Return to Pennsylvania.

Next week, I'll be making a trip back to Pittsburgh for the first time since December. While I realize that isn't a long time for most who have left their hometown, it's still a bit odd to me that I've moved eight hours away and have absolutely no means of transport if I should ever decide on a whim to go back. My undergrad institution being only an hour and a half away, I still drove home very seldom, but the option was still there. Now, in the Windy City, I can get about as far as the public transportation will take me (95th street) without scheduling the trip pretty far in advance. I'll miss the All-Star break by one day, which I guess is just as well as I have no way to attend it, but will spend Friday evening at a Pirates game. It could work out against the Nats, but then I thought that we might win a game or so against the Royals, which didn't work out. So we'll have to see.

I suppose I might have to drive way the hell out to the country for one of these enjoyable bumper-stickers now. Or not. Evidently this beat out calling PA the "land of independence", which is kind of an empty allusion that doesn't actually mean all that much, but might have garnered some extra weight from being, you know, the actual state slogan (apparently regardless of whether or not Rick Santorum is still in office), "Pennsylvania is for road-trippers", which is more a statement about how alarmingly wide Pennsylvania turns out to be, and how that applies to people who are evidently trying to get somewhere that's not Pennsylvania, and "Honk if you love roadtrips", which they rejected based on possible confusion at turnpike tollbooths.

I still maintain that while Pennsylvania's supposed to be wide, Ohio has no business taking as long to drive through as it does.