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I only worked an eight-hour shift overnight Monday as opposed to the usual twelve, so I had more energy than usual after walking home yesterday. It was a good morning, then, to pack my backpack for a longer walk. After buying a carrot muffin and some watermelon, I got my bag together, filled my water bottle with iced tea and lemon slices, reapplied my sunscreen and lip balm (this kind, thank you, and I could EAT it, it smells and tastes so good), and set back out into the sun. At the two-mile mark, I found myself admiring this fountain as I always do. It is my favorite sculpture in one of my favorite spots in the city. The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning stands in the background, another of the city's great beauties. In the nine years I've lived here, I've spent many hours on the benches that surround this fountain, sometimes with an ice cream cone and sometimes with a book, but always grateful for the oasis this spot provides. May 2011. And that a human being created this! ♥
It was a hot and humid walk, even so early in the morning, but there was a nice enough breeze. Nature provided hearts along the way, as it tends to do.
When I last showed you Neptune, his pool was not yet filled with lily pads. He has a more colorful world to guard now in the summer.
And into the woods. . . .
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Bliss.
The pond wasn't looking its best, and I couldn't take a step on its shores without crossing paths with dragonflies skimming the water. I passed a man who was out walking and a few young women running through the woods, but it was a quiet park yesterday. 'Too buggy to lunch here, but peaceful. And breezy enough to give relief, but not so windy as to keep the flowers from standing still for pictures.
I returned to the park to find a shady spot for lunch.
The site of what used to be Forbes Field, one of the Pittsburgh Pirates' earliest stadiums, ended up being the ideal place to put down my backpack finally and take a break. Dappled shade and solitude! It's another of my favorite places in the city. It's a quiet and small spot, neatly tucked away into the campus that now surrounds it, but is one with so much history. In 1935, Babe Ruth hit three home runs here in a single game. Bill Mazeroski's home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates was hit here too. I never walk around what remains of the outfield wall without remembering that my grandfather and my dad got to see many of the greats play ball here.
One set of three-tier bleachers was in full sun yesterday afternoon, but the other made a perfect dining room. Shade! The frosting and flowers I spread onto my muffin-now-turned-cupcake were pretty but not quite what I was feeling like after so much walking--it would be eight miles by the time I arrived back at home later--but the iced tea was soon almost gone and I could have happily eaten my weight in watermelon.
After eating, I wandered around more before starting the walk home and noticed a table and chair set in the distance behind the outfield wall. I don't remember it having been there before, but it will surely be one of my next lunch spots. How dear is this!
A rabbit sat still long enough for me to get its picture as I walked home. Usually, they're too skittish and disappear as soon as I raise the camera.
Two miles back to the apartment--
--and soon I was crawling into bed--finally--to sleep away the rest of the afternoon.
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I was nursing a headache most of yesterday--yes, my turn, Lisa!--but am feeling better today for Day Off #2 and have gotten a lot done. And am just enjoying myself. Seven sweet things this week:
1.) 'Am still working on my 80s childhood memoir. Loving! It! ♥ That pile of paper scraps in the photo above is all the remaining notes that need to be turned into index cards--which will later be turned into "real" writing. The pile has shrunk so much since I started this in earnest earlier this year. My goal for the rest of today is to get as many scraps onto cards as possible so I can move on to the filling-the-notebooks-with-rough-drafts stage of things. Progress!
2.) The building manager and a plumber had to stop by earlier this week for routine winter-prep radiator maintenance, and as I welcomed them in, the plumber glanced around and unexpectedly greeted me with "Oh, I like it in here! It's very family-oriented!" and moments later commented, "It smells really good in here too!" as he left. I hardly knew what to say besides thank you, but both remarks made me laugh. A sweet encounter.
3.) A coworker left a thank you on my note that accompanied the cookies I'd brought into work last week and later thanked me in-person. A day-brightener for me.
5.) Chicago Cubs in the World Series playoffs! I'm not wildly enthusiastic about any one team--I tend to wish them all well--and it would have been a treat for Dad if his Pirates had advanced in the playoffs, but how fun to see the Cubs and their fans having such a great ride this fall.
6.) This pup, an English Yellow Lab--
--is now my younger brother's dog. So sweet! ♥ My brother, his wife, and somehow-almost-two-year-old Bianca have all wanted a dog for ages, and this one looks so dear.
7.) Chilly fall weather has returned, and with it, a pot on the stove here of simmering cinnamon water. Today's mix is simply cinnamon with vanilla, but as I finish my iced teas while I write this afternoon, I'll throw in the lemon slices too. Snow flurries and a frost warning are in the forecast for the next few days. Oh, fall! Love, love, love.
'Back to the index cards. 'A sweet weekend to you all.
Mike and I took a bus to Yankee Stadium this weekend, Mike's first time in New York and my first visit to the Bronx. The Yankees are Mike's and his dad's team, and since my mom is from New York, more than a few people in my family are Yankees fans, so it was especially sweet to see the stadium finally. I thought the six-hour bus trip would find me and Mike featured in a "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" magazine column, but we experienced both the travel and the heat-index-of-103°-temperature and lived to tell the tale.
Mom made up a gift basket and this cute Snoopy card for us and arranged to have it waiting in our hotel room. The card was one of the first things Mike unpacked when we got home this afternoon. :)
We got to visit with both my parents this weekend, as well, so it was a sweet weekend all-around, with Dad loading up our rental car with vegetables from his garden before we got back on the road.
Mike got to see Alex Rodriguez warming up for the game. This was the only player we saw signing autographs for the kids before the game too.
In my favorite photo from the game, Yankee Stadium's rooftop lights and flags are reflected in Mike's sunglasses. A happy accident. This trip was both our vacation-ish thing this summer and my birthday present for him, so to look at our pictures later and see Yankee Stadium in his eyes was great fun.
And as a final sweet post-game surprise, we discovered while looking up video online of one of the game's home runs that we can be seen in one of the crowd shots that aired on TV after the game, since a guy sitting in front of us caught the ball. 'Not bad for our first visit to the stadium. :)
And another two days off before I have to go back to work. 'A most refreshing and much-needed break. Next on this summer's to-do list is painting the bathroom and bedroom. Yes, the building manager gave me permission to paint! Onward and upward. :)
Yesterday was gorgeous here with temperatures only in the 60s, and when an errand took five minutes when I'd been prepared to be tied up with it possibly an entire hour, I decided to walk around downtown awhile afterward. It couldn't have been a prettier morning. The sun made the city sparkle instead of swelter, more leaves had turned color, there was enough of a breeze to make the Goldenrod along the river dance but not enough to make walking difficult, and everyone around me seemed to be in the same high spirits. And I found charming graffiti! And an equally charming heart-shaped pizza slice. These are days, indeed. ♥
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