Whatever Little Raven (a.k.a. Sarah) says today - she would always like to... E-mail me Im me Blogs of interest: Dan's Blog an ordinary boy Dave Barry's Blog Stop Design The Best Sites Out There (a.k.a. Sarah's Favorite Insomnia Sites) X-Entertainment - This site is awesome - 80's pop-culture heaven! The Brunching Shuttlecocks - Great place to waste some time! Jason Mraz - My newest obsession.... You Can't Do That On Television - Site for the Nickelodeon classic - full episodes and everything Yu-Gi-Oh - It's incredibly lame how much I like this cartoon! Archives current

Fly Away.....   2.28.2003 ............... Mister Rogers Of course, as everybody knows by now, Mister Rogers died yesterday. I was driving to work, and heard about it on the radio. The station was having people call in, and talk about times when they met Mister Rogers, and how he effected their lives. It was the first time I think I've cried on the way to work in the morning! I'm usually in such a haze, that all I can think about is driving. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Mister Rogers a few years ago. I lived very close to the WQED office, where he worked, and taped his shows. One afternoon, I was out playing volleyball with a bunch of people out on the lawn of Ascension Church, before a Common Ground meeting. We saw him walking by, and he actually came over to talk and visit with us for a little while. I heard that he would do this every now and again, randomly stop and talk to people on his walks around the neighboorhoods close to his office. I absolutely loved his show as a young child (especially Queen Sara of course!!!), and as I got older, would still pause and watch whenever I was flipping through channels and saw that Mister Rogers Neighborhood was on. In Pittsburgh, Mister Rogers was a local celebrity, and as I drove to work this morning, already, signs on restaurants and churches have been changed to say things like "It's a sad day in the neighborhood" and "We will always remember you Mister Rogers". At age 74, he was always devoted to children, and helping them through both the wonderful, and the difficult times in life. I know I'll never forget him. A Mister Rogers Quote: "There is only one thing evil cannot stand, and that is forgiveness." Mister Rogers Neighborhood Website LinktoComments('89912407') 1:01:00 PM 2.26.2003 ............... Feeling a little separated Well, here I am, back at work - taking over for the receptionist again while he is at lunch. This is pretty much the only time during the day that I have to relax. I don't take a lunch, and sometimes I walk over to the lunchroom to grab something to drink - but other than that, I'm just workin'. It sure does make the day go faster though! So, as my title says, I'm feeling a little separated from the outside world. I haven't been out, done anything, or really even talked to any of my friends since Sunday night when Charles came over to do his laundry. I've just been working, then coming home, and working on the program. Last night I think I stayed up a little too late working on it though - because I am feeling it now. I think my first indication that it was effecting me, was this morning when I was parking my car, and for the first time in a long time, I hit the curb while parallel parking. I had to parallel park at least once a day if not more for over two years - so I'm pretty good at it... and i hit the curb today??? Well, that sent warning bells off in my head - and to combat the screwed-up-ness in my head this morning - I drank two cups of earl gray tea, a vanilla coke, and ate a piece of chocolate that was offered to me. So now, not only is my head screwed up, it's also running really really fast. Oh joy. Anyway, back to my point. Since I haven't even talked to many of my friends that I talk to almost every day, and I don't have a roommate right now, I feel a bit out of it. It's actually quite interesting. Not that I want to be like this all of the time, but it becomes kind of nice. No one to answer to, no one to care if I leave my clothes all over the apartment, I can do the dishes at like 3 am - and no one complains that I'm making noise! It won't last forever though. People that know me well, know that it is "musical season" and as soon as I'm done with the program, I'll go back to bugging them all the time. Maybe I should look at it that way - it's like I'm giving them time off. Yeah. Still, I better call Dan tonight. Maybe we can do one of our Eat & Park runs. Well, we will have to see... I better get going. So far, no one has been curious enough to look at what I have been typing, so it just looks like I'm doing data entry or something. That can't last forever though..... LinktoComments('89786079') 1:25:00 PM 2.24.2003 ............... Bored So today at work, they decided that I would take over for the receptionist at the front desk during his lunch break. So this is all well and good, but it is incredibly boring. They even