January Adventures: Pittsburgh
I'm considering suicide again. I should stop doing that.
I suppose it's about time I tell the stories of my adventures in this month of January.
My first adventure was completely accidental. You see, from time to time, I take day-trips to Pittsburgh (which is about 60 miles away or so). There's a local bus that runs down there for $6, round trip. You can't beat that, so whenever I get the urge to leave, I go. This particular day-trip resulted in me missing the last bus out of town because, for some reason, I thought it left at 5:45pm, instead of when it really left: 5:20pm. So, 5:45 rolls around and there's no bus. I call home. Yeah, it left at 5:20. I go through my options:
1. Take a Pittsburgh bus up to Cranberry, my brother takes my mom to the van and my mom brings the van to Cranberry to pick me up. Cranberry's about 45 miles from home. Too far to just get picked up.
2. Get a hotel room.
I went with number two.
I should mention that I didn't get any sleep the night before. You see, the bus that goes down to Pittsburgh, at the latest, leaves at 6:45am. I live about 20 minutes away from the bus stop and it takes me about 15-20 minutes to get ready in the morning. This means I have to get up around 6am... or 5:45 to be safe. Since I normally go to bed around four or five in the morning, I didn't get a wink of sleep. Hell, I didn't even get drowsy.
Anyway, it's 6pm, I'm stranded in Pittsburgh, and I have nothing to do. I call some friends to see what's up... but mostly to see if I could crash on their couches. One of my friends has a concert. My other friend (yes, I only have two in Pittsburgh) wasn't busy, but she doesn't like other people coming over for some reason. We decided on dinner instead. I get back to Oakland and putz around waiting for her. She's quite slow getting ready. Eventually, we go to Primanti's and it's loathesome as ever: loud, smoky, and shitty food. We try to talk over the loud music. Eventually the music got turned down, but we didn't stay too long after that. We decided that she wouldn't drive me home... 'cause she didn't feel like driving 120 miles in one night in her shitty car. Instead, we looked for a cheap hotel. We checked the Holiday Inn first. The guy at the desk said it would've been about $120 for one night. I winced and explained that I was stuck in town and he understood. He suggested that I check out the Quality Inn on the Boulevard of the Allies (South Oakland area). I thanked him and we drove off. The Quality Inn wasn't very quality, but it was a bit cheaper: around $90, with a discount. I took it.
We went back outside and said our goodbyes. I was dead tired. It was around eight or nine by that time. I said I might take a nap and head out to my friend's concert (which was in Oakland at 11pm). She said she might go, too... but I knew she wouldn't. We hugged and I left. I got to my room and took it all in. I would suggest -- to anyone -- if you ever feel the need to get away for a day, just check into a hotel for a night. It's strangely satisfying. I was alone in a room that was all mine, yet I'd never been there before. I explored everything and when that was done, I stripped and took a fucking HOT bath. It was so hot, my skin turned red. It was the kind of hot bath you don't take at home because you don't want to waste that much hot water. I was cold and tired, so it felt wonderful. It was quiet... so quiet that I though I heard people having sex elsewhere in the building. Ugh. Finished the bath, dried, put my boxers back on and watched a little TV. There was nothing good on and it was only about 9:20... so I set my alarm for 10 and crashed, expecting to get up for my friend's show. The longer I lay there, the more I realized that I wasn't getting up again. I shut off my alarm and passed out.
I woke up again around 2am. Why? I still don't know. At any rate, I couldn't fall asleep again. I turned the TV back on and flipped around. I landed on TCM and found out they were going to be doing a Miazaki marathon every Thursday in January. Neat. I made sure to remember that. Nothing else was going on... so I tried sleeping again... but nothing doing. I tried relaxing until I was finally too hungry to relax so I showered, dressed, and checked out. I hiked back to Oakland and got some food at Pamela's... something or other. Apparently they're pretty popular, but I can't figure out why. It wasn't that great. I got some coffee and hung out with my friend some more. I made sure to catch the early bus out of town this time and before I knew it, I was home.
That's my Pittsburgh adventure. Not that grand, but different.
