I had an entry a few
days back about the few things that I actually miss from San Diego.
After this weekend, I’m prepared to add a few more.
Friday night, we went out to dinner at a TGI-Fridays-ish place – I’m
dying to actually mention the name of the restaurant, just to dig into
them a little, but for various reasons, I won’t. We were seated –
with seven-month-old baby in tow, remember – right next to the door, so
every time someone entered, a blast of 25-degree air would hit us.
I was prepared to tough it out, but my wife complained, so they moved us.
Our new table was just on the edge of the no-smoking section.
The smokers were sitting right next to us, separated only by a railing,
and even worse, they were on a ledge above us, so you could literally watch
the smoke pour out of their cigarettes, waft down and land right on the
baby carrier. The rest of the evening at that place wasn’t much better,
but after having to deal with all of that disgusting smoke, I would have
been hard pressed to enjoy any meal from anywhere.
In California, they have the strictest anti-smoking laws I’ve ever seen.
You aren’t allowed to smoke in restaurants, shopping malls, stadiums, bowling
alleys – not even bars. Unfortunately, in Pittsburgh, smoking is
as much part of the culture as the Steelers and sandwiches
with French fries on them, so I don’t see any laws like that getting
passed here for a long, long time.
We spent Sunday driving around western Pennsylvania, visiting any and
all relatives we could find. And based on that, I’ll tell you that
I miss 8- and 10-lane freeways that aren’t full of potholes and that go
anywhere you need to go.
I’ve found a few more things in my travels….
I miss having a good used-CD store to go to. There are no Wherehouses
around here, and I haven’t found anything yet that comes close.
I used to walk at lunchtime at my old job. There were nice trails
all around the office park where I worked. Here, there’s nowhere
to go – especially when it feels like the wind is going to rip your ears
off.
I miss a little bit of the feeling of freedom we had out in San Diego.
We didn’t have to revolve our lives around the weather or having to visit
people or having to get our house in order. Baby or no,
we’d just pick up and go, wherever and whenever we wanted. Here,
it’s not so easy. Though I’d have no problem taking our little one
to downtown San Diego to go to Horton
Plaza, I couldn’t see me doing the same thing in the Strip
District.
I’m writing all of this because I don’t want to come across like San
Diego is a horrible place or anything. I still think it’s a great
city, with a lot of character, and of course that amazing weather.
But when you have a chance to rekindle the flame with your first love,
you don’t turn it down.