stripped his computer of any way to get to the internet - so I had to invent one (don't worry - I just linked through the network to my computer in the back). Fun fun.... Today has been interesting already... snow always makes people crazy in pittsburgh... no one gets anywhere on time when it snowing. I still think that when the temperature gets to low in the Pittsburgh area - native "burghians" have some sort of common sense chip in their head that just freezes. Like for instance the people who don't even bother to clean the snow off of their cars before heading out for the day - and then they wonder why all the snow just blasts their windshield when they get going over 10 miles per hour..... bright people they are. LinktoComments('89656685') 1:32:00 PM 2.23.2003 ............... Bowling Well, as is evident with my title, I went bowling this evening. Accompanied by Charles, Al, Eric, Gemma and Mike. It was interesting. I really can't bowl. I managed to get absolutely NO strikes or spares until my very last frame of our very last game..... then of course I got a spare AND a strike.... kinda odd... but that is the story of my life I guess! It turned out to be a lot of fun though. I have to say that out of anything that we could have done tonight, that was probably the last thing that I would have chosen. Bowling, country music and beer.... not usually on the top of my "fun things to so on a saturday night" list, but good friends and good conversation can make anything enjoyable.... even bowling! My high score of the evening: 78! Woohoo! LinktoComments('89590645') 3:36:00 AM 2.22.2003 ............... Comments I'm not quite sure why... but i added a comments feature to my blog - so if you feel so inclined, let me know whatcha think about any of my posts.... Just click THERE | | | LinktoComments('89563039') 2:58:00 PM ............... If you didn't already know it.... Sarah is a blonde..... I just almost completely messed up my blog.... but, well, It's all better now.... except for the fact that the blog right before this one now says that I posted it today, when in fact, it was originally posted yesterday... but oh well... it can't be perfect.... at least I didn't completely kill it... LinktoComments('89562449') 2:43:00 PM ............... An interesting question..... The night before last night I went out with some friends to a dance club called the Matrix. It's basically four clubs in one - different types of music for each one. For some reason, we always end up in Club Goddess - with the pop/eighties music. Okay ..... anyway.... So, while on a dance floor with 200-300 other people, of course it is expected that you will touch other people once in awhile, but it seems that certain "men" (I still tend to classify them as boys - but I'll be nice here) take the closeness on the dance floor as some sort of signal that girls just want to be grabbed. Granted, I'm sure there are girls out there that go to these places for that sole reason, but I am not one of them. THE QUESTION: What is it in the brains of this certain type of "men" that makes them think that if a girl is in a club, and ACCIDENTLY makes eye contact with them (actually... sometimes that isn't even true) it is an express invitation for them to rub up against her, and grab whatever part of her body that they want??? Just curious. I think some of my "favorite" (HINT-- sarcasm) moments of the evening were.... 1. When a guy in a white turtleneck and a plaid shirt (you can dress yourself now... mommy doesn't need to help anymore) kept trying to move closer and closer, and eventually made me grab my friend and drag/dance her as far away as I could get. 2. When another guy kept pushing up against me from behind so I pretended to lose my balance and leaned away from him really quickly and he almost fell over - OOPS! :) AND 3. When yet another guy came up behind me - without me even seeing him - grabbed my side, and proceeded to try and pull me down on his lap. This was especially funny, because of course, I turned around, asked him who the h*** invited him to do that and waved in his face while saying - "buhbye now!" My friends got a kick out of that. Anyway...I don't go dancing to pick up guys... who really expects to meet someone worthwhile on the dance floor of a club - after dollar drink night? Hmm... well, not me. Drunk men (especially ones wearing TURTLENECKS AT A CLUB) aren't exactly what I am looking for right now. Just a note to men in general.... it's not a bad thing to try to dance with a girl - but at least know her name before you try to grab her a**. Okay? Thank you, and this blog has been brought to you by the letters N-O and the number 1-800-GET A CLUE. LinktoComments('89561913') 2:30:00 PM 2.20.2003 ............... Weird..... So, yesterday I was picking up some clothes in my bedroom - and I knocked over a box of pictures on my dresser. Sounds innocent enough right? Well, onto my floor spilled a whole bunch of pictures with my roommate from