Oh, you’re still here?

I’ve pretty much just set up shop over at christinacann.com — maybe you’d like to join in the fun there? I blog regularly. Mostly about writing and reading, sometimes about how infuriating it is to turn on the heat on October 7 (am I right or what?!).

Thanks for reading me here. This will probably stay up until it’s time to renew, which maybe I’ll do and maybe I won’t. I’m just such an enigma.

Ciao.

Downloading iTunes. (Yes, I know it’s 2009. I haven’t downloaded a song since Kazaa was king, which means since my sophomore year of college.)

Ordering a Dirty Pickle the next time I go to a classy bar, which is to say, perhaps sometime in the next five years.

Making kale chips with the ungodly amount of greens I am still receiving from my CSA every week.

Painting my toenails.

That is all.

OMG, where have I been? Can I really not have updated my blog since [checks...gasps...] January? What the hell have I been doing?!

Let me tell you!

I turned 25, and received a cake worthy of recognition on Cake Wrecks, although I haven’t sent it to them. (In case you can’t read it, it says “Happy Birthday Christina Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis.”)

Even a teal-lover knows when to stop.

My husb got me tickets to the Penguins, and I saw this amazing car when we parked near the arena.

A kindred soul.

Then, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup and I collapsed in a huge heap of sobbing/laughing/screaming/hyperventilating mess on my living room floor. Less than twelve hours later, I was holding the Cup with Coach Bylsma.

GAHHHHH!!!!

(I’ll give you a second to recover from the sheer awesomeness of that picture. I needed a week to recover.)

I went to Houston for a friend’s wedding and SOMEHOW BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

"Look, I'm the President, and if I want to change the national anthem to "Take A Chance On Me," I WILL."

I also met this feisty little guy, painted on the ceiling of where the wedding reception was.

Yee-haw.

I’ve been doing a whole lot of writing and editing, and actually gave my manuscript to some people to read, which was hella terrifying. So far, no one has handed it back to me and then proceeded to laugh in my face for ten minutes, so that’s good.

I started another blog (Hi, my name is Christina, and I’m a blogaholic who doesn’t follow through), where I’ve been thinking through some writing stuff. Follow me there…if you dare. Of if, you know, you’re interested in me blabbing about writing. I also occasionally contribute to the very amazing Only in Pittsburgh blog, for which my spouse is the main contributor. If you have a picture that belongs there, what are you waiting for? Send it to us!

KTHXBAI

Do I really need a reason to post Joey Lawrence rocking out in holey jeans, a flannel tied around his waist?

I wish my best friend was named after a number.

Over at Marginal Designs, the husb did a meme via Andrea and Cynthia. The rules:

Leave a comment and I’ll give you a letter. Post ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter.  Then give a letter to anyone who leaves a comment for you… and the cycle will continue.

I decided to participate too and he gave me the letter M, but switched up the rules: I had to name 10 things I love about Pittsburgh that start with the letter M, not just things in general. So, without further ado, my list.

1.       Marginal Designs: Yet more shameless self-promotion. But I seriously love the fact that two people can put the face of a local celebrity on a t-shirt in the style of the Che Guevara shirts and people will totally support it. Yinzers rock.

2.       Masloff, Sophie: The first (and so far, only) female mayor of Pittsburgh and a revered local icon. On a related note, I love the WearPittsburgh t-shirts that support a potential Masloff run for President. I’d vote for her!

3.       Mount Washington: A gorgeous view of our gorgeous city. I love bringing visitors up to Mt. Washington. It’s a visual rebuttal to the “Pittsburgh is dirty and smoky and gross” stereotype that somehow persists even in 2008:

(Picture from DeathByBokeh)

4.       Most Livable City: I totally agree, Pittsburgh is the Most Livable City in the United States. We have great museums, a low cost of living, and friendly neighbors. What more could you ask for?

5.       Mario Lemieux: I belong to a Facebook group called “Mario Lemieux Just Might Be God.” And it’s not an exaggeration AT ALL. Mario was an amazing hockey player despite all his setbacks and contributes meaningfully to our community.

6.       Monongahela River:  Together with the Allegheny, it forms the Ohio River at Point State Park. Without it, national sports broadcasters wouldn’t be able to say that Pittsburgh lies at the confluence of three rivers, and then how would they show off their extensive vocabularies?

7.       Miller, Heath: A solid football player and reliable tight end on the Steelers. He rarely misses any of Ben’s passes, which is more than I can say for some of the other players on the team. (cough, Santonio Holmes, cough)

8.       Mr. Rogers : I cried the day Mr. Rogers died. He was an integral part of my childhood and he lived right here in Pittsburgh. My favorite Mr. Rogers story: When he was baby-sitting his grandson, his car was stolen. The news stations reported the theft and the next day, or maybe a few days later, the thief returned the car to Mr. Rogers. That story really speaks to the good he brought out in people.

