What are you doing April 4?

It's been awhile since I posted anything but a bit of motivation for your Monday. But today, I want to tell you about a great event happening two weeks from today--Wednesday, April 4 at Carlow University.

The event is the Pittsburgh Service Summit, from Get Involved!, Inc. Get Involved! is a nonprofit dedicated to engaging, energizing, educating and empowering students and young professionals. AKA, the next generation of folks that are going to do something great for Pittsburgh.

Interested in getting involved in your community? Believe that service can make a difference in the lives of others (and in your own life)? Come to the Service Summit and hear from some like-minded folks.

The Service Summit features 3 key note speakers: John Stahl-Wert (Serving Leaders/Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation), Benjamin Wagner (Senior VP at MTV News) and Luke Skurman (CEO of College Prowler). There will also be ten breakout sessions, on topics ranging from teamwork to developing personal goals to the importance of community service. The night will wrap up at 7 p.m. with the awarding of the Get Involved! and Rising Stars awards.

I'm honored to say that I have been selected as one of Western Pennsylvania's Rising Stars! I can only attribute this designation to being connected to some of the coolest people in Pittsburgh. The other winners are doing some really incredible things for our City and for the world. It's truly an honor to be recognized with such amazing people.

So, I'd love to see you April 4! We'll start hanging out for keynotes and breakouts at 4 p.m. Awards begin at 7. See you there?

For more information or to see the entire list of winners, visit Get Involved! Inc's website.

I love East Liberty.

Surprised? :)

It really is a great neighborhood. I could give you a million reasons why, but instead I'll direct you to Yinzpiration.com, where I had the chance to write the top ten reasons why I love the neighborhood so much.

Check it out and in the comments, let me know why you love your neighborhood!

57 Reasons to live in Pittsburgh!

I've never been shy about my love for this city. The people, the arts, the rivers, the sports, the hills, the cold, the heat, the humidity...there's always something to love.

My good friend Kate is the woman behind Yinzpiration, which I've written about before. A few months ago, she asked some tweeps to talk about their favorite reasons to live in Pittsburgh--57 reasons, to be exact!

My reason? If you've just moved here, you feel at home. And if you've been here forever, the City always shows you something new.

The list is now out! And we're adding to it with tweets, under the hashtag #57reasonsPGH. Check it out! A few of my favorites:

 

(Consistent cropping has never been my forte) 

I love knowing that there are 56 other people (and way more!) who love Pittsburgh just as much as I do! What do you love about Pittsburgh? Share it here, on Twitter or on the Yinzpiration facebook page.

10. Passion.

First things first, I've written for ten days in a row. This is monumental.

Moving on. I really, really like today's prompt. Except there are too many options. My secret or not-so-secret passions? There are plenty. Brief paragraphs on five of them:

Knitting
My sister and I taught ourselves how to knit one Christmas Eve, and I've never looked back. I make knitted Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, random I-love-you gifts. I've made hats, blankets, scarves, sweaters, coasters...even a cell phone cover. My friends Joel and Anna decided that, should they get married and have children, I will be the godmother of all babies. Why, you ask? In the words of Joel: "HAND KNITTED SWEATERS. SCORE!" So there you have it. Make me godmother of your children so they can have handknitted sweaters, people.

Food
Food is delicious and I love it. More importantly, I love making food. Cooking or baking, it's all wonderful. I am learning more about what spices go with which herbs and flavors and how to do more than just sauté some vegetables. Learning more like that, that makes me excited. Then when I get to share it with others, that makes me even happier.

Music
I know. Lots of people like music and it's really cool and oh my gosh fun. But I don't just listen to music. I mean, I don't write it. Which is kind of a shame because I love it. Anyway, I've always sung. And I've played the flute since I was...9? 8? However old you are when you start 4th grade, that's how long I've played. Then I did musicals and show choir in high school. In college, I was a leader for the praise band. Music has always been how I release emotion. I may be a writer but I'm not so good at saying what I feel, so I use songs. Maybe #nablopomo will help!?

Social Media
I don't care what you say, social media is a legitimate source of news. Things spread like wildfire on there. Unfortunately, that can mean that a whole lot of ugly spreads very quickly. But it can also mean that exciting news--like Beyonce's pregnancy announcement, which broke all kinds of Twitter records--spreads quickly, too. Since moving to Pittsburgh, I've been very lucky to be in some great communities. I count Twitter as one of them, highlighted by the experience of PodCamp 6 and meeting all of these wonderful people who like the same stuff I do. And uh, social media is kinda my bread & butter. So there's that, too.