sophmore year in them (Paula) - who I also lived with until senior year (apartment with 2 other girls, and the evil Christan Campus Hous with 7 other girls). Seeing the pictures - I decided that I should send some of them to her - considering I don't really need about 80 pictures of somone that I haven't even talked to in 2 years. Last I heard, she was living in Illinois, going to grad school. I figured it would be safe to call her parents house - they live in a town about 45 minutes outside of Philly. So, I called, her father answered, and I explained who I was, and asked if I should send the pictures to him, so that he could forward them to her, or if he had an address I could mail them to. He asked me to hold on for a second - and all of the sudden it was Paula on the phone. Apparently, she just moved back home a few weeks ago - looking for a job in the area. Wow was that weird - We talked for a little over an hour, catching up and all. I really can't explain how incredibly weird it felt. It was a good thing though - I don't know if we will ever talk again - I wouldn't mind it, but I left that up to her. We both went though some tough times, and circumstances led us to stop talking to each other. She was one of the first really good friends I had in Pittsburgh, and even if we never talk again, I'm glad that I got to talk to her again, and put some closure on the whole thing. Anyway, this was probably the most boring post I've put up here - at least to people that didn't know Paula - but it's my blog - SO THERE! LinktoComments('89461760') 6:29:00 PM 2.18.2003 ............... "The Biggest Storm Since 1993" Okay, so it snowed quite a bit here - at least for Pittsburgh standards. Sunday was pretty evil - not because of the snow really - but because of the CONSTANT reference to it on the TV/internet/radio. It's JUST SNOW! Granted, it is tuesday, and my car is still in my driveway - but this has little to do with the amount of snow, and a lot to do with the incompetance of the city and it's drivers. You see, we are a northern state - you'd think that they would have more than 3 plows in the city... AND while they aren't talking about the snow, they are talking about the lack of salt that we have to put down on the roads - where on the river the salt is located at every hour - and how fast we are gong to get it into the city. Great news coverage - really. It has the feeling of Christmas Eve - when the news "follows" the progress of Santa Clause over the world... most of the population knows that it's fiction - but we watch it anyway. So, anyway, last night after Dan and I watched Joe Millionare, Dan went into the back room to get his shoes so he could walk home. While back there, he heard someone's tires squealing. So, we got all bundled up, and went outside to help a girl push her car into her garage. Explain to me why snow is such a big deal here. As most of you know, I'm from the Rochester NY area, where are motto should be - "If the snow isn't taller than you are - you better get your a** to work". While I can't say that I shoveled the snow everyday or anything crazy like that - I at least know how! Rather than trying to dig a way out - people around here just figure - I'll gun it - and the car will get out - and if not, I'll just call in sick. I think they should just call in stupid - I mean - it's not like we live in Florida. SNOW HAPPENS. Get a shovel - and get yourself out. Okay..... rant over.... LinktoComments('89333246') 6:00:00 PM 2.17.2003 ............... Worlds Combine.... Google buys Pyra (Blogger). Hopefully this is a good thing! LinktoComments('89252169') 1:34:00 PM 2.16.2003 ............... Dueling Pianos Imagine a giant partially drunken sing-a-long, with two guys at pianos, taking requests for whatever song you want to force a large group of people to sing-a-long to. This is Sing Sing, Pittsburgh's only dueling piano bar (that I know of). I was privileged enough to experience this phenomenon with some friends last night. Al and Jamie came to pick me up, and we picked up our friend Angela on the way. As we entered the place, and received "Past Due" stamps on our hands for being of age, we could hear the lovely sounds of two baby grand pianos, and two guys singing Adam Sandler's "Lunch Lady Land". Woah. As we walked farther in, I was surprised to see, the two pianos, that looked like they have had much better days, in the center of the room, one being played by what looked like a crazed Steelers fan - complete with jersey and terrible towel on his piano next to him, and the other being played by a younger guy with jeans and a t-shirt that said "Got Milk - Need Pie". Can't say I expected that! As we finally found seats, the younger guy stood up, put on a baseball hat backwards, and proceeded to "sing" the latest hit by Eminem. He jumped up on top of the two pianos, yelling at the top of his lungs, and I couldn't help but think back to when I was taking piano lessons, and hear the