The Blurgh

Frank and I had a wonderful time hosting Christmas this year, but that’s not to say that we didn’t heave a giant sigh of relief when everyone had made their way back to the places they live. And to celebrate our renewed solitude, we decided to head out with thousands of other fans and catch last night’s Pens-Flyers game at the arena.

I have been a huge Penguins fan since I was a kid. When I was little, I played street hockey with my brothers and cousins and got totally hooked on the sport. This naturally progressed into following the Penguins, and I try to attend games whenever possible. (Living downtown definitely helps – it’s nice to be able to leave for the game at 6:45 and be in your seat at 7.)

Anyway, the Pens are doing really well this year. This is the second year that Sidney Crosby’s been the head coach of the team – he was an amazing hockey player back in his day, and after he retired the Penguins asked him to join the coaching staff as an assistant coach. Last year, he took over the head coach position and the team has just seemed really inspired ever since. Crosby is just the most amazing person. He was drafted by the Pens when he was just 17, and he’s stayed here ever since. I love seeing that kind of dedication from such a gifted athlete – it really shows his character.

We had a great time at the game. We wolfed down Primanti’s sandwiches like there was no tomorrow and washed them down with Iron City beer (regular for Frank, IC Light for me). And – best of all – the Pens won in a shutout, 4-0!

A couple days ago, Gretchen and I went to the second of the Finals Week competitions, this one in theatre.  It was held downtown, and in order to keep the competition from taking all day, each school/team put on a 15-minute one-act play.  The whole thing was a about 2 and a half hours long, and during the intermission, the Culinary Institute of Pittsburgh held a competition among their students of who made the best hors d’oeuvres.  It was a new feature, but I’m thinking they should do something like that for all the competitions!  If they advertised it too much, though, there would be a standing-room only crowd.  College students are attracted to free food very much like moths are attracted to light.

The plays that different students came up with were fascinating.  There was a comedy about a college kid going back in time to the nineties, a few dramas about life and all that can go wrong, a sci-fi one based on Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot”, and then my favorite, a short excerpt from Hamlet, but performed in Pittsburghese.  It’s fair to say that I have no taste.

The “I, Robot” play won the competition, and it was deserving. After the show, Gretchen and I passed on the after-party and returned home to do some more studying.  If there weren’t any finals, finals week would be really sweet.

Last night, some friends were over at our apartment, eating cookies and laughing at our cats trying to bat ornaments off of our Christmas tree, when someone suggested that we go ice skating over at PPG Place. I love ice skating there - it’s so cool to be in the middle of a city with all the skyscrapers and seeing everything reflect off the glass of the PPG buildings and watching families circle the big tree in the center. We immediately finished our cookies, bundled up and set out for the rink.

As we walked, we passed the small businesses in Market Square and admired their window decorations and stopped in a few of the stores to buy presents for people. Frank bought a toy food set for his younger cousin that included traditional Pittsburgh foods, like pierogies and kielbasa, at a store that only sells toys made by artists from Western PA. We popped into Jay’s Bookshelf (a new branch of the Jay’s Bookstall that’s been operating forever in Oakland) so that a couple people could buy books for people on their lists. And of course, no trip to Market Square would be complete without a quick stop in Chocolatiers, this small chocolate shop that opened a few years ago. The owners are immigrants from South America who import chocolate from around the world and make their own creations from all the different kinds they have.

After these little excursions, we arrived at the rink and rented our skates. I even managed to get Frank in a pair of skates and I think he even enjoyed skating (although I’m sure he’d deny it - he’s not the world’s biggest ice skating fan). All in all, a lovely December Pittsburgh afternoon.

One of the things that Gretchen’s fam asked us about when they were in town last weekend was what it’s like living downtown. When they lived in the area, the only people who lived downtown were uber-rich, and even for them it wasn’t all that livable. It was deserted after 5, there weren’t any grocery stores, and the activity-options weren’t so hot.

When they first asked us about it, though, we just looked at them like they were crazy. Although we don’t remember it ourselves, whoever planned the downtown living areas did a really good job. There’s lots of mixed income places, there’s no need for a car because there’s a couple nice grocery stores around the area, and if there was more to do at night we’d probably move out because it would be way too hip for us. It’s awesome to be right by Uptown, which is where most of the cool (and inexpensive) places are, and being that all of the train lines pass within a couple blocks from us we can get almost anywhere in the city. One of the best days we had last summer was when we took the red line out to Kennywood with a bunch of people and on the way back transferred to the blue and saw a movie at the Waterworks.

It also doesn’t hurt to be within easy walking distance of the stadiums, the arena, and the strip. We are saving up to buy a house though, so we won’t be living the dream forever, but for young people, it’s a pretty sweet option.