Pittsburgh
C'mon, you had to know this was coming. I've written love notes to Pittsburgh here, here, here and here. If you're a frequent reader (if you are, kudos to you for making it 15 months with me), you know that my heart beats for this city, and that I want to dedicate my professional life to it. I certainly don't want to count any chickens before they've hatched or put the horse before the cart or whatever, but I really don't see myself leaving this city. I want to be here forever. And some day, my husband will act like this:



I love it.

6. Distracted.

I'm going to attempt to post, using a prompt from October, but we'll see what happens. The Stillers are currently playing the Rat-birds so we'll see if I can form coherent sentences. My apologies up front if this doesn't flow.

Friday, October 14. Which was the best year of your life (so far)?


2011. Best year of my life so far, and it's not over yet. I'm in a place I love, surrounded by the people I love, doing work that I love. Learning about myself, my priorities, my strengths. Being in my 20s and (mostly) not being ashamed about it. Making new friends, new contacts, new discoveries.

2011, you've been great.

Truth.

The other day, my roommate Juliana and I were in our kitchen. I was telling her about my morning, which I'd spent outside in the rain/snow mix taking pictures for work (we had volunteers to helps us with rain garden installations--such great people!). I had connected with one of the volunteers before, and he's my friend Whitney's supervisor. We started talking, and I was really energized by our interaction. I was relaying our conversation back to Juliana (I promise, it was relevant) and her response was great:


"Wow. The city's so small for you, isn't it?"

Yes. It totally is. Reason #28,734 why I love Pittsburgh. What are some of your reasons for loving our fair city?

City Envy

Well, looks like I'm on a one-post-per-month streak. I'm going to change all of that by signing up for National Blog Posting Month (affectionately known as NaBloPoMo) in November...think of today as a warm-up. And what better warmup than to talk about my favorite subject: the City of Pittsburgh?

Last year, I had the incredible opportunity to become a participant/fellow in the Pittsburgh urban Leadership Service Experience (PULSE). My fellow PULSErs were all pretty new to the city. They'd been here once or twice, but they didn't grow up an hour away like I did. It was during the first few week sof PULSE in the Fall of 2010 that I realized: the longest I've been away from Western Pennsylvania is six weeks.

Just six weeks! That's not even two months. And while coming to PULSE last August was my first time actually living in Pittsburgh, I had an idea of what I was getting into. I didn't have to learn a whole new culture or wrap my head around this whole neighborhood idea. It just it what it is: a city.

But the more I spoke to the other PULSErs I thought that maybe I was missing out. Because I've only left the area once (the same time I left the country), I really have no idea what it's like to try to experience a new city. To learn about the culture, or the history, or to just feel that nervous excitement you get from being in a new place (believe me, I was still plenty nervous--moving into a house with 7 other women I didn't know? You bet I was nervy. It was just different).

To be honest (and that's what I'm shooting for here lately), I was a little envious. To be completely honest, I always feel a twinge of jealousy when I hear about classmates or friends who move to new cities. New York, San Fran, Philly, Boston...etc. Even new small towns. It's a whole new adventure! I just moved to Pittsburgh.

But then, I think about it and realize that this IS a whole new adventure. Sure, it's only 60 minutes from my parents house. An hour from where I went to undergrad. But still, it's new! I'm still learning new things every day. So maybe I know the yinzer culture, but I don't know everything about this city.

Plus, if I didn't live here, I'd be jealous of everyone that did:

Sometimes, I get bitter.

Dear readers,

For those of you keeping score (and I know you at home are), I've been to 7 weddings this year. SEVEN. I have one more coming up in October. And I was invited to one that I couldn't attend, bringing this year's grand total to nine invites and eight actual weddings

That, my friends, is a lot of weddings.

(Here's where I become a bit vulnerable and bitter so if you don't want to read about that, feel free to continue to the bottom of this post. I'll leave something warm and fuzzy for you down there.)

It's ROUGH going to that many weddings. Let me rephrase. It's ROUGH going to that many weddings when you're single. Let me rephrase one more time. It's ROUGH going to that many weddings when you're single and it feels like everyone else is not. It's like at weddings, all the married people come out of the woodwork or something. Married people have this sensor where they know someone else is joining their elite, special group and so they show up. To make it very obvious that they are married. And you are not.

(See? Bitter and vulnerable. Two things I don't like being. Whatever. This blog is for growth and stuff.)