scolding voice of my teacher "Respect the instrument!!!". I'm guessing these guys weren't particularly concerned with that piece of advice. Yet, they must have learned something at those lessons, because no matter what song was requested - they could pick right up on it - playing right with one another - hardly ever missing a beat. After hearing a medley of songs, ranging from our national anthem (which was requested by someone who wrote "play something patriotic - F**k IRAQ") to John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane" to some 80's "hair-metal" band song, I realized something quite interesting. These guys were taking anywhere from $5 to $45 to play a single song. You see, the requests were made by putting a yellow request slip on top of one of the pianos, and while money was optional - it was never frowned upon. At one point - they had a competition as to which school's fight song they would play - money was flying from that one. Slippery Rock - Penn State - University of Pittsburgh - it was incredible the amount of money that ended up coming from that one request. Angela and I estimated that it was at least $150 if not a lot more. Another interesting way that they made money was to play a song that was requested - and say something like "$6 and we'll stop playing this crappy song". This was the first time I really regretted quitting piano lessons - one night - probably around $1500 in tips - split between the four guys that were rotating turns at the pianos. I'm so sorry Mom - you told me to stick with it! Well, I guess I'll wrap it up by saying that I WILL be going back to this "giant drunken sing-a-long" again in the near future. Where else can you feel like you are singing along to the radio - and be laughing at 200 other people that are doing the same thing?!?! LinktoComments('89199755') 3:30:00 PM ............... Try this out.... Do you really know me? - This quiz will tell ya LinktoComments('89180288') 3:53:00 AM 2.05.2003 ............... An Exciting Evening So, Dan asked me earlier to go out for coffee tonight - around 10 pm. We do this quite often, so of course, I was up for it. We drove to Eat and Park at the Waterfront - and had or normal wonderful conversation. The drive there was nothing - normal snow on the ground. During the time that we were sitting at the restaurant - we saw it start to snow quite heavily. Didn't think much of it, come on - I'm from Rochester NY - I should be able to drive in snow! Well, although this is still true - it doesn't mean that other people can drive in the snow - and we also didn't expect the road that we need to take back to Shadyside to be covered with ICE! So, first, we have to go up a ramp to get out of the Waterfront complex. We come to the stop sign right before it, and low and behold - there is a van - stuck on the ramp - which leads to a bridge - in the middle of both lanes. Not wanting to risk it, we found a different way to get onto the bridge, and went across it - to find what you ask? Brownsville Road (which we just found out the name of today) was a COMPLETE SHEET OF ICE. We are inching up along the road - and we come to a Wendy's. I decided, rather than trying to kill myself and my friend Dan, we will go into the parking lot - and see if we can wait for a salt truck to come down the street or something. Well, we ended up sitting in the parking lot for over an hour - no salt truck or plow in sight. Some of the Wendy's employees came out and even offered us coffee....quote from Dan "What a bonding experience" . :) Finally, we decide to brave the road. I have to work at 8:30 am - and he has a paper to finish - and more importantly - I NEED TO PEE! I had figured that we would have been home before midnight, and at this point, it is 12:40 or so. We pull around to the other side of Wendy's, talk to a guy through the drive through window (the drive through is open - but of course they won't let me in the building to go to the bathroom!) and he tells us that the parkway is completely closed, but other than that - it's just all ice on the road. So, we let my bladder do the talking - we were leaving. Well, we made it back - I dropped him off at his apartment and came home - trip time? about 30 minutes (from the Wendy's it's usually about a 10-15 min drive) and was able to use the bathroom. Of course, by this point, I have had 3 cups of coffee - and am probably going to be awake until I have to go to work in the morning. How wonderful...... But, I have to say - at least it made a good enough story for a blog. Just one note though - you would think - Pittsburgh being a northern state - they would invest in more than ONE snow plow for the city - I swear - it's just one guy or something that plows.... and when he needs to sleep - we are all just left to fend for ourselves in random Wendy's parking lots. LinktoComments('88577010') 1:33:00 AM 2.03.2003 ............... An Ode to Insomnia Oh, how I love you insomnia - What would I be missing if I didn't have you in my life??? 1. Without you, I would not know the joys of infomercials. 