9.       Myron Cope: A Pittsburgh original, creator of the Terrible Towel, award-winning journalist, and owner of perhaps the most distinctive voice ever. Myron, we miss you.

10.   Mary Cassatt: I love her paintings. Anything that places value on the often unseen lives of women is awesome in my book. And she’s from Pittsburgh, too!

Leave a comment if you want to write your top ten list with a Pittsburgh twist!

Hey folks — sorry, I didn’t keep up on my end of the bargain with the 90s vids. I have recently experienced the most violent illness I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was so bad my husb was considering taking me to the hospital in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. 90s vids will be back in full force tomorrow.

In the meantime, husb and I are thinking of taking a weekend trip some weekend in November. Ideally, we’d like to be able to leave after work on a Friday, get there and check into a hotel so we can spend all day Sunday and most of Sunday in the destination. But we don’t know where to go! DC is out of the question – hello, we just spent two years living there – as are places we’ve been like New York or Philly or places I was raised to loathe like Cleveland. We’re looking for something under the radar, a place people wouldn’t normally think to visit.

Maybe Detroit? Or Toronto? Any ideas or suggestions, faithful readers?

I know things are a little YouTube-heavy around these parts lately, but the headline of this article, “Greenspan ’shocked’ that free markets are flawed,” really made me think of this:

Hey. It’s been awhile, huh? Sorry about that! Turns out that one (or at least, I) cannot successfully buy a house, strip and refinish the hardwood floors, move into said house, morph into an amateur plumber, plan a wedding, execute a wedding, refinish a deck, get rid of a weirdly placed strip of plants in a huge backyard, grow grass, dig up a patch of backyard where the garden will be in the spring, kick ass at a new job, and get involved in a neighborhood organization while still blogging regularly.

(So, that’s my pathetic attempt at saying sorry for leaving you hanging for months on end.)

I missed blogging, I really did. Some days I would go back and read through the entries on this site and remember what I was feeling when I wrote them and feel the urge to start up again. I didn’t, because there was always a house thing to do, or a job thing to do, or a wedding thing to do.

Well, guess what – the wedding is over, the house is pretty much all settled, and the job is going great. So, I’m BACK, kids. And in honor of the occasion, I am going to do a 90s VOTW every DAY until the end of October. That is my solemn vow to you. Because we all need a little 90s music in our lives when the seasons start to change and you know winter is coming. We at least need it so we can rock out with our bad selves in chilly houses.

We just finished putting together the office this weekend, so I have a nice place to focus on writing my blog, writing my book, and working on various other projects that require my attention outside of work. So, I’ll see you tomorrow.

That’s a promise.

I’m up for a new phone through my Verizon new every two deal and honestly I’m underwhelmed. Currently I have your slightly-more-than-basic phone – it makes calls, has a camera and videorecorder, it’s always worked well for me. I don’t need VCast (I don’t even know what that means) and I’m not going to pay $100 a month just to get email on my phone. I am not that popular or important, Verizon Wireless. Thanks for reminding me. Nor am I loaded enough to drop over a thousand bucks a year, not counting the price of the phone, just so I can wade through all the action alert emails I get everyday urging me to call my senators. (And on that note – please. I signed up for email alerts because I dislike contacting my elected officials via the phone. If you want people to actually dial a number, have them sign up for a phone list or something. Just give me a freaking online form to fill out, mmkay?)

But is it too much to ask for the phones to be at least marginally exciting? I scroll through my list of available phones and basically I’m seeing the same design in either black or silver over and over again. I want something kind of quirky, not the basic phone I have now. Otherwise, why am I getting a new phone at all? I’m leaning toward the Samsung Juke, because it plays music and has a cool design and comes in teal, but I’ve read some bad reviews of it. Although I’m not usually very rough on my phone, so it might not be so bad for me…

Man, these first world problems suck, don’t they? UGH.

I’m beginning to wonder if dementors are breeding in Pittsburgh. I can hardly complain, since I moved back here at the end of February, when the ground begins to thaw and the slush somewhat subsides, from the mild winters of Washington, DC. (Seriously, if the air guessers even predict three inches of snow in the DC metro area, there’s a run on milk, bread and rock salt at every grocery store.)

But there’s something disconcerting about heading out for the day on May 19 and pulling on your winter wool coat, buttoning it up to the top button. By this time of the year, I feel like I shouldn’t be worried about making sure I have clean work socks, but I do. I’ve never been a big fan of spring, mostly due to the overabundant mud and the nauseating smell of freshly cut grass and the ricocheting temperatures (forty in the morning, seventy at noon makes me a cranky blogger), but I am so ready for this coldness to be done.

Andy Warhol’s over it, too.