding me to vote along with my precinct information and where to go.


I went to vote after what I thought would be the early morning rush, but still had to wait about twenty minutes because I got caught in the senior citizen rush. When I was pressing my touchscreen the man behind me in line who needed help to vote was instructing one of the poll workers to "press Obama, I want Obama."


I was in yoga class at eight when the polls closed and thought I could hear the people in the Obama offices celebrating. At 8:30 I rushed home and turned on CNN and found out for myself. And it only got better after that. Around 9:30 when Obama reached 200 electoral votes I figured that the race was most likely his once California closed at eleven and I was right.


And I could hear the helicopters as the students at Pitt celebrated in the street. Squirrel Hill was surprisingly quiet, I suppose everyone had gone to bed.

Settling in

I'm trying here and actually had a lot of fun this weekend. On Friday I went out with two girls from class to see a Halloween belly dance show. The belly dancer reminded me of my Risley days, half dressed girls, lots of sparkly theatrical makeup and general bohemianism. I'm not sure how representative this is of Pittsburgh as a whole, but it was a cute little group they had there.

And afterwards we hung out at the bowling alley bar. Yes, a bar connected to a bowling alley folks. And there is smoking inside, which I'm not so fond of. I've come a long way from hanging out where there is bottle service. At least the music was pretty good.

And check my webpage for class. It's kind of lame, but I made it myself. Perhaps I have a future in webpage design, well probably not.

And one more reason to be happy; WVU won yesterday by 35-13. I was in a class session at the time, but had my talented sister keep me aprised of the score via text message. I just hope they can keep playing well and beat Pitt in three weeks.