Skip to main content

Before the parade passes by
















I wish I could capture the feeling I had driving into work on Monday. Sure, I was tired after having stayed up to midnight to revel in the Steelers sixth Super Bowl win. But the feeling of euphoria, helped by a local radio station playing various Steeler songs as well as "We Are the Champions" was something I cannot put into words, something that a lot of people just don't get.

The good times continued right into Tuesday with the Steelers parade. I hardly noticed the 30-degree weather and occasional snowfall. What I was well aware of was that I and my closest 350,000 friends were celebrating in style. That day we were all united members of the Steeler Nation (except for the black-and-gold clad jag-off who apparently robbed a bank during the festivities).

This year, one of my coworkers had the best idea of his life (his words): bring a ladder, which was made possible thanks to Bob, the office guy, dropping us off. So many people walked by telling us how smart we were or what a great idea we had. A number of people snapped our pic, clearly in awe of the brilliancy. We saw everything and captured most of the players, unlike when we went three years ago, and saw almost nothing. The only downside was some players never turned our way; they continued to face the crowd on their side. Regardless, I posted some of my faves above; most of the rest are on Flickr.

What stands out most for me is the president of Steeler Nation, Mike Tomlin. He was walking the parade, clearly excited. When he was near us, he picked up someone's sign (something about Stairway to Seven). I have thought highly of Tomlin ever since he made the comment, "I walk past five Lombardi trophies, not five rushing titles," in response to Fast Willie's complaint about the run game. It is hard to describe or define Mike Tomlin; I do know he says things like "things of that nature" a lot, and that is all right with me.

I am glad I went; well worth a few hours of vacation time. Again, glad I live here and am able to experience something like this. There is nothing like living in Sixburgh!
Labels:

Comments

Mel said…
what a fun time! I actually contemplated going, with a 3 1/2-year-old in tow... and then common sense ruled and we watched it on the tube. ahhh, to be a silly 20-something in such a celebratory season in the city... sigh. the ladder was pure genius. glad I know at least a few people who were there to record the moment for posterity. hurrayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 5, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Post a Comment

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more

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...
4 comments
Read more