Finally Posting
I've been trying to get it together to write a post for the last three days. I've been pretty busy at work and with that being the primary place I compose posts it just hasn't been happening. However I took today off in honor of the Baha'i holiday Ridvan (pr. riz-vahn) and I am home alone so why not now?
I've been particularly wanting to discuss my trip to Pittsburgh, so most of this will be about that. My journey out there was very pleasant. I got to stop at the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette, IL which was absolutely gorgeous and my Dad waited patiently. We then pressed on, taking a short side trip to La Porte, IN where live journal's very own annabelle_blue allowed us to visit her very nice home and cooked us a fantastic home cooked dinner. Thanks again, AB! After we finished up there we pressed on to Toledo, OH and crashed outside the airport. The next morning we got going early and made it to Pittsburgh by early afternoon.
Pittsburgh was a pretty interesting city. I can see why my sister decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh. It's really amazing the way the city and the Allegheny Valley just jump out into view all of a sudden as you turn one particular bend on the road we drove in to town. This topography definitely seems to limit the development of urban (and more importantly to me suburban) sprawl. I find that really cool. Even the suburbs I did see were pretty interesting as they were more or less built into mountains. Much of our time there was spent packing up my sister's things and helping prepare her for the move back to Minnesota for the summer. I hope she is doing all right being back here. I know she was very sad to leave her friends from college. Then again they are all headed home for the summer too, so in a way she is not so alone in this experience as she may feel. While I found it to be a pleasant urban area there seemed to be a noticeable (to me) lack of counter-culture. Maybe I just didn't make it to the right neighborhood, but it would have been nice to see at least one Co-op, or more than the 3 apparent crust-punks I saw in as many days. So it goes I suppose. I should add that I did have ample time to visit some local sights as well, though all of that experience was focused around the University of Pittsburgh (the Oakland Neighborhood) too.
It's strange but being away from my home, my work and my Wife for four days made me appreciate my daily existence that much more. I had no idea how much I would miss Kristin, or Knowme (our kitty), or even the daily cycle of life. I was getting really desperate to get home by the end there. We drove home straight through. My father had originally predicted 16 hours driving time which proved to be mostly accurate. We were actually well ahead of schedule when we hit the Illinois border and Chicago-land and the torrential rains that I spent the next several hours driving through. I felt really driven between survival impulses taking over and my increasing desire and insistence that I would go to sleep in my own bed beside my Wife before I slept. I did make it but it was exhausting. I drove for 12 of those 16+ hours. I am glad I did it and I felt a strong sense of accomplishment in doing so but I was truly beat by the time I was done and very agitated to get away from my Father and Sister and into my home.
I still haven't quite gotten back into my rhythm of life. Today's day off is certainly a part of that, and that is to my detriment. When I go too long without either my routine or a clear purpose to and very involved task to replace it I, for what ever reason, start to lose my sense of grounding and feel a bit depressed. This is what happened today, but this shall pass. It already is passing. If I were to identify a triggering event I don't think I could identify anything more than sleeping too much and being overly idle today. So this writing is my remedy for that experience. Certainly the weather cannot have helped, but there is no other single other thing I can identify that might have impacted my state of being than my lack of productivity. May this writing be a remedy for me and may I be more fruitful in the days to come.
I've been particularly wanting to discuss my trip to Pittsburgh, so most of this will be about that. My journey out there was very pleasant. I got to stop at the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette, IL which was absolutely gorgeous and my Dad waited patiently. We then pressed on, taking a short side trip to La Porte, IN where live journal's very own annabelle_blue allowed us to visit her very nice home and cooked us a fantastic home cooked dinner. Thanks again, AB! After we finished up there we pressed on to Toledo, OH and crashed outside the airport. The next morning we got going early and made it to Pittsburgh by early afternoon.
Pittsburgh was a pretty interesting city. I can see why my sister decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh. It's really amazing the way the city and the Allegheny Valley just jump out into view all of a sudden as you turn one particular bend on the road we drove in to town. This topography definitely seems to limit the development of urban (and more importantly to me suburban) sprawl. I find that really cool. Even the suburbs I did see were pretty interesting as they were more or less built into mountains. Much of our time there was spent packing up my sister's things and helping prepare her for the move back to Minnesota for the summer. I hope she is doing all right being back here. I know she was very sad to leave her friends from college. Then again they are all headed home for the summer too, so in a way she is not so alone in this experience as she may feel. While I found it to be a pleasant urban area there seemed to be a noticeable (to me) lack of counter-culture. Maybe I just didn't make it to the right neighborhood, but it would have been nice to see at least one Co-op, or more than the 3 apparent crust-punks I saw in as many days. So it goes I suppose. I should add that I did have ample time to visit some local sights as well, though all of that experience was focused around the University of Pittsburgh (the Oakland Neighborhood) too.
It's strange but being away from my home, my work and my Wife for four days made me appreciate my daily existence that much more. I had no idea how much I would miss Kristin, or Knowme (our kitty), or even the daily cycle of life. I was getting really desperate to get home by the end there. We drove home straight through. My father had originally predicted 16 hours driving time which proved to be mostly accurate. We were actually well ahead of schedule when we hit the Illinois border and Chicago-land and the torrential rains that I spent the next several hours driving through. I felt really driven between survival impulses taking over and my increasing desire and insistence that I would go to sleep in my own bed beside my Wife before I slept. I did make it but it was exhausting. I drove for 12 of those 16+ hours. I am glad I did it and I felt a strong sense of accomplishment in doing so but I was truly beat by the time I was done and very agitated to get away from my Father and Sister and into my home.
I still haven't quite gotten back into my rhythm of life. Today's day off is certainly a part of that, and that is to my detriment. When I go too long without either my routine or a clear purpose to and very involved task to replace it I, for what ever reason, start to lose my sense of grounding and feel a bit depressed. This is what happened today, but this shall pass. It already is passing. If I were to identify a triggering event I don't think I could identify anything more than sleeping too much and being overly idle today. So this writing is my remedy for that experience. Certainly the weather cannot have helped, but there is no other single other thing I can identify that might have impacted my state of being than my lack of productivity. May this writing be a remedy for me and may I be more fruitful in the days to come.