The Adventure Continues...

After spending the night an apocalyptic town, I mean Cleveland, Kevin and I drove to Pittsburgh Sunday morning to meet up with my friend Valerie and spend the day frolicking around a new city before returning to Philadelphia Sunday night. Valerie is one of the friends I met while studying abroad in Tanzania  (fall 2010)--we bonded over rides on the dala-dala to and from our East-African music class. Kevin and I had never been to Pittsburgh before but I had always heard good things about the city and it couldn't possibly be as deserted as Cleveland, so off we drove!

After arriving in Pittsburgh we met up with Valerie for a typical "Pittsburgh" lunch at one of the famous Primanti Brothers sandwich shops!

Apparently in Pittsburgh they waste no time when it comes to eating and put everything on the sandwich itself including coleslaw and french fries. Why waste time picking up fries when you can just eat everything at once...

It was a pretty epic sandwich to say the least--most likely the largest sandwich I have/will ever consume! Though I must admit those crazy Pittburghers might be on to something, having everything in one was tasty to say the least. AND they had giant dill pickles on the menu, instant bonus points!

Once we finally finished stuffing our faces we walked around Pitts campus, including the Cathedral of Learning aka my favorite cathedral in the world ;) Apparently at the time the Cathedral was being built no building in Pittsburgh was allowed to be higher than a church, to get around this the school's chancellor called the project "Cathedral" and by the time people realized he had no intensions of building a religious building it was too late. This building has to be one of the coolest buildings I've ever been to. As soon as you walk inside you instantly feel like you could be in Hogwarts (Valerie was lucky enough to graduate in this building, how cool?!). Each room has a theme to a specific country and is decorated to replicate a classroom in certain country--Seniors get to take actual classes in these rooms! Of course Valerie and I had to visit the African room! 

"I don't know the lyrics. I just bang the drum and do the African face"

I bet you didn't know Andy Warhol was from Pittsburgh! And if you did, you clearly cheated that little game. But anyway, whenever I brought up my upcoming trip to Pittsburgh to friends they all raved about the Andy Warhol museum, so we obviously had to check it out. The museum had an amusing balance between quirky, weird, hilarious, and awesome. One of my favorite bizzarre things was...

This ad was paired with a 15 minute audio segment of someone repeating "uhhh yes, uhh no." I mean with the tagline Hardens Softens Fast I'm surprised this product didn't sell out instantly. There were also some classic videos of Andy himself..."I don't know what to talk about. No body told me what to talk about...I was at Man Ray's house and in his bathroom he had a sock on his toilet...well I took a picture of Man Ray, and he was just so cute so I took another photo of him, and then he took a photo of me...and then I took a photo of Dino!...and then I went back to see the toilet again because it was the most fascinating thing in that house." Another video included a guy high as a kite on multiple drugs, talking about how great being on drugs was, and spanish knives. You really have to see it to believe it...and love every bit of it. 

After a delightful afternoon Mr. Warhol and his taxiderm dog we ventured off to see the many beautiful views of Pittsburgh! 

PNC Park view of downtown

Fail

Later we ventured over to Mt. Washington for a ride on the Monongahela Incline!

The Monongahela Incline definitely had some of the coolest views of the entire city. Though much smaller than Philadelphia, Pittsburgh is not only cleaner but it appears they actually put effort into the architecture of their buildings. Even their prison was a nice building! Besides the ascetically pleasing architecture, Pittsburgh's many bridges were fun to navigate. 

