On The Road

Since I got home Sunday night I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next. I’ve been keeping myself occupied by being useful around the house, raking leaves and what not. I also took my little brothers senior pictures.

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I decided that there really wasn’t any real reason to leave NYC so I stayed. I explored Rego Park, the neighborhood in Queens where the apartment is, and walked to the mall and went to H&M. Later I went down to Manhattan and got off the subway at the southeast corner of Central Park. I walked around for a bit just checking out what was going on and then I went to the Apple store. I really wanted to check this place out but it really is just like any other Apple store except that this one has really cool architecture. I sat out front of there for a while just people watching but unfortunately nothing too crazy happened. Since the wind was absolutely insane this weekend it got chilly so I decided to start wandering again. A while later I somehow found myself at Rockefeller Center. I watched the Zamboni machine clear the ice then watched some people skate (and some people bite it really hard) and talked to one of my sisters on the phone for a bit. Eventually Betsy called me and I ended up meeting her at her brother’s apartment but not until after I walked about four blocks in the wrong direction. The apartment was on the twenty fifth floor and had a really sweet view. I also got fed there so that was pretty awesome too. I actually ate earlier just so I wouldn’t get hungry and try and mooch of whoever I was hanging out with later… but they kept offering food and who would turn down lasagna? It was 11:30 when Betsy and I left there and she was really tired so I headed back to the apartment to watch the Rush DVD her brother let me borrow. I ended up getting tired along the way and fell asleep on the couch without even putting the DVD in.

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I decided to fly to NYC this weekend because the Museum of Modern Art is free on Friday nights and I wanted to hang out with my friend Betsy who has had a crappy week. (more…)

Today I went to a part of Pittsburgh called the Strip District. Despite the racy images it may conjure up in your pubescent mind it’s actually the food district. It’s wedged between the south shore of the Allegheny River and a fairly steep hill leading up to the Hill District (a.k.a. the downtown ghetto). It’s one of the coolest parts of Pittsburgh in my opinion. From early in the morning (before sunrise) till the afternoon the small stores are all open selling all kinds of stuff from fresh fish flown in from the coast to authentic Italian cheeses to mung bean pancakes. Although this may seem surprising to some, you’ll have more luck finding someone who speaks Italian, Russian, or Polish in this area than Spanish, there really isn’t a latino influence in Pittsburgh. Later in the afternoon the stores start to close and the street vendors start packing up and the clubs prepare to open. This is where I went to probably half of the concerts that I saw in high school. There are dance clubs, clubs with live bands, and even an old church that they turned into a club. (Vortex I think.) Anyway, the place is awesome pretty much anytime of the day that you go. They’ve even opened a museum about western PA there. (more…)

I’ve been in Pittsburgh (Moon actually) for a week now. I haven’t been doing too much during the day since my mom has been out of town, my little brother is at school during the day, and my friends all have jobs. In the evenings I’ve been working with my little brother Adam, on his senior project.

This is a project that has been in the family for many years and passed down from one brother to the next and hopefully he’ll actually finish it. It’s the 1969 Karmann Ghia my mom has had since some time in the 70’s. It’s a really cool looking car with a really little engine. It has a Type I Volkswagen engine, the same as the bug. It’s a whopping 1600cc putting out a massive 56HP. It has to be one of the easiest engines to work on.
Back in 1987 or 88, my parents parked the car in the garage to protect it from the salt that is liberally dumped all over the icy roads here in the winter. The following spring they did not pull it out. It’s a two seater and not the greatest family car, my dad also acquired an old VW bug that he began to use as his daily driver. Many years later as my older brother approached the magic age of sixteen we thought about getting it going again… well, that was over twelve years ago. It turned into a much larger project of gutting two other Karmann Ghias for parts, replacing the original engine with one from a 1973 Ghia, reupholstering the inside black, and painting it red (with US Airways aircraft paint). Letting a car sit for so long does bad things to the seals, gaskets, and exposed metal, so that made it take longer. Money was tight at times so after fixing it up and driving around the block with no windows, it would then sit for another year and would spew oil out of some leak the next time you tried to start it. We seem to be making progress and the funds are actually available to finish it this time. It’ll take a few trips to a parts store in Ohio and some cold days outside but I think we could have it done by next spring. (I don’t think I’ll be here the whole time but now he needs to finish it to graduate high school.) (more…)

Nothing too exciting has been going on this weekend. My friend’s sister got married so my friends that went to that were supposed to come over to my house afterwards and have a bonfire. Well no one felt like doing anything after the wedding except sleeping (it wasn’t even midnight) so that was pretty lame. Today though I did get to go to the Steelers game and watch from the fifty yard line as Troy Palamalu got pulled down by his hair and then the Chiefs received three penalties in one play. My friend Mike, who invited me, also pointed out any time either of the two BYU alumni had any good plays. It was a fun game to watch (unless you’re a Chiefs fan) and the Steelers won 45 to 7. The Bengals lost today and so did the Ravens so the Steelers aren’t in that bad of shape anymore!

If you click on the JakeJack link and look at the past 100 location reports. You can switch to satellite view and zoom in on the one link in downtown Pittsburgh and it shows exactly where I was sitting. First tier, 50 yard line… perfect view of the whole field.

Friday morning I was jolted awake as my cell phone blared “If I die before I wake, at least in heaven I can skate” around 5:55am. I got out of bed, got ready, and was off to the airport to hopefully make one more flight to make it back to Pittsburgh.

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Today was the day to finally leave Utah. I hope I didn’t overstay my welcome but it was a fun two weeks and thanks to everyone who let me stay on your floors and couches, eat your food, and drive your cars and motorcycles. (I’ll be back at Thanksgiving.) I kinda already miss Betos.

I headed out this morning at 11:30 to take the bus up to Salt Lake. It took two buses and two light rail trains to finally arrive at my sister’s house three hours later. I like public transportation but it does take a bit longer to get some places. It was, however, much cheaper than reimbursing someone for gas, the whole trip cost $3.00. Anyway, my brother-in-law Linwood drove me to the airport to catch a flight at 7:30. I’ve given up on the California part of my journey for now and am trying to get back to Pittsburgh via Phoenix.

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Ah the joys of flying standby.  I was planning on going to Los Angeles then to Pittsburgh at the end of the week but it looks like I’ll be in Salt Lake a little longer than expected.  Apparently all of the flights are almost full and every jetBlue employee in Salt Lake is vying for those three open seats on every flight to Long Beach and New York City for the next few days.  Luckily, I don’t really have any pressing matters to attend to anywhere.

Travel Update: Amsterdam and Brussels have now been thrown into the mix of possible destinations within the next month or so.