Personal Update

Beware the Ides of march

15 March, 2007 (02:12) | Personal Update

Mom reserved a castle (more like a villa) for the Italy trip. http://www.rentalcastles.com/scandeluzza.htm We have the Madonne and Pelligrini suites. They look pretty nice. looks like it will cost me about $500 for the week. Still have to work out when I wan to go to london, but the flight to rome leaves wednesda may 16th, and comes back saturday the 26th, so i have lots of time to do whatever. There is talk about taking a train to paris, then the chunnel over to london. We’ll see how that goes.

In local news, the peguins signed a deal for a new arena the other day. There will be lots of development to come for the hill district and pittsburgh. the Post-Gazette has a nice little write-up about what’s expected for the hill. I have been meaning for a while to go down to the hill house and ask about volunteering opportunities, and twice they told me to call back another day. This is really a great opportunity to get involved in the community.

Sparta concert with old friends from the pitt helpdesk this friday. should be fun to reiunite. then rachel’s friend is getting married on saturday, and saturday is also St. patrick’s day, so should be some fun there, and also my other new roommate, alex, is moving in sometimes saturday. a lot going on, and really, a lot still to do before hand.

registered for 2 summer classes. assuming i pass those, that leave 4 classes to take in the fall and then i’m all done. hopefully i don’t reach snags like the courses not being offered or something. It will be nice to know that i graduated. I think keren is on time to graduate in the spring of 2008, so that’s some added pressure to finish before her.

no new word on the mellon merger or what it means to me. I was admitted into the formal mentorship this past tuesday, so now i have a guy a few ranks above me to ask for advice and seek knowledge and what not. hopefully i’ll be able to utilize that.

News

Bedford Springs Hotel & Resort to re-open in June

9 March, 2007 (03:07) | News

about 10 years or more ago, my sisters and I were riding in the big red van with my dad driving. We were on some trip somewhere, and back on some windy roads in the middle of no where. We came across this place, and only 1 word can describe it. Amazing. It was this huge, beautiful, turn-of-the-20th century club house. I remember it having a green roof, 5 floors, with outside porch-walkways wrapping the entire building on all floors, and the building stretched for what seemed like a mile.

and it was closed.

a travesty. such an amazing accomplishment in architecture and luxury and it was closed. Why? I don’t think my dad knew anything about it. The place had been stuck in my mind ever since, and i often thought about it, and wondered how i’d find my way back to it, or at least find out how to find it. Looks like it found me. this article was in the post gazette today: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07068/768095-85.stm. I can’t wait. I want to go there now. here are some pics of the place i found through a google image search:

http://www.pa-roots.org/gallery/albums/audrienlongenecker/Bedford_Springs_Hotel_E_Wing.jpg
http://image.hospitalityonline.com/e/2179/217984_2.jpg
http://www.personaliz-it.net/graphics/BEDFORD%20SPRINGS%20HOTEL%2020%204.25X4.25%20TILE.jpg
http://www.pumpwarehouse.com/image/bedspringsinside.jpg

Here‘s the official site. This place looks so interesting. So much history. Presidents stayed there, often. I don’t know if you’re getting the impact this place had on me or not, but just seeing it that 1 time really instilled such wonder in me, i can’t describe it. Bedford Springs, I have found you. You can see how large it is with google maps. From my memory, it seemed like the entire length of property along 220 was the clubhouse. It was so huge.

Personal Update

Ants go marching.

5 March, 2007 (05:51) | Personal Update

off the boot and back to 90% normal. Still can feel the ankle being a little weak, but i like to push it. Probably try and run a little later in the week. Not working out for the past 2 months is not good!

Ticket bought for italy with the family. I’m flying over wed may 16th and leaving saturday the 26th. during that time, i plan on taking a trip to paris and london as well since it’ll be so cheap to do so and i won’t want to spend so much time in italy. I’m excited!

took a road trip with friends to philly this weekend to a beer fest. Not really my scene, but we ended up having a really great time. Lots of friendship bonding and such. I need to get a camera. I wanted to wait until right before italy, but as soon as i pay off money that i owe to the estate and to j’aime for the italy ticket, i’ll get one as soon as i see the need and a good deal.

Rachel met my mother and Deirdre last wednesday when we went back home to see Deirdre as Mame in the musical Mame. So much talent there. It was weird seeing Rachel hug my mother though……..heh. Hi mom 😉

One of the new housemates, craig, moved in yesterday. Pretty cool dude. He just proposed to his girlfriend of 5 years over the weekend too. Both are from Morgantown, transplanted to chicago, and now moving back. Craig will stick around til at least sometime april as they both find new living quarters, and I’m glad to have him/them. The other dude, Alex, has an architecture internship from march 17th-june 17th, and he’ll live across the hall from me. ’bout time that room got some good use.

I’m just sitting here thinking how fast money goes down the drain. since i’m not taking classes this semester, my school loans picked up payments, then i have the truck registration and inspection coming up, estate money i owe, tickets to italy, doctor bills from the ankle, blah blah blah. Why am i always feeling like i live paycheck to paycheck? I shouldnt have that.