But then I have to remember that these two people I love are taking the biggest step of their lives thus far. And they wanted to include me in their day. Whether the guest list had 150 or 450, I made the cut! What an honor to witness two people who love each other very much, making a public declaration of that love in front of others.

I got to see that this weekend with my dear friends Aaron and Andrea. I'm obviously somewhat of a wedding connoisseur and I have to say, this was one of my favorites. The dress, the boutonnieres, the flowers, the location--I could gush on and on. It was absolutely beautiful, outdoors next to a stream just outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia. A-squared (cute name, yes?) made their family an integral part of the service, and that just reflected them so much. And they had a barn dance reception! Not that I'm a well-known barn dancer (in fact, I never got up on the dance floor), but it was quite entertaining.

If you have invited me to your wedding, please know that I loved being there! Sometimes, I get bitter. But most (95%) times, I'm thankful, honored, blessed and a million other positive adjectives to be a part of your wedding day. They've each been beautiful, and I'ved boogie-ing the night away with each of you to celebrate your marriage. I've REALLY loved that part. The Cha Cha slide is my specialty.

That being said, I can't wait until November. Six months wedding free! Of course, I'll be ordering a bridesmaid dress and planning a bridal shower and all of those fun things. What good is wedding season if you can't be in a least one bridal party?

Oh--as promised, your warm and fuzzy:

Geography.

Still coming down from my post-vacation high/low. That point where you really miss vacation and the relaxation it brought, but you are also glad to be back to your space and routine, reminiscing about the wonderful time you had in [fill in the blank].

So, here are some random bits.

1. Google+
Do we like, or do we not like? Warning--lazy snobbery about to commence. I feel like I have built a relatively extensive network on Facebook and Twitter, both of which took a while to build. Even if it wasn't that hard, it still took awhile.

Right now, I have about 10 (maybe?) people that have been added into my "circles". I don't really know if I feel like putting in the time to find more people; maybe Google+ will be more passive for me (at least at first?). One thing that I do appreciate so far, however, is that I don't have to share everything with everyone. I can select circles with which I'll share different information.

So, add me on Google+? I go by my full first name.

2. Airports
Because a 9+ hour car ride isn't my idea of a good time, I flew to Raleigh, NC to visit my sister, brother-in-law and niece (now 1 year old!!!!!) for 9 days of relaxing, family time, babysitting, and birthday parties.

It was splendid. Relaxing but not, and isn't that always vacation? I'm glad I went. The return home is always hard--I hate, HATE leaving that baby and my sis and BIL--and this time was worse as we were delayed for an hour.

But when I landed in Pittsburgh and stepped off the plane, I smelled it. Home. The Pittsburgh International Airport has a distinct smell for me and while I can't put my finger on just what it is, I know that it smells like home. Pittsburgh, I love you.

But let's talk about this for a second. Pittsburgh, PA is about an 9 hour car ride (including stops) from the Raleigh suburbs where my family lives. NINE hours. That's a lot of driving, or conversely a lot of waiting at the airport for a quick flight on one of those dinky little "feel every bump" planes.

I propose that we cut out all the stuff between the two and make Pittsburgh and Raleigh about 30 minutes from each other.

Ready....go!

This week's favorite things.

Let's be honest--if I had my way, my favorite things would be the same every week. Pittsburgh, knitting, baking, and a mix of Adele/Sara Bareilles.
But that just can't happen. I have to love more than that. Right? I do. But just always know that I'm fighting back the urge to put "Pittsburgh" as my favorite things.

1. Preschool Gems.
I feel like all of my friends who work with kids have these hilarious stories of what happens to them at work. My office is a pretty lively place and we have a fun time, but the things that come from the mouths of children are just too cute.

That's why I love Preschool Gems. I follow it on Twitter, but you can "like" it on Facebook as well. When I'm having a bad day or just need a little pick-me-up, it makes me giggle. Some of my favorites:
-"I glow in the dark and I am now a bobcat."
-"I'm going to the jungle of bees and dogs with my whole family!"
-"I can't stop thinking about mermaids."

I can't stop thinking about mermaids either, friend.

2. My front porch.

I've tried to spend time on my porch almost every day. It's huge, we have a porch swing, and I like to read. Perfect combination. I'm blogging from the porch right now! Photo courtesy of PhotoBooth.

3. Rhubarb.
Who wouldn't love rhubarb after eating this delicious cake? Via On Food and Baking, a delicious blog by my friend Emily.

