And on the 4th day of Christmas...

Actually, it's not quite that time of December.  I'm jump-starting it all because it goes along with the theme of "my life is stressful and it happens to coincide with the season of cheer because it's ironic and irony is humorous as shit."  And on the fourth day, someone bullshit overlord of the universe created finals week because he/she wants us to be sad. 

So, unlike my genetic counterpart, I am not equipped with beautiful photos illustrating my adventures throughout Pittsburgh, even though I have actually done some things and they were exciting.  And for this, I blame the fact that my favorite camera, the beautiful Canon Ae-1, is broken.  It's been missing a crucial piece that keeps the body light-tight ever since I moved to Pennsylvania.  I believe it went missing somewhere over Arizona or Arkansas, one of the A's.  And, as a general rule, I don't take my DSLR out very much due to my extreme paranoia that it will be 1) lost 2) stolen 3) lost and then stolen 4) lost and then mauled by a bear and then stolen 5) stolen and then returned and then mutilated by a blood-thirsty pterodactyl whose only purpose in life is to ruin a camera that I spent half a year saving up for and then stolen by someone who has a thing for cameras torn apart by extinct, flying reptilians.  It could happen.

So, I usually take my circa-1976 film camera with me on my adventures throughout life because goddamn can that camera take a beating.  It's like 99% metal, 1% metal-ier metal.  It used to be my third arm.  I would take it to school, to the grocery store, to the doctor, everywhere.  I don't have very much proof of these outings because I am dumb and never had the camera on the right setting so most of those pictures are either completely over-exposed or under-exposed.  But those moments happened and they lived on that fragile, opaque negative and they made me look like a photographer. 

Now I am a photographer who doesn't take pictures except when required to do so. 

Anyways, let us move on to something joyful and exciting.

Thanksgiving happened.  Like Ashley, I wasn't able to fly home for the occasion so I spent the week at my friend Allie's parents' house in Greensburg, PA (the only thing I've really taken any pictures of).  Greensburg, like our hometown, is full of a whole lot of nothing to do.  But we made the most of it.  We drove around and walked aimlessly through their mall and learned how to say "mistletoe" in German and we tried to do donuts in her Suzuki SUV in the hookah bar parking lot and we sang whatever came on the radio in the Panera parking lot, waiting for her younger sister to get off work.  All in all, it was nice. 

And last night, we adventured about the Cathedral of Learning and pranked some people working on a project that required a buzz saw and then hid in the bathroom and tried to get on the roof but eventually gave up and left.

So things have happened, I just don't have proof of the exciting bits.
I think that's what I've been trying to say.
In any case, here are some pictures I took on my phone of my time in Greensburg.

 

The drive to Greensburg.

The truly amazing view from their living room window.

 Allie taking a picture of her cat.

Me waking up in Allie's bed because Allie is a lovely individual who gladly slept on the couch.

Midnight soup of champions.

Allie's evil cat, Luca.

Allie.

Amazing view from living room part II.

Allie and her cat part II.

Stairs.  Coffee cup.  Unidentified black object.  Maybe boots.

Amazing view part III, but from a different perspective.

And a couple pictures I actually did take on the elusive DSLR.

Until next time,
Stephanie