Back in the Burgh

Wednesday night, Brady, my mom, and I drove up from South Carolina up to Pittsburgh, the land of hockey and football. Although we moved almost exactly a year ago (seems like forever), this is the longest I've ever been away from Pittsburgh. It's been three months. I think the longest I was ever away before was a month.



Pittsburgh has always been a big part of our lives. Andy grew up in the county about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, known as Washington. I grew up 15 miles west of the city in Moon Twp., right by the international airport. Although both of us are the grandchildren of immigrants on at least one side, the roots we have in Pittsburgh run deep. Andy's paternal side of the family owns their own tailoring and uniform business and his maternal side runs an oil company. My maternal great-grandfather built churches in Pittsburgh. The only one I have been to is Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Bloomfield. Andy's whole extended family lives in Washington, and my mom's family all lives in the North Hills. Our generation is the first to leave the area (other than my dad coming here from NYC).




Although, I grew up in the suburbs, in my heart has always belonged to Oakland. This is the part of the city that houses the University of Pittsburgh aka Pitt. I was born at Magee Women's hospital which is right before campus and was the third generation in my family to be born there. I was also the fourth generation to attend Pitt. I spent three years there in the dorms and then moved into my own apartment senior year when I met Andy. When we both started graduate school at Pitt, we moved into a new, nicer apartment together and that's where we became a family. We were married on campus at Heinz Chapel, just around the corner from where we lived, and Brady became the fourth generation to be born at Magee.



There are so many things that I miss about Oakland. I could walk to everything! I could throw Brady in the stroller and walk two blocks to Starbucks. Our favorite place to eat was Fuel and Fuddle and I am always making trips there when I'm in town to eat there. The thing I miss the most is coming home after a Pitt football victory and seeing the victory lights at the top of the Cathedral of Learning. They are gold lights they shine and I had a clear shot of them from outside our apartment. This is the first year we haven't had our season tickets and I'm only going to make it to one game. Hopefully, when we get back from Germany, we will be close enough to get our tickets back and make it to a majority of games.



Pittsburgh has become a popular location for movies. Some of the most recent movies filmed here include Unstoppable, I am Number Four, The Next Three Days, and Love and Other Drugs. Currently, they are filming The Dark Knight Rises, the next in the Batman series. We are certain they will use the Cathedral as a part of Gotham City because it's very gothic on the outside and has been likened to Hogwarts on the inside. We took wedding pictures inside.