Next time: My adventures in New Jersey. Stay tuned.
I suppose it's about time I tell the stories of my adventures in this month of January.
My first adventure was completely accidental. You see, from time to time, I take day-trips to Pittsburgh (which is about 60 miles away or so). There's a local bus that runs down there for $6, round trip. You can't beat that, so whenever I get the urge to leave, I go. This particular day-trip resulted in me missing the last bus out of town because, for some reason, I thought it left at 5:45pm, instead of when it really left: 5:20pm. So, 5:45 rolls around and there's no bus. I call home. Yeah, it left at 5:20. I go through my options:
1. Take a Pittsburgh bus up to Cranberry, my brother takes my mom to the van and my mom brings the van to Cranberry to pick me up. Cranberry's about 45 miles from home. Too far to just get picked up.
2. Get a hotel room.
I went with number two.
I should mention that I didn't get any sleep the night before. You see, the bus that goes down to Pittsburgh, at the latest, leaves at 6:45am. I live about 20 minutes away from the bus stop and it takes me about 15-20 minutes to get ready in the morning. This means I have to get up around 6am... or 5:45 to be safe. Since I normally go to bed around four or five in the morning, I didn't get a wink of sleep. Hell, I didn't even get drowsy.
Anyway, it's 6pm, I'm stranded in Pittsburgh, and I have nothing to do. I call some friends to see what's up... but mostly to see if I could crash on their couches. One of my friends has a concert. My other friend (yes, I only have two in Pittsburgh) wasn't busy, but she doesn't like other people coming over for some reason. We decided on dinner instead. I get back to Oakland and putz around waiting for her. She's quite slow getting ready. Eventually, we go to Primanti's and it's loathesome as ever: loud, smoky, and shitty food. We try to talk over the loud music. Eventually the music got turned down, but we didn't stay too long after that. We decided that she wouldn't drive me home... 'cause she didn't feel like driving 120 miles in one night in her shitty car. Instead, we looked for a cheap hotel. We checked the Holiday Inn first. The guy at the desk said it would've been about $120 for one night. I winced and explained that I was stuck in town and he understood. He suggested that I check out the Quality Inn on the Boulevard of the Allies (South Oakland area). I thanked him and we drove off. The Quality Inn wasn't very quality, but it was a bit cheaper: around $90, with a discount. I took it.
We went back outside and said our goodbyes. I was dead tired. It was around eight or nine by that time. I said I might take a nap and head out to my friend's concert (which was in Oakland at 11pm). She said she might go, too... but I knew she wouldn't. We hugged and I left. I got to my room and took it all in. I would suggest -- to anyone -- if you ever feel the need to get away for a day, just check into a hotel for a night. It's strangely satisfying. I was alone in a room that was all mine, yet I'd never been there before. I explored everything and when that was done, I stripped and took a fucking HOT bath. It was so hot, my skin turned red. It was the kind of hot bath you don't take at home because you don't want to waste that much hot water. I was cold and tired, so it felt wonderful. It was quiet... so quiet that I though I heard people having sex elsewhere in the building. Ugh. Finished the bath, dried, put my boxers back on and watched a little TV. There was nothing good on and it was only about 9:20... so I set my alarm for 10 and crashed, expecting to get up for my friend's show. The longer I lay there, the more I realized that I wasn't getting up again. I shut off my alarm and passed out.
I woke up again around 2am. Why? I still don't know. At any rate, I couldn't fall asleep again. I turned the TV back on and flipped around. I landed on TCM and found out they were going to be doing a Miazaki marathon every Thursday in January. Neat. I made sure to remember that. Nothing else was going on... so I tried sleeping again... but nothing doing. I tried relaxing until I was finally too hungry to relax so I showered, dressed, and checked out. I hiked back to Oakland and got some food at Pamela's... something or other. Apparently they're pretty popular, but I can't figure out why. It wasn't that great. I got some coffee and hung out with my friend some more. I made sure to catch the early bus out of town this time and before I knew it, I was home.
That's my Pittsburgh adventure. Not that grand, but different.
Next time: My adventures in New Jersey. Stay tuned.