(Confession: this photo is from On Food and Baking. My cake didn't look nearly as delicious, and also got eaten before I had a chance to snap a good photo!)

4. Big Hurry.
My friend Kelly (check her out on Yinzpiration!) is an excellent band called Big Hurry. If you don't know about them yet, you should.

Check them out Friday at WYEP's Summer Music Festival at Schenley Plaza. Also playing is last week's favorite, Fitz and the Tantrums. Good, free Friday.

A love story.

In case you a.) don't live in Pittsburgh or b.) have been living under a rock, there are some exciting new things happening in my fair city. Some exciting new films, I should say. "The Dark Knight Rises" hasn't started filming yet (at least, I haven't heard anything...) but "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" has.

"Perks" is based on the novel by the same name, written by Upper St. Clair native Stephen Chbosky. The novel is based outside of Pittsburgh, which explains the filming (PS--they were spotted up the street from my office last week). While I loved the book for many reasons in high school, this will forever be the highlight for me:

There’s something about that tunnel that leads to downtown. It’s glorious at night. Just glorious. You start on one side of the mountain, and it’s dark, and the radio is loud. As you enter the tunnel, the wind gets sucked away, and you squint from the lights overhead. When you adjust to the lights, you can see the other side in the distance just as the sound of the radio fades because the waves just can’t reach. Then, you’re in the middle of the tunnel, and everything becomes a calm dream. As you see the opening get closer, you just can’t get there fast enough. And finally, just when you think you’ll never get there, you see the opening right in front of you. And the radio comes back even louder than you remember it. And the wind is waiting. And you fly out of the tunnel onto the bridge. And there it is. The city. A million lights and buildings and everything seems as exciting as the first time you saw it. It really is a grand entrance.


I don't know that I've ever read a better description of the feeling you get when you drive through the Ft Pitt tunnels and catch sight of the city for the first time. One of my favorite blogs, That's Church, captured it pretty well here. But nothing catches it quite like "Perks" for me.


He's right. It's absolutely glorious. I can't go through that tunnel fast enough to get to the other side and see my city. I've done that drive more times than I can count on all of my fingers and toes. But it really always feels like I'm seeing it for the first time. Except it's almost better, because I have this image in my mind of what it's going to be like and inevitably, Pittsburgh outdoes itself. Like the city got all dressed up just for me--took time to shine every pane of glass and replace every light bulb because somehow, Pittsburgh knew I'd be driving through that tunnel. But that's how it looks for everyone. 


I vaguely remember a time in high school where I didn't want to live in Western PA, but it was a fleeting moment. I've loved a lot about this City for a long time. However, it only occurred to me very recently that I can make a career out of loving Pittsburgh. Want me to plant some trees? Sure, will do. Need someone to tweet all day about what's going on in the City? Pass me a laptop (or iPad or smartphone or even a desktop...) and I'll get to work. I'll drive the street sweepers. Yinz guys, this place has my heart. I'll tell everyone I can that I'm working to make the City of Pittsburgh a better place.


And if any jagoffs question it, I'll drive them through the Ft. Pitt tunnel. Then they'll understand.

If only I waited two more days...

I could have claimed a solid 5 months of no blogging. But then I realized that would make me a very, very bad blogger. So here goes a blog, LESS than five months after my last post!

A lot has happened in the past five months. They have flown. My sister & her family surprised my mom for Christmas. I can't for the life of me remember what I did in January, but I'm sure I had fun. February was a visit to my sister & a week of watching my niece. In March I turned 23, and my housemates and coworkers all made me feel very loved. Those three months--they went quickly.

April...April, I remember a lot better. My friends got married! Erika and Eric were married on April 9, and it was beautiful. It was such a wonderful chance to catch up with some of my closest friends. I spent the remainder of that weekend in Waynesburg, enjoying the parks and all of the green space on campus. What a beautiful, relaxing day that was.

That Monday, I was honored to be a panelist at the kickoff event for the Waynesburg University Department of Communication's PR Week. I, along with two other young alumni, gave brief presentations and honest, frank answers about being a young person in the field. It was so great to be able to give back to my alma matter in that way. The students, mostly freshmen, were quite engaged and asked excellent questions. Props to those students, and the WU PRSSA chapter, for being such great hosts.

