Category Archives: Life’s Adventures

The Phantom

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Lot 666 then – a chandelier in pieces. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained…”

I have been listening to the soundtrack of The Phantom of the Opera for as long as I can remember. I made copies of my parents’ CDs, then when I got a computer, I put the discs on my iTunes. I used to listen to the music while I did my homework in high school and while I studied in college. It was soothing (except for the sudden blast of the full orchestra at the beginning of the Overture and the sudden organ at the end of The Music of the Night), and it was perfect background noise. I didn’t realize, however, that while I was studying biology or theories of mass media, I was also memorizing the entire musical.  Continue reading →

Snowy Weekend in Cleveland

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The night before a big February snowstorm blanketed Ohio and Pennsylvania and other parts of the Northeast with about six inches of snow, Jim and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio to visit his cousin, Matt, and his fiancé and get a little taste of the city.

Despite having family in Ohio and taking the turnpike west multiple times a year throughout my entire life, Cleveland was one city I hadn’t been to. I was surprised that it’s only a 2-hour drive away, so we were able to spend all of Saturday and a good part of Sunday visiting the touristy areas, museums and restaurants.

Cleveland Arcade

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365 Days

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365 Days

Everyone thinks of the New Year as a fresh start and an opportunity to become a better version of themselves. The flaw in their thinking is that they are looking at the year as a whole, as one single year, one chance to make things right. They are making resolutions for the year and at the end of it, their grade is pass/fail. They either kept their New Year’s resolutions or they didn’t. They succeeded or they succumbed to the inevitable disturbances that life throws at them and let those obstacles get in their way.

The fatal error is in thinking that you’ve got one shot.

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Light Up Night in Pittsburgh

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Light Up Night

It was 18 degrees and we were standing outside on a rooftop deck in the middle of downtown. If we were crazy then so were the other 50,000 people out that night who came down to see all the lights, trees, decorations, concerts and fireworks that together created the holiday spectacle that is Light Up Night in Pittsburgh. Continue reading →

Pierogies, Pens, and Pamela’s

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Last weekend, Jim and I were faced with an impossible task. We had to show Jim’s cousin Greg, and Greg’s girlfriend Sarah a great time in Pittsburgh in the short span of their less-than-24-hour visit.

If you’ve ever lived in or been to this city, you know that there is no possible way to do everything worth doing in just one weekend. Between all the fantastic restaurants, neighborhoods, museums, and sports teams, it takes days, weeks, even years to experience it all. With our limited time constraint, we did our best to show off our personal favorite spots and try some new things as well.

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Tour of Fallingwater

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Meg and Jim at Fallingwater

Last weekend, Jim and I visited the famous Fallingwater house, designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kauffman family in 1939. I promised myself I would write a better description of the house since we weren’t allowed to take pictures during the tour, and I want to be able to hold an image in my mind of this lovely, magical home.

When we arrived at Fallingwater, there was an open, outdoor visitor center, where we checked in with our ticket and had time to walk around and find out more information about the house. Since we were early for our tour time, we explored the gift shop and looked at the trinkets, decorations, books, and memorabilia that were most definitely overpriced. Then we went over to the Fallingwater gallery to read about the renovations that have been done on the house to repair the crumbling structure. There were descriptions, photos and examples of the different materials that were used in the original construction as well as what is used to renovate it and make it more structurally sound. I was amazed at how much time and work has gone into the house since it was entrusted to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. It seems like there is an exorbitant amount of work needed to be done, even now, to make sure that the house is able to remain standing and stay open to the public. I couldn’t help wondering if it might not be better to just leave it be. I’m sure that engineers today are able to construct a similar house, positioned over a waterfall, with beautiful views, and it would be structurally sound and last thousands of years. But during the course of the tour, I was shown the true beauty and significance of the house, and why it is so important to keep it intact.

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Life in Photos

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Last Christmas, I got my first DSLR camera.

I have refrained from writing about it or pointing out the pictures I’ve taken with it, because I have been terrified that they are rather subpar, unworthy of being mentioned and subject to possible ridicule.

I have, however, come to the conclusion that the only way I will get better at using the camera and taking photos is to draw attention to it and highlight my attempts, to learn from them and view each photo and each blog post that contains a photo as progress.

I have always loved taking pictures. I went to every school dance and vacation and sleepover, camera in hand. I was taking “selfies” with all of my friends before they were actually a thing. I uploaded every photo to Facebook, back when Facebook only allowed 60 photos in each album, so my vacations would be labeled Beach 1 through Beach 4. I’ve always wanted to capture every moment, afraid that I’ll forget some pivotal thing, some momentous occasion in my life and I won’t be able to go back. (That’s also why I write.)

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A Taste of Cincinnati

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A Taste of Cincinnati

A few weekends ago, Jim and I took a quick trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. We were itching for a little adventure in our lives, and Cincinnati is about as far away as we could get financially, for such a short amount of time. A taste of Cincinnati it truly was, in every sense of the word. In just two days, we weren’t able to see or do nearly everything that we wanted to, but what we did was enough to bring home stories and memories.

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Just Jump

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There was a brief moment when I could have turned back. It was only a moment and then it was gone. Once I was on the other side of the railing, the only thing left to do was jump.

I don’t consider myself a risk-taker or a daredevil or even a thrill-seeker. But there are some things in this world that I believe just have to be experienced. When life is so short and the world is so big and time is so precious, there are some experiences that are worth everything. And so I went bungee jumping.

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Twenty Something

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twenty something

I turned 24 last week. Somehow I do not feel older at all. I expected to feel 24 and I don’t.

There are significant birthdays, that bring with them significant milestones in your life. And then there are the years in between. When you’re 13, you are a teenager, when you’re 16, you can drive, when you’re 18 you can vote, when you’re 21 you can drink.

With my birthday at the end of May, some of the in-between years still held certain milestones. The end of each year of my life was the end of a school year – a major transition period. When I turned 14 in May of 2004, I had finished middle school, got my braces off and got contacts – talk about transformation! When I turned 22, I graduated college. The very day of my 22nd birthday, I packed up my house in Delaware and moved back in with my parents.

These big events are what make you feel older. They are what give you the feeling that it’s the end of one thing and the beginning of something new. They make you step up, take responsibility, or do something different.

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