Time flies

Dad and I had a wonderful time in Pittsburgh. We kicked off the festivities with Christmas dinner at the William Penn hotel downtown. It's one of those grandiose city hotels, which had reservation-only seatings for dinner. We were booked for the 6:00, which was the last. The meal was four courses and we had 3 choices per course. Both Dad and I were surprised at how fine the cuisine was; neither of us had particularly high hopes for a restaurant holiday meal. Following dinner we walked the city for 1&1/2hrs. I haven't been there in 4yrs, since my grandmother's funeral, and before that it had been several more years since she and Pops moved to VA Beach. My fondest memories in life are of Dad, Grandma, Pops, Uncle Kenny, Rachel and me hanging out at the house on Carnegie Drive. I miss the people, the house, the suburb (Mt. Lebanon) and the city alot.

The rest of the time was spent shopping, visisting old haunts, walking the city, visiting deceased family at the cemetary and meeting up with Bob. He's a friend I made online at a favorite singer/songwriter's website. I made a comment online about originally being from Pittsburgh, which prompted Bob to write me. I told him about Dad and Dad about him, and b/c they both love Pittsburgh so much they were encouraged to write e-mails to each other once in awhile. Somewhere along the line Bob became a good friend and we were thrilled to find out he'd be visiting family in Pgh. while we were there hiding from our sadness over losing Patrick. Bob's family invited us to a family dinner at their home in Moon Township, which turned out to be a highlight of the trip. Everyone was warm, friendly, funny and caring and we had a marvelous time with them.

On the way home from Pgh. we stopped for an overnight in Roanoke with Dad's best friend, Yolanda and her husband, Bobby. They have a mountain-top home so I was in heaven. The next day we drove to GSO long enough to grab my cat and then continued on to VA Beach. Since returning to VA Beach we have socialized a ton. We had an overnight in Porstmouth on NYE with Ike and Larry, attended a brunch party at a neighbor's house, went out to dinner w/Dad's friends, entertained one of my friends, and had some of Dad's friend's over. In between I've been studying for my doctoral comps. I got talked into doing this degree when I basically didn't want to do it. I figured I'd learn to like and appreciate it, but 5yrs later I still don't have much respect for the whole thing; therefore, I'm extremely annoyed by the studying. Oh, well, when I'm done with this there will only be one hurdle left: the dissertation. I wish I cared more about the accomplishment that is soon to come but I really just don't give a damn.