I live in the south hills of Pittsburgh and have been in Pittsburgh for over
10 years. I have found my adopted city to have a variety of culture and
entertainment to satisfy my desires. A love for this city has always existed in me
as I grew up in a distant suburb listening to Pittsburgh radio and watching Pittsburgh
Television stations.
One of my favorite places in the city is the south side, specifically Carson Street. While the new development of the South Side works is nice, it lacks the character of the old Carson Street area. For those who live in Pittsburgh, you know that's the area between Jack's and Shootz Pool Hall. Nothing is as cool as dancing and hanging out with friends and then cooling off with a nice stroll up and down Carson. I also love several of the restaurants with a long history on Carson.
I also attend Duquesne University for graduate classes. I started in 2003 with taking some graduate classes in subjects I was curious about and I became hooked on continual education. While it has been really hard to attend school, work a full time demanding job, and dealing with personal life issues, I have found my graduate education has been a life changing experience. Though I hate the costs of attending school and it will be a burden for some time to come, education is something that helps one grow and cant be taken away. I have studied many counseling, philospphy and psychology class and he decided that Albert Ellis is the theory I like the best. It is about the human though process and how our rational or irrational thinking contributes to our emotions and behaviors.
I like to hike though I seem
to seldom find the time to get out of work, school, or the house. Dakota is a great
hiking companion though sometimes she gets the leash tangled onto trees. When I hike
I try and take my camera with me and take some nature photos. I have hiked many of
the local parks and I have been lost in several of them more than once. Check out my
photography page for my pictures of nature settings.
I also love to shop! I do like to spend about four hours a month at a mall shopping for clothing. My taste have moved away from American Eagle to more Gap. Aldo's is a great place I have found for shoes and New York & Company for office attire. I am also a geek so it is not uncommon for me to search Best Buy for hardware or a computer game.
I have a few friends that play video games and I love it when they host a LAN party. I'm not able to have the same energy to play non-stop late into the night because of excessive work/school time, but I love to game on the computer. Most of the games I play are online role-playing games like World of Warcraft.
When the weather is nice and I am home from work at a decent time, I like to head to the trail to rollerblade. Sometimes I take Dakota if it is not too hot outside as she enjoys running while I skate. The Pittsburgh area has a lot of rail to trails where old railroad tracks were cleanup up and pathed and became community walkways. I find my time on the trail skating very enjoyable and relaxing. I'm one of those skaters who wears an MP3 player and listens to tune on the trail.
When it comes to music, Dave Matthews and his band is my all time favorite. I do have a Dave Matthews Tribute website because him, his band, and his music means so much to me. I am rather disppointed that Dave is pretty unavailable and unapproachable to his long term fans. I hope someday someone who has the ability to help me meet Dave reads this website.
I also spend a great deal of time volunteering. I have slowed down my volunteering over the past few years just due to the amount of stress not having down time casues. I still occasionally find time to volunteer at non-profits I find very important. Currently I was helping those with addictions become more self aware and how to take control of their desires.