Okay, here’s the thing: I’m repeatedly failing at posting on time. Technically, I can post any time I want. But as my regular sheep know, I aim for about 9am.
But I haven’t actually pulled that off in quite some time.
Part of it is lack of sleep and a general inability to function on any level of intelligence. The other part is I have something like 60 posts to go and I’m having one of those lulls in inspiration. As it turns out, after you post about 300 different things it becomes a bit overwhelming to imagine posting about 60-something others.
So in order to meet my posting requirement today but to avoid just writing a post about how I’m a failure, here is what I believe to be the third installment in “The Jackie Blog of the Past” posts. This post, originally published in 2007, is from back when I had my old blog on a another server in a land far, far away. As I browsed through the attic of my cranium of yore, I was amused by my current lack of personal transportation juxtaposed against this retelling of my frustration with it when I first moved to the city. Enjoy.
Monday, September 10, 2007
I was given my dad’s old car this summer for my birthday. In part because my parents knew how hard it was for me to get decent groceries and transport them on the dirty, neglected child of Pittsburgh that is the transportation service. Mostly, however, it was because he got a convertible.
Convertibles and my family don’t go together well. I grew up most of my life wanting nothing more than to finally be able to afford both milk and cereal at the same time. Or something other than macaroni and macaroni for dinner. That being said, it blew my mind to be sitting in a car that was less than two decades old, running, quiet, and spacious. Oh, and a convertible. I actually felt awful and wanted to put a sign on the door that said “We can’t afford this!” in bright, orange crayon andmy own blood.
Regardless, my father is now somewhat more capable of completing his journey to fifty years old since he’ll be driving the depressing path to it in his nice car. And, luckily, I now have a grocery wagon with which to make frequent trips to Giant Eagle, a poorly named grocery store where they actually don’t sell any eagles at all.
Unfortunately, I’ve also become a bit of a taxi service. It’s not that people ask so much as it is that I offer…because I know how much I liked rides when I was a vagabond. Today, for instance, a good friend of mine mentioned he was headed downtown and wanted to know if I’d join him on a shuttle ride while he made some errands. I offered to drive him instead. Like an idiot.
So there I was, in rush hour traffic, driving around the city that’s impossible to navigate even when it’s 3 in the morning. I’m also too stubborn to pay for a parking garage….so basically I left at 4, drove around the city until 5:30, dropped him off and said goodbye. I got home at 6.
Some of this has to do with Pittsburgh’s impossible parking situation, and most of it has to do with the fact that I’m a bumbling idiot.
So these are my days in Pittsburgh. I’m either driving around downtown, wondering if I’ll wreck or find a parking place first, or I’m at home watching my housemate’s cat try to hump mine. TV altogether bores me at this point in my life. For some reason, when the decision to relax in front of the tube is juxtaposed with a good cat rape, I can’t stay focused on the TV.
Tonight, however, I get to change things up a bit and go to an audition downtown. Oh… well I guess the only part that’s different about that is the intention. I mean… I’ll still be driving around like an idiot again. My audition’s around 9. It’s 6:15.
I’d better leave now if I’m going to find parking. ♣
The Jackie Blog 
I’m just impressed that you had a blog back in 2007. I mean, that was like 200 years ago in internet years. You’re a pioneer woman!
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haha nice… well.. my first few posts were a few years before that but they were very myspace-y. Every one was about how I hated my job. (Kmart, 16 years old)
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