heart, soul, & tea.: so this is growing up.

PITTSBURGH.

i have always loved my city. even during my teens when most kids hate their hometown and are dying to escape, i found myself content with PGH. perhaps it was in my blood. my great great great grandparents on both sides of my family immigrated to pittsburgh from poland and scotland, over a hundred years ago.

then my great grandparents (on both sides) would eventually settle in lawrenceville, one of pittsburgh's largest neighborhoods. my parents would both grow up in lawrenceville and meet there, fall in love-marry-& have children there, and continue to live there now in the same house my dad grew up in. i loved living in this old, decrepit, lower-middle class neighborhood with its row homes, graffiti, and pure-blooded Yinzer's. i laugh at how it has became a renewedhub of artists and hipsters, when it was once so white trash (and thank goodness it has not lost its roots).

(44th street in l-ville)

although i have not lived in pittsburgh for the past 2 1/2 years, it always remains home in my heart. i know the city like the back of my hand, and have family on all sides of the rivers. i love our culture and our pride. i love our slang and the way pittsburgh has ability to laugh at itself because of it. so what if we talk funny? if we spoke proper english we'd sound like robots anyway. i love the Penguins and the Steelers, and well i love the Pirates...stadium. i love french fries on salads and sandwiches. i love the large senior community, especially my parents neighbors. i love bridges in various designs and colors. i love the old charm mixed with new and up-incoming. i love that all our sports teams are black & gold, definitive and unified.

i just spent a little over a week visiting friends and family in this city i grew up in. i enjoyed every minute of it and i usually do. i feel so blessed to have lived in one place most of my life and to have really known that place. i feel so blessed to have most of my family and quite a considerable amount of friends concentrated in one city. i was born here, grew up here, was educated here, fell in love here, and was truly loved here.

i learned a lot living in indiana for two years, and i absolutely love living in denver now, but well pittsburgh will always be near and dear to my heart.

so pittsburgh this post is for you. thanks for the memories.