Pittsburgh Trip

I finally had a chance to go to Pittsburgh a week ago.  It’s beenn a year and a half since I last went.  The trip went well for the most part.  My brother went with me on the trip up.  He moved back up there to finish school.  We had a nice long talk about many things on the way up.  It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to do that.  It was nice.

I was there for a few days.  Spent alot of time with my mother.  We went shopping and I got alot of Christmas shopping out of the way.  I also managed to find some Pens stuff, but not as much as I was hoping for.  Wrong time of year for that since everything was football football football.  But I got some awesome stuff regardless.

I also got to finally meet my most awesomest friend ever.  YAY!!!!!!!!  We had a fun time.  I drove to his house and we hung out for a bit.  I met his grandma and the lovable kitteh.  We went out to eat, then went out for ice cream.  The ice cream was awesome…I mean they put alot of ice cream on your cone.  It was dripping down my arm to my elbow.  And we were sitting outside and it was so windy that Chris’s hat blew off and went right into his ice cream.  It was funny.  We spent a little bit more time back at his house, but my mother kept calling and bugging me to come home, so I had to leave.  But it was awesome.  I just wish that we could have spent more time together.  Hopefully when I visit again we can spend more time together.

I went and visited with my Grandfather while I was there.  We spent several hours talking about everything and anything and catching up.  He went to his 60th high school reunion and took his 30 year old neighbor as his date.  Needless to say he was the hit of the party.  My Grandfather is pretty awesome.  He told me great stories of things he has done with his life.  Most of them I have heard countless times before but there were some new ones in there.  And he also showed me a bunch of paintings and drawings that he did.  I never knew that he was such a talented artist.  I now know where I got my artistic ability from.  But it is so awesome because I never realized that he could paint. 

After visiting my Grandfather I went to the cemetary to visit Ryan. 

*Sidenote* I’m so lazy I just texted my roommate who is literally right outside my bedroom door on the stairs and asked him if he had a cigarette cause I didn’t feel like getting out of my bed.  Damn! *End Sidenote*

I didn’t plan to go there, but since it was right up the road from my Grandfather’s house I decided to stop by.  I still miss him, but it was nice to go there and just sit and talk to him.  Maybe he can hear me, maybe he can’t who knows, but it made me feel better all the same.  Got me thinking about a lot of things too.  Like how I’m older now than he was when he died.  And every year I’m going to keep getting older and older and he is always going to be young in my mind.  He will never age to me.  I’ll remember him always at the age of 24 and 24 is definitely too young to die.  And I can’t help but wonder how life would have turned out for us had he lived.  He’d be 30 in 9 days.  Maybe we’d be married with a couple of kids…or maybe we would have ended up hating each other and never speaking.  Who knows?  All I know is that I still love him…and I miss him…and while it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to…and I don’t feel completely empty…I still feel a little part of me missing.   I still feel this little ache in my heart where he used to be.  But I’m living life and for the most part I’m happy…a little stressed and crazed sometimes, but happy.

So yeah the trip was all good except for the ride home.  My car ended up breaking down about an hour and a half away from home.  Not good.  To make a long story short I called Lisa to find me a tow company and James to come pick me up.  My car needs a new transmission and I am working on getting that all straightened out.  Hopefully I will be getting it back soon because I definitely need it to start the EXA program at work and get my promotion.  I soooooooo want that promotion. 

Speaking of work…it has been crazy hectic there lately.  I have worked long hours every day since coming back from vacation last Tuesday.  It has been a nightmare trying to get stuff cleaned up for the new Distict Manager visit, which was yesterday.  Needless to say the store wasn’t 100% but it was good enough not to get bitched at too badly.  Hopefully we can finish getting things straight before he comes back for a real visit.  I’m just very tired and worn out.  I think I need another vacation.   I wish!!!