let's go Pens

I'm in Pittsburgh (my hometown) for Quilt Market (a trade show for the quilting world). I'm staying directly across the street from the arena where I used to go see rock concerts when I was a kid/young adult. There seems to be an important ice hockey competition of some sort, as there is a huge crowd of people in Penguin jerseys shouting loudly at a big screen tv. Hmmmm. Don't know what that's all about.

I spent the afternoon walking the streets of Pittsburgh (instead of prepping for my trade show presentation). I greatly underestimated my sentimentality regarding the 'burgh. I went by the office building where my father worked when I was a kid and remembered how amazed I was that he could talk on the phone, look out the window and type like the wind all at the same time - and with his feet up on the desk. Then I went to Nicholas Coffee, where my mother bought fancy coffee beans in the days before Starbucks. She loved the smell of it and would spend a looooong time in there - too long for me 'cause I hated the smell. That's actually the place that gave me my aversion to coffee - I've never even tasted it, because I can't stand the smell. But my mother would bribe me by letting me get dried fruit (and occasionally chocolate). So I braved the smell and bought some dried pineapples for old time's sake. Then I walked to the Pittsburgh Public Theater, where I worked in 1986 + 1987 (although it's in a different location now) and to the theater where I took filmmaking classes. Anyway, I got all weepy and girly.

It seems something fabulous has just happened in the ice hockey competition/event, as the crowds outside the arena are going quite wild. And there's a lot of horn beeping activity.

more from the Pittsburgh front tomorrow..

Go Pens.