Before heading home to Philadelphia we made on last stop--for ice cream of course! =) Valerie took us over to Dave and Andy's Homemade Ice Cream, where they not only make their own ice cream but their own waffle cones too! These dessert genius didn't stop their, on no my friends, they even solved the biggest waffle&ice cream problem known to man. Yes, I'm referring to the ice cream drippage from the bottom of a waffle cone. Dave and Andy solved this by simply putting an M&M in the cone before scooping the ice cream to block the potential drippage. To go along with this brilliant idea, Valerie and her friends play a fun little game called the color game. It's very simple, you guess what color your m&m is at the bottom of your cone and when you finish you see if you are right (there are no actual prizes besides your own realization that you can predict the future). Not only did I guess my color right (green) but Kevin (blue) AND Valerie (red) guess their m&m colors right too! What a great way to end a trip to Pittsburgh =) 

It was great catching up with Valerie and frolicking through a new city. I definitely want to go to Pittsburgh again to do a little more frolicking, go to a baseball game, and enjoy the nightlife but for now I leave you with this:

When in doubt...

Sex is always to the right in Pittsburgh!

☮&❤

Ball So Hard Baltimore

Two weeks ago I went to visit Tim, one of my ultimate bestest of best friends, in Baltimore, Maryland. Ever since becoming friends with Tim my freshman year at La Salle, Baltimore has become almost like a second home for me. I love going to O's games, no matter how much we suck, and taking over B-more with Tim. This most recent visit was our "christmas" visit where we exchanged christmas gifts...

One thing you have to understand about Tim and I is that 1) we love everything baltimore 2) we are straight up Gangstas and 3) we ball so hard. If you are unaware of Ball So Hard University, take a quick peak at this video of Terrell Suggs, Baltimore Ravens linebacker, introducing himself on during a Ravens football game. One day I will be best friends with Terrell "Sizzle" Suggs because lets be real, I love ridiculous people and I also "ball so hard." That being said it was an obvious choice for Tim to buy me my very own Ball So Hard University Hoodie! 

After exchanging gifts we went shopping because I was in dire need of a new pair of kicks. My last pair of kicks were great! They were pretty fresh to death, until I brought them to Africa, China and Guatemala...they soon lost their luster. Though they served me well for the past 3 years it was time to get some fresh kicks in my closet once again. Tim is one of my only friends who truly understands and shares my obsession with kicks so it was only right for him to help me find my new pair. We searched high and low and I finally came across these bad boys...

It was truly love at first sight! Fresh blue and black kicks, does it get any better!? I don't think so. After falling in love with my new kicks Tim and I bounced around the mall finding ridiculous attire such as these two lovely hats to try on...

Saturday night was another fun night in Baltimore filled with drinking, dancing, and ballin' so hard. Sunday was both fun and sad. We went to one of my favorite bars, Pickles, to watch the Ravens play the Patriots in the playoffs. Everyone was decked out in Ravens gear, I had some deep fried pickles, and the Ravens were playing pretty well.

Unfortunately, the Ravens lost in the final seconds of the game with a missed field goal attempt. You could feel the high energy immediately die down after the kick went wide. It wasn't the best way to end such a great weekend with my friends in Baltimore, but I suppose there is always next year? Later that night the NY Giants beat San Francisco 49ers, clinching their spot in the Superbowl and forcing the rest of the world to watch a repeat of the 2008 Giants-Patriots Superbowl. 

Anyone else NOT excited for the repeat of the 2008 Superbowl? At least there should be good commercials!

New Year's Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was the best end and start of a year: Reuniting with old friends, dancing the night away with Kevin, eating lots of good food, and enjoying lazy days off from work! Goodbye 2011, hello 2012 fun =)

My friend Nolet was visiting from San Diego for the holidays so we all went out to our favorite happy hour spot Finnigans Wake on Friday night. It was so great to hang out with my favorite snuggly bear one last time in 2011.

I'm not really sure what Kevin was trying to do in this photo...

New Year's Eve was fantastic! Kevin and I cooked our last meal of 2011 (Falafel salad) before heading out to THE dance party of the year!

Since Kevin and I are both officially living in Philadelphia we decided it would make the most sense to actually stay in Philly for New Year's Eve this year. We went to R5 Productions/Making Time's New Year's Eve HyperRager! 

We danced the night away to hipster dj mash ups and enjoyed a glitter explosion at midnight! Quite possibly the best New Year's ever =)

2012 is going to be the best year yet!