I think it's amusing...

When your brain gets bored and just kinda wanders. It's the kind of thing that happens when you're trying to relax and think about nothing. I was sitting in my car yesterday and I just happened to look down at the gas gauge and think, "what would happen if a big car manufacturer like Honda just decided to switch the E and F" How confused would people be? Wait, it's empty...no no, it's full. hrm hrm. Something so simple, that we're so accustomed to, that we don't even think about. The E and the F. Symbols are fascinating to me. You can get into a car anywhere in the world and most likely locate the gas gauge and some letter resembling E and F...and even though you cannot speak the language, atleast you know whether your gas tank is full. (and even if the gas tank happens to be reversed, it's easy enough to use powers of deduction to determine the direction in which the arrow continuously decreases - there's your empty side....logic and simplicity make a nice pair)

Biking the Five Boroughs

So it looks like I'm going to do the Five Boroughs Bike Tour. I thought it would be cool to bike around new york, but always had visions of myself getting splattered into a million pieces. Thus, a 30,000 people bike tour is the perfect solution. I figure if i'm somewhere in the middle of that mass of people, they'll have to splat a whole layer of people before getting to me. Boroughs is a funny word, makes me think of small woodland creatures, mules, and beatnik poetry. What a combination.

Discovery for today

So i already knew from reading a gazillion websites, that New Haven is where pizza originated. Funny that i'll be living a hop, skip, and bike ride from the birthplace of pizza (or so they say). Characteristics of a New Haven pie include thin crust, usually blackened at the edges from the brick oven, and "plain" usually refers to tomato sauce and parmesan (mozzarella is an additional topping). They also make a pizza with clams that's supposed to be awesome. I think i'll be eating a lot of pizza. I wonder if pizza with clams in New Haven is like french fries on a sandwhich (or salad) in Pittsburgh? Ethnic foods are culturally diverse and interesting to explore....regional food variations always end up being more funny than anything (in the US anyway). In Santa Fe New Mexico they sell corn on the cob...I saw people walking the streets gnawing on corn. See, funny food traditions. Still very tasty though!!!

contemplation in the afternoon

So i'm in Pittsburgh after a weekend in New Haven. This is the third time I've done this now...the second time it involved moving belongings into my new apartment. So i've spent a weekend or a few days in my new apartment on two occasions. It's starting to look lived in, and feel like home. I guess i can already feel myself warming to my new domacile. The neighborhood is just across the street from the city, far enough to appreciate city life and not become annoyed. My apartment can be found on any city map...on a corner on the outskirts of Wooster Square (the "Little Italy" of New Haven). We have a package store (what New Englanders call a six-pack shop) around the block, and countless retaurants within biking distance. I've always wanted to try living in an area where biking would be my primary mode of transportation. I feel good knowing I'll only need my jeep for weekend trips (camping in vermont!!!) I did a small amount of grocery shopping on saturday (taking care to only but non-perishables). Last time I hit the large grocery store, so this time the quest was to find a local natural food store for my bread/produce/bulk food purchases. The natural store is called "Edge of the Woods", and it reminds me of the East End Food Co-Op. I love that I can still get fresh ground peanut butter, and bags of granola from the bulk food area. So i'm content. I've managed to only move necessities, and it's nice to have an apartment that looks simple and bright (it gets a lot of sunlight too!). And so, this is my official last week in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for the daily musings of a new havener. (i'll be sure to throw in the occasional "n'at" into my descriptions)

Leonardo da Vinci ...

said this...

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

...and it's something i had been thinking about even before i found this quote. In packing things I've come to realize that I horde entirely too much stuff. Some of the stuff has a purpose, some has sentimental value, but most of it is just useless junk that I hesitate to get rid of. So i'm trying to enter a more simplified lifestyle. A few pieces of furniture, a fully stocked kitchen, books and music, bikes and snowboards, clothing, and a few pieces of decor such as candles, vases, and picture frames. It sounds so simple, so how did I ever manage to accumulate such a rediculously large amount of stuff?? It's so silly. Most of the time all that stuff just becomes annoying as I constantly try to organize and re-organize it, and never really end up using it. Sweaters I haven't worn in years, doubles of photos stacked on shelves, spare buttons (why i keep all those extra buttons I don't know, cuz even when i do lose a button it seems I can never find the right one in my pile 'o buttons), not to mention what may be hiding/growing under my bed. So bizarre. So as I clean out my years of junk, I am also attempting to curb my junk-hording habit. I hope i'm successful.

