Blog of Josh Hall

Probably very much to do about the pens loss last night to the montreal canadiens in game 6, I had a dream I was playing in the game.  I was the stand-by goalie, and we were down 3-4 in the second when I was put in to replace Fluery.  I was amazing.  So much so, that I deflected a shot so hard that it flew directly into the other goal to tie the game.  Yes, I’m that powerful.  Then, in the third period,  I was on offense.  For some reason, I was also frozen in the ice at the waist down, at about half-rink.  With about 3 seconds left in the game, I busted out of the ice and skated to the net, caught a pass and directed it right into the goal to win 5-4.  It was great, I was so shocked, people were so happy with me, but we all understood that it was just a fluke and that I’d go back to my normal life after the game. 

Nurses are crazy.  This rule is more accurately a postulate, because it’s based on me never meeting a sane nurse.  Let the record show this rule had been established and verbalized around the year 2001.

Note:  Rule 9 is important to keep in mind when referencing Rule 36.

When I bought my house in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, my roommate, Jordan, and I noticed that there were always people huddled around this building at the corner of Wylie Ave and Erin Street.  We were unsettled, but also a little curious as to what was really going on there.  Jordan asked my neighbor, Sonny, what the deal was.  Sonny simply answered, "That’s a jitney station."  That didn’t help us much, and I think he could tell by the look on our faces. 

He went on to explain, if you don’t have a car, you walk to the jitney station and someone there will give you a ride.  It’s like an open market taxi service.  People use their own cars to delivery people where they want to go.  So some of the people that congregate there are people that want a ride, and some are people waiting to give people rides somewhere, and the rest are probably people that just like to be around other people.  If you have spent any time in the Hill, you know how much truth there is to the latter.

That’s part of the culture of the Hill District; The people.  Even the jitney by essence exemplifies the focus of people interacting with people on their own accord.  It’s funny how…let me phrase this properly…whites…caucasions…suburbanites?….sheltered people…people who are scared of the Hill are scared of the unknown…but that they’d probably end up being more afraid of how congenial and engaging people are.  It’s crazy to witness how far out of the way someone will go just to make sure the person they went to high school with 20 years ago hears them say "Hi!" to them.  Everyone knows everyone in the Hill.

August Wilson wrote about the culture of the Hill District in his plays.  That’s probably where the term "jitney" has gained most of it’s popularity.  August’s childhood home is a couple blocks from me, in a state of much disrepair. (here’s a pano from Steve Mellon – http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08105/872496-429.stm )

It’s sad to see how much importance social interaction is in the Hill District and how much culture is valued, but how little is actually being done to preserve it.  It’s almost a paradox way of life.  How can you value both the present day person as they grow into the future, when they identify so strongly with staying connected to the past.  Certainly a deeper question than what I wanted to cover in this post, but it’s there.

More on August Wilson and his plays – http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10127/1056192-325.stm?cmpid=newspanel0

Unless you’re standing in isolation on top of a mountain somewhere, it is never acceptable to urinate with your hands on your hip with your elbows out.  Not only do you look silly, but that’s just asking for an accident.   CONTROL YOUR FLOW.

I’ve told this story to only a few people.  You might be a little grossed out, but it’s pretty funny.

Sometime when I was in college, my cousin, Adam, invited me to take a trip to Cedar Point with a bunch of his friends.  We met up at like 6 am and drove out to the park.  I was just getting over a bit of a cold, but it wasn’t all that bad, just needed to blow my nose every few hours or so.  We got in line for the Mantis, which is one of the better rides in the park.  The line was unusually long, but it was definitely worth the wait.  If you’re familiar with the ride, it does this fantastic set of 3 inverted loops for the finale.  The G force is so intense and that fact that you’re standing up makes it completely different from anything you’ve felt before.

What made this ride so memorable was what happened during those loops.  Standing in line for so long, sniffing my snot, didn’t seem like that much of a worry.  As soon as I hit those loops though, my nasal passages had nothing of a fight against gravity.  Snot went everywhere.  It was along the sides of my face, on my shoulder, and by the screams of “EWWWWWW!!!” behind me (I was in the front), I’m pretty sure some people got a present as well.  The fortunate thing (for me, at least) is that you do those loops on top of a body of water, so it’s not uncommon to get hit with some moisture.  I don’t think anyone knew what happened, until I told Adam, much much later.

Never date your friend’s sister.