19 // Working by a River

I think that living around bridges my entire life has desensitized me to the actual beauty of rivers. Since I hail from the city that is famous for not just one, but three of them, those bodies have water have never impressed me much. You see one, you see them all. I left work late tonight, which I had been planning on. I was one of the last few cars in the parking lot and the sky was starting to grow darker and darker with every step that I took.

I work very close to one of the rivers and there are many days where I forget that fact. I’ll get out of my car without even glancing at the water, so focused on just getting inside the big brick building to toil away without even a window to look out of. But as I left work tonight, I found all of the scenery in front of me to be strikingly beautiful. The sky was beginning to look like dark ink spreading all over, and amid the hills past the Strip District, all of the houses and buildings looked like tiny torches aflame. The river was ever present beneath all of that, and I wanted to just take a photo.

Thanks to my iPhone’s terrible photo quality anytime you zoom, the effect isn’t nearly as good as what I saw in person. The river and the surrounding lights and trees looked almost ethereal. When it gets nicer, I’ll probably spend a bit more time observing the water. I’m jealous of the people who own the boats around the marina. It’d be nice to take off whenever you want, sailing around Pittsburgh.

6 // The Airport

There’s something about airports that I really like. The idea of being able to walk through the doors to some numbered gate, and then disappear for a while, is extremely appealing to me. In my mind, an airport stands for the risks and chances that regular life just doesn’t always bring every day. New opportunities. Adventure.

I’ve had some interesting memories that have occurred in airports across the country. The time my mom and I missed our flight to somewhere and ended up befriending a woman who had once been in jail for staging a riot. The time I had to run around New York’s JFK international terminal with my first college roommate, trying to find appropriate shoes for me to wear on the plane to Jamaica.

I like the idea of leaving for some great unknown. I love the feeling I get when you hear the rumbling of the plane’s engine all the way in your toes before taking off. I like the people watching during layovers and the slight hint of adrenaline that kicks in when you’re not familiar with all of the gates and terminals of a new airport.

I took a different way home than usual tonight, and I had to stop at the gas station to pick up some food for dinner. Night time was just beginning to fall and the sky was getting to be a perfect murky blue color that I really like. I’m always reminded of a Jack’s Mannequin song, “Dark Blue”, when the weather starts getting like this outside. Anyway, I was on my way home and I drove past the airport runway. For those of you who don’t know, I live all of ten minutes away from the Pittsburgh International Airport. The runway was lit up and blinking, all blues and reds and soft yellows. I drove by it and I smiled. Seeing those lights reminds me of summer, of possibilities to go anywhere at anytime.

Tomorrow, I’ll get in my car and drive to work just as always. But the airport still stands, waiting for me to begin some grand adventure, another time.