Ramblings

meaningness

26 February, 2007 (07:23) | Ramblings

I used “Meaningness” in a sentence yesterday, and the other person questioned the existence of that word. I faltered, thought about it, and we came to the conclusion that it was not a word, and that i should have just used “meaning.” Post-conversation thoughts made me think of why I used that word. I swear It’s in songs somewhere, but I can’t find any lyrics (that i know) through a google search. But i felt vindicated that my instincts were right, even though they were also second guessed. Further thoughts on the word though make me try to think of a time when  “meaningness” is necessary and not able to be replaced with “meaning.”   so meaningness is meaningless.

Dreams

Surprise!

21 February, 2007 (19:44) | Dreams

haha, i’m still laughing at this one. Just woke up and this dream put me in a good mood.

so for some reason, we’re going to have a family get together at one of the new casinos out is philadelphia. Not just my immediate family, but aunts and uncles and such too. I have no idea what the occasion was, but for some reason, i was going to get there a day before everyone else and just hang out. So i’m in my hotel room, and i’m watching tv, and my uncle jay comes in. It’s about 4am on what i believe to be the saturday morning, and i was expecting him, and just him to drive up by himself and arrive around this time. He goes to bed and he when he wakes up around 10 or so, my cousin adam has gotten there by that time, and the three of us decide to go out to the casino. It’s not an overly nice place, curvy building, high ceilings, entire front is glass windows floor to ceiling and inside is more like an arcade than a casino. There are just some random game like things, with slot machine gameplay aspects to them. We play a few once or twice and keep walking around the place.

We walk past a tall really dark black girl, hair pulled back, and wearing like one of those all black playboy bunny waitress outfits, with black pantyhose, it’s not sexy or anything, just looks like one of those old fashioned waitresses. Anyway, there’s a really small table in front of her with 3 chairs at it. She asks us if we want to see a magic trick and that it costs $5. Uncle Jay seems really enthused and sits down to play/watch the magic show. Adam and I are just going to stand and watch. So, she starts her spiel about asking people to pick a number on a playing card, remember that number and don’t tell anyone. She asks adam to write his number down on a piece of paper and then give it back to her.

so this whole time, i’m meticulously watching her, looking for her to pull out a playing card from her sleeve or make some weird movement or something, like i always do when i see magicians; to try and figure out the trick. By this time, two blonde ladies have come up to watch, on either side of me. So the magician lady is talking about the trick and i’m more focused on watching how she’s shuffling this deck of cards, and when she stops she says, “ok, now it’s Josh’s turn.” So I laugh, nice trick. I’m sure one of these ladies around me probably heard adam or Uncle Jay say my name and they just told her before the trick started. She asks me to look at this piece of paper that adam had written his number on, and with all the other numbers on it, tell me if my number is listed. So i open up the folded piece of paper and there’s about 30 numbers spaced out in a square, some repeating numbers, and i’m scrolling through them and i find number 8. I always chose number 8. So i say, “yes.” and give the paper back to her. Now she’s looking and uncle jay, and she says, “now I told you to remember that number, because you’d need to use it later.” then she looks back at me and says, “infact, we have something that Josh Hall can use later still” and she pauses enough for all of us to chuckle and yeah, i was a little impressed at this point. I’m trying to figure out how in the world she got that much info…Then she says, “Now, Uncle Jay, isn’t there something that you thought he could use later?” And now i’m freaked out, how in the world?!? everyone’s got smiles on their faces, from what i was assuming was the magic trick, and then uncle jay says, “yeah, right over there” and points behind me, back to where we had just come through, and there were about 5 or 6 tables set up, and my whole family was sitting at them. Aunts, uncles, mom, sisters, all of them dressed up and smiling. Uncle Jay says, “I figure you could use your family later on today, right?” So we all go over and i’m laughing and embarrassed and it’s so funny. I tell him that was a nice prank, definitely had me. Everyone was in on it apparently and i had no clue what was going on, i was expecting everyone to show up later at night.

I wish i could say there was an occasion for them to surprise me, but honestly i don’t think there was, it was just a planned family get together at a casino…funny though. This is MY dream, and I’m able to surprise myself. I must keep secrets really well.

Top 10

10 most unattractive things a girl can do.

19 February, 2007 (03:55) | Top 10

May catch some heat for this one, but, here goes…

  1. Smoke.
  2. Swear or use vulgar language
  3. be indecisive about what she wants for herself
  4. be indecisive about what she wants from you
  5. Have guys as her prime source of friendship
  6. get drunk (assuming you’re completely sober)
  7. attract attention in public for being loud, rude, drunk (see above), or any other type of embarrassing behavior.
  8. Show complete disinterest in remembering any conversation, event, emotion, or anything of importance
  9. Not respond to any of the following: emotions, questions, emails, phone calls, requests, and/or anything else where a response is traditionally expected.
  10. wear sweat pants in public

Note: The views expressed above are the sole opinion of the author. Generalizations have been made and exceptions to these cases are known to exist. Double standards are present and the author is aware. The author maintains that this list was not induced by the actions of any one persons, but by the female population in general. If you feel offended by this, I still love you.