2. Without you, I might still own a book that I haven't read 10 times. 3. Without you, my movies would still be un-alphabatized. 4. Without you, I would still be unaware of the fact that if I were a cyborg, my name would stand for Synthetic Artificial Repair and Assassination Humanoid. 5. Without you, I would miss the joys of Full House re-runs that only run at 4am on Monday morning. 6. Without you, my clothing still wouldn't be organized by color, type, and style in my closet. 7. Without you, my Aladdin coloring book would still be left unfinished. 8. Without you, I wouldn't be able to recite The Lord of the Rings movie....practically verbatim. 9. Without you, I wouldn't know that the person that lives in the apartment above me gets up at 3 am every morning to go to work, and listens to Michael Bolton while getting ready. 10. Without you, I just wouldn't have time to contemplate the big questions in life. Like, If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it - does it make a sound? (originally I would have said no - because sound is only considered sound when the wave that is made can be received by an ear....but then I thought - what if someone put a tape recorder in the woods - and listen to the tape later - Now the sound wasn't heard until later, so did the tree technically not make a sound until it was heard by an ear? But then again - it was recorded, so that is a form of a receiver... but that is mechanically reproduced........okay...nevermind.....). 11. Without you, my blog would have gone without an update tonight. Now, while all of this is true - I think that I am ready to part ways with you, insomnia. We should just be friends, and maybe occasionally, we can spend time together, because I know that you will miss me, as I will miss you. And I just want you to know - that it's not you - it's me. I just have some fear of commitment issues, and I need to figure out who I am in this world, before getting seriously involved. It has been fun, but I am going to have to ask you to move on, as I will..... LinktoComments('88465560') 5:21:00 AM 2.02.2003 ............... Zvonko "Bill" Omanovic My best friend's father passed away today. He died of complications associated with lung cancer. An amazing man, who always made me feel completely welcome in his family. He was always telling me, "You must move to Florida to be closer to us". I'll always remember him trying to understand my directions as we were driving into downtown Pittsburgh to get to Aleksandra's graduation - and watching him and Alex dance the night away to salsa music. I've never felt more excepted into a family outside of my own than I was into their family. Quite a few times he called me one of his daughters, and considering the company I was keeping in that group - I will always feel completely honored to hold that title. LinktoComments('88450906') 10:15:00 PM 2.01.2003 ............... Still Waiting Still here waiting for my ex-roommate Mike to call and return the keys - it's getting quite annoying - but to tell you the truth, I think that is his goal - to annoy the heck out of me. But anyway..... So, I went over to Charles and Al's again for movie night - We watched "Catch Me if You Can". It was a pretty good movie - interesting because they focused so much on the father-son relationship that was formed between Leonardo DiCaprio's character and Tom Hanks character. Being based on a true story, I expected it to be more of an mild action/comedy flick, yet it actually had quite a bit of substance. What a nice suprise that was. So, after the movie, Dan, Al, Jamie, Charles and I went over to Eat and Park - being one of the very few establishments open during our time of socialization. I just got home (4:45am), and have not slept for about 3 days.... hmm... insomnia is quite enjoyable. Alright, maybe not. Well, I have found a new addiction. A singer named Jason Mraz. I saw him on Carson a week or so ago, and being the way I am, decided to find as much of his music as I could. I like his music so much, that if I have get any expendable income in the future.... I just might actually BUY A CD.... now, that says a lot. Okay - well, that's enough babbling for the time being. Til next time - remember, "Inside every older person, is a younger person wondering.....WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED???" yep - I'm so deep....or something..... LinktoComments('88372139') 5:10:00 AM   Maybe someday I'll be just like you and Step on people like you do and run Away all the people I thought I knew I remember back then who you were You used to be calm used to be strong Used to be generous but you Should've known that you'd Wear out your welcome now you see How quiet it is all alone I'm so sick of the tension Sick of the hunger Sick of you acting like I owe you this Find another place to feed your greed While I find a place to rest