Skip to main content

All over the place

That is where my thoughts are, all over the place.

I wanted to write a post about how the first time you do, see, or experience something is often the most memorable. A few weeks ago, I took Jordan to Reeger's farm near where my mom lives. If you happen to be in or around Indiana County and you have kids, this is a great place to spend a Saturday in October. From the hayride, to sliding down the silo, to climbing up the hay bales, to playing in the candy corn, to the corn maze, this place rocks. But, alas, it was not as good as it was the first time we went, last year. Part of the reason was because it was about 80 degrees and sunny, and I was wearing black (a Depeche Mode concert shirt from '93, another good first). But the other reason is, is that the corn maze was so cool the first year, that anything after just pales in comparison. Trying to find each of the clues and answer the questions got my competitive edge (mostly non-existent as of late) going.

And that got me thinking about the first time I went to Disney World. It was in 1998, and my mom and I flew down to Fla for my little brother's college graduation. We had time for only one park during that short trip, and we chose Epcot. I thought it was the greatest, and I was so excited to go back and experience that and all the other parks the following year on my honeymoon. But Epcot was not as good as it was the first time. I think once you experience something and it turns out really well, it is tough to do better. I don't remember a lot about that first trip to Epcot, but what really sticks out in my mind is going on the ride in Norway, I think. I just remember my mother laughing so hard. I can still hear it. It was a great sound, something rarely heard from Mom. Don't get me wrong; Brian and I had a great honeymoon. It was probably one of the best vacations of my life, which is fortunate since we have taken a trip away for more than three days since. But Epcot would never be as it was that first time.

I have had countless other experiences where the first time was the best: the South Side Bar Crawl, living on my own the first time, progressive dinner with some coworkers, my first Great Race, my first kid. The list goes on and on. But I also know that some things are better the second and even third time around, which is why I decided not to do a post on this.

Except I just did. I am just so desperate for something other than politics to write about. So there you have it. Maybe next time I write about my kid.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Let's build something together!

That is one of my favorite slogan's (Or is that a tagline? Over a year removed from a design firm, and I can no longer remember). It belongs to Lowe's, although I am more of a Home Depot gal. But suffice it to say if someone handed me a $5,000 gift card to Home Depot (or Lowe's), I would be ecstatic. If I had $10,000 to spend, you could hear my shouts of joy from miles away. The things I could do with that money. Well, the things I could have Brian do with that money anyway. I love walking around Home Depot and admiring the fancy bathroom sinks and tubs. I look at the lighting and think about where I would put each fixture. I touch textured and colorful tiles and wistfully look at the fancy kitchen cabinets. I admire the various carpet styles and blinds. I look at the fancy front-loading washer and wonder what it must be like to have a steam dryer. I even look longingly at the vacuum cleaners because I can no longer buy a replacement filter for my eight year old mo...

If only I had taken pictures of my detoured drive

When I moved to the Burgh just over 14 years ago, I had a lot of anxiety about getting from "here" to "there." I found the city, which is triangular, and even some of the suburbs quite confusing. On top of that, a lot of the signs were of little help. Clearly they were put up by either natives who had no need for directions or people with a sick sense of humor who thought it would be funny to put signs in random places, leaving off important roads. At some point, I got over that fear of driving to a new building downtown. I don't recall when it happened, but eventually I just figured most of the city out; and when I had to head to a new place, I just drove around, no longer with a feeling of dread, knowing I would eventually get there. But on Sunday morning, that awful, long-ago feeling returned, thanks to the closure of the outbound Fort Pitt Tunnels. I had to pick my mother up from the airport, so there was no avoiding it. (For some reason, my family think...

Summer in review

This summer I made it a point to try to take at least one pic of Jordan whenever we went somewhere, which most often was a park. I wanted to capture all the great, fun things we did this summer, knowing that it was probably going to be my last summer not working for quite some time. So here goes. I have expressed my love of Frick Park, particularly Blue Slide Park, in other posts ; it really is one of our favorites. And this summer marked the first one I did not feel the need to follow J around like a little puppy dog. I actually let her run around and explore, though, admittedly, I would panic if more than three minutes went by and I had not seen her. In the pics above, J is at the end of the blue slide, and then hanging several feet above concrete (which scared the crap out of me). We also visited another section of Frick Park, the area on the corner of Braddock and Forbes, a few times. There is not as much to do as Blue Slide, but we go there to mix things up a bit. In the p...