April 15 was a big day for PULSE! We had our annual event, PULSEations, at Union Project. I was blessed enough to have friends, family AND coworkers attend the celebration, where we revealed some pretty big news...PULSE is adding a second house! We are expanding into neighboring Garfield, which will provide such an opportunity to continue our mission of cultivating young servant leaders to transform Pittsburgh. (PS...want to read about us? Check out former PULSEr/current PULSE board member/super cool person/friend Kate Stoltzfus' blog, Yinzpiration! You can even peek into our house!)

May has been exciting thus far. The Pirates, despite their best efforts, were one game over .500! What a glorious 24 hours that was. We're now one below that miracle number, but I bet we'll get there again. If not this year, maybe next. In the first three weeks.

A lot of people have been asking me about next year, and rightfully so. PULSE "graduation" is coming nearer every day. I have some exciting prospects, which I'm not quite ready to share with the world just yet. Know that I'm excited and confident that God is making some cool things happen for me here in the 'Burgh.

Quick story time: when I graduated from high school, my family came from far & wide to celebrate. After my party, a group of us gathered at my grandmother's house to continue celebrating. My cousin Ruth and her daughter Charlotte, both residents of Manhattan, were there. We showed Charlotte a postcard of New York City and asked her what it was. Her response? "My city!". That's how I feel about Pittsburgh, every time I see it.

What is Pittsburgh? It's my city. I've recently come to realize that my passion is this place and the people who live here. I want everyone to love this place as much as I do, and I want to commit my life to making that happen.

So here we are--one blog post down. Promise I won't make you wait 5 months for another.

The first weekend, and the last days of freedom.

If I had any doubts about being in Pittsburgh for the year, my experience on Friday confirmed my desire to be here. Actually to be honest, I was starting to doubt it.

Maybe doubt isn't the right word, but I was certainly getting jealous of my housemates having this cool experience in a city they've never been to (aside from interviews), to be away from most of the people they know and start on this voyage into adulthood...while I'm just an hour from my parents, going to some places I've been before, and in general being kind of...safe. I was honestly feeling a bit bummed on Friday. Even though I totally believe in what my placement is doing, and how I have the chance to change Pittsburgh, I was beginning to wonder if I had even made the right decision.

Of course I did. God has me here for a reason! And that was confirmed again Friday night. We went to the Strip District to eat Primanti's, then over to Station Square to walk around and hop on the Gateway Clipper. I hadn't done that in about 8 years and it was great to see the city on the water, at night. Then we went up the Duquesne Incline and looked at the city...how breathtaking it is up there! Though I'd just done that in November of 2009, I really appreciated Pittsburgh all over again up there. It was like God's little way (or I guess a big way) of reminding me that I LOVE Pittsburgh and that He wants me here, at least until July 29, 2011.

Saturday was our first foray into grocery shopping. All 8 of us went...I don't think we'll do that again. Not that it went poorly, but we really don't all need to be there at once. But after Giant Eagle we went to the Holy Trinity Greek food festival...delicious, to say the least. Gyros and baklava? Yes, please. After the festival, one of my closest friends from college came to pick me up! Whitney and I went to her grandparents' house for a family birthday party, then came back to hang out at my place. It was so wonderful to be in a new place, but hanging out with an old friend.

Sunday, we all went to Pittsburgh Mennonite Church as a house, because PULSE is a Mennonite-affiliated program. The church was beautiful and the service was fine, but...that's just it. For me, it was fine. It wasn't what I'm used to--not that church should make us complacent or keep us in a rut, but I just didn't feel "right" there. They were welcoming, wonderful people and I had a fine time, but I don't think it's the church for me.

In the evening, we all tried out Open Door at the Union Project. This service was more "my speed"--I don't know if I'll go there every week, but I'd like to try it again. It was more comfortable. Not in a complacent way, but in an "oh, THIS is how I connect with God" way. So we'll see what comes next, as far as church is concerned. I can't try every church in the area...but I can try a few more.

Monday was quite relaxing...I really just baked cookies and hung out because TOMORROW the real world begins. As we were driving to church on Sunday Chris pointed out a cafe that is usually quite busy on Saturdays & Sundays. I realized at that moment that Saturdays and Sundays are now my ONLY chance to do anything like that, because I'm now a grown-up. I don't think I can handle this!

Please pray for my first day, my first week, and for my housemates' experiences as well. We're all a bit nervous--but my housemates told me today at dinner that they'd be super nervous if they were me. Eeek!

Just as I was typing this post, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" came up on iTunes. What a great reminder...God is faithful and He will be through this whole year with PULSE. :)