Spring Again...

50 degress out??? wow. I rode to work with the window down today...not all the way down, but just enough to let some fresh air in. And we even had sunshine. Amazing. I'm devoid of joyful morning bantering about nothing today. I think i haven't had enough coffee. Perhaps I'll return later. March 1st I start my new job. I'm nerve-racked and excited...what an oxymoronic combination.

i just ate an orange

It was slightly pinkish on the inside, and one of the best oranges I've ever had. I'm wondering if it was a hybrid orange/red grapefruit...because the inside resembled the color of a ruby red grapefruit. I didn't look at the bag this morning when i grabbed one, I'll have to do that. I like oranges. Oranges and fruit in general make me think of still life drawings sometimes...or maybe just today. hrm.

I also like hazlenut lattes (you had to know something coffee oriented was coming...). I'm drinking one right now. There's only 1 starbucks in New Haven. This is probably a very good thing. Although, there are many other places to get my fix...a place called Koffee is one of them, and it's located around the corner. There's a used book store with a coffee shop, and some artsy coffee shops. I did a google for where to find beer in New Haven too. So I've covered all the basics: local ski resorts, bike trails, coffee houses, and beer store. There's a bike shop called The Devil's Gear less than a mile away from my apartment. What more could a girl need??

bzzz

I've been quite the busy bee. In the past few days I've been to New Haven and back, leased my new apartment, furnished it with some small trinkets (no large furniture yet, as I went up there by myself for a short training session and only took the essentials to move in). The apartment is really great. The landlords couldn't be more friendly or accomodating. I was at ease the moment my feet crossed the threshold and I sat down at my new (new to me anyways) kitchen table (I bought the table from the owners). It was a bit odd to see the place for the first time on my own, but a nice meditative experience (and then i called Jake about 2.5 seconds later). So i moved in, went to IKEA (for the necessaries: shower curtain, bathroom rug, salt n' pepper shakers...), and listened to the radio as i unpacked dishes and mentally decorated the apartment with IKEA furniture. So now i'm back in the 'ol Pittsburgh office, chomping away at my sesame square bagel with veggie cream cheese (YUM!), and sippin Green Mountain coffee (i loooove that Brueggers sells Green Mountain Coffee). I feel like i lead some double life with 2 homes...it's an odd feeling. All this back and forth stuff nearly makes me mentally sea-sick. I'll be glad when I'm moved in and settled. I woke up yesterday morning to sunshine beaming in through all three kitchen windows. It was interesting to be able to look out one window and see a hardware store, and through another to see a highway past the buildings, and look out yet another to see the city. I've been a suburbian dweller all my life. Time to see what city livin is like. Hope i like it...and hope i don't spend all my money on coffee!!

a rainy snowy kinda day...

is a perfect excuse to go to starbucks. heh. It's a hazlenut latte day here at ye 'ol brain imaging researchers office. I needed the pick me up. I'm stayed-up-too-late tired. On the upside, I already feel the hazlenut flavored caffeination flowing through me, and I have some upbeat Jack Johnson playing to help the wake-up process along. I'm already scouting out the coffee places in new haven. There's one a couple blocks away from my apartment....this could be really good, or reaaaally bad. Thank goodness i have my own coffee grinder...

Picture Pages, Picture Pages....

Remember Mortimer the marker from that show?? (picture pages with Bill Cosby...) I have the photo bug today. I realized I hadn't presented anything visual in quite sometime. At any rate, I posted one here and even updated my half abandoned photo blog simple meanderings. I always forget about posting there. I forget it exists really...but it's nice to have a separate area in cyberland to show random pictures. I need to load more recent pictures though...I've been hoarding them on my memory card.

New Haven

So when i first visited New Haven, I took one single picture. It's not exactly the kind of place that causes a photo frenzy. But, I did take this one! I was standing outside of the museum, this shot is across the street from it. Once I loaded it onto the 'ol computer, I couldn't resist the urge to play with the shot in photoshop. A little dark, but i like it. Lighten it up and it has definate framed art potential. New Haven does have some great architecture.

warm weather is at ludicrous speed*

yet another day of warmish wintery oddness. unseasonable weather makes me suspicious, and a little off kilter (I imagine this is how a worm feels when you pick it up in one spot and put it back down in a completely different spot...) . Why is winter avoiding us this year? hrm.

*reference to spaceballs...the cheesy, yet oh so funny, mel brooks rendition of Star Wars