Dahn a boulevaaard
Our neighborhood had a Halloween parade on Saturday. A bunch of kids came out in their costumes and paraded down the main drag, cheered on by parents, grandparents, shopkeepers, and whatever patrons managed to stumble out of the bars. The baby is going as Godzilla this year, but we couldn’t find a Godzilla specific costume and I am not yet up to the job of constructing costumes, so we borrowed a dinosaur costume from my mom’s friend. It serves the purpose, kinda, but the baby was increasingly irritated with people assuming that he was some chump dinosaur. “I’m GODZILLA!” he would whine. Duh. Trampled Tokyo multiple times…ring any bells?
The baby actually once told me that Godzilla protects humanity from the tyranny of all monsters. Those were the words he used. Who is he?
Anyway, the parade was alright. I took a few pictures of the baby but mostly spent my time snapping shots of the boulevard, which is a good way to see how…odd the neighborhood is. It’s equal parts old world Pittsburgh and honestly-we-don’t-give-a-shit.
For instance:
There’s a drive-thru beer distributor. This is not unique to us, of course, but I think any place that has establishments that combine two things that aren’t supposed to go together (ie, drinking and driving) has a certain je ne sais quoi.
There were some miscreants about. These kids watched the parade with a certain amount of wistfulness in their eyes. I could tell they really wanted to still take part in all of the pageantry, but felt that they were too old now.
Or maybe they were just high.
Firehouse. Mediterranean grocery store containing the bomb pita, hummus, tabouleh, and grape leaves.
Luke Ravenstahl, Mayor of Pittsburgh, looking very…mayoral. I emailed this pic to the mayor’s office but have not yet heard back from Luke saying, “OMG thanks! I’m making it my default pic on MySpace right now.”
Me and Godzilla, who looks pretty gentle. Also, there is not a cheerleader growing out of his head, even though it looks that way. And, yes, I’m wearing a Sean John hoodie. My dad gave all three of us hoodies last year for Christmas and they were all brands that he had seen on drug dealers on The Wire. My dad’s weird. But that hoodie is huge and warm and I love it.
Anyway, speaking of Halloween, I’ve posted a very useful scary movie guide on MamaPop which you should peruse at your earliest convenience. To sum it up for you: Suspiria owns.
Maybe the lack of wholesome cinema in my diet can explain my attitude as of late, which is rather poor. I’ve definitely hit a slump and am viewing all of my duties with contempt. I did not do the readings for any of my classes over the weekend, I did not do laundry, I did not scrub poopy toilets (can’t imagine why not, I’ve been looking forward to it so), and am cranky at work. This morning, I realized, to my great annoyance, that I still needed to pack a lunch for the baby. As I told Angela, I have a very, “You need fed AGAIN? I just fed you yesterday!” approach to parenting at the moment and all this needs to stop because I need to make a living, get my master’s and keep my kid alive. God, adulthood is such a drag.
I guess I need to watch some Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or something.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I always think it’s funny how different Boston’s Brookline is from Pittsburgh’s Brookline. If you haven’t been, I would compare Boston’s version to Shadyside. heh.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
GODZILLA!
/runs in paninc
October 29th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Lukey’s looking very mayorial or something. I think he was scared of Godzilla.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:01 am
[Ulp, posted my comment back on LJ. Better to do it here for it to actually be read, eh?]
So what’s the defunct-looking ristorante across the street in the last shot?
And yay for huge warm hoodies. Every time I add one to my collection, reillye just rolls her eyes.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Ravenstahl just looks like he would rather be schmoozing a round of golf with Tiger Woods or flying to NYC in the middle of the night to schmooze money for some kind of new stadium.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Adulthood does suck. I want a refund.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Godzilla protects humanity from the tyranny of all monsters.
Approves of this statement.
Does Mothra look like a bitch? DOES…MOTHRA…LOOK LIKE A BITCH?
October 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
dammit. hotlinking disabled.
http://www.weeklyfilm.com/images/Moviepics/jules.gif
click that link to have my comment make sense and funny.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Personally, I had a pleasant time at the parade.
Can you imagine how disturbed I was to find a picture of MY FATHER posted here to your site; for mockery purposes? It was the delight of my day. Only it wasn’t. AT ALL.
You seem to be a group of cruel and judgemental people, and I hope to God you aren’t funded by our city.
What kind of organization are you anyway?
October 31st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I would like for you to give me examples of mockery of your father.
I’m assuming your father is the gentleman in the Pirates hat, not Luke Ravenstahl, but correct me if I’m wrong.
I posted a picture of him that I snapped quickly along the parade route and said that there are many people in the neighborhood that look like him because I was posting about the scenes of the parade.
You can argue that I may have reduced him to a stereotype, but I don’t see any blatant mockery.
I can assure you that my intentions were in no way motivated by cruelty or to be judgmental.
Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not “funded” by the city or any other organization. This is a personal blog.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:05 pm
yeah, kelly, you’re also giving organizations a bad name. snorfle.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I apologize. See, I assumed that since your web address was “.org”, you were some sort of organization.
However- now that I see the triteness of your entries, I realize you’re just another one of those generic “mommy bloggers.”
I still think it’s creepy that you took a picture of my father and put it up on the internet.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
and I see that you are one of those poor souls who is not aware that there are 3 billion other sites on the internet to read, yet still subjects themselves to trite mommy bloggers that they hate.
I took the picture down out of respect for your wishes, though I object to you calling it creepy. Creepy would be if I knew it was your dad specifically and took his picture and posted it just to piss you off. But I have no idea who you are, only that you waste time reading stuff you don’t like, do not have the courage to identify yourself, and take offense when none was intended.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Sweetney, stop giving snorfles a bad name.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I would like you to know that I don’t spend my time reading “mommy bloggers.” It was just my incredibly unfortunate luck to stumble upon your blog via flickr. In fact if you didn’t have a picture of my father, I certainly would never have been on this menial site.
I’m only back to reply to you. It’s the polite thing to do.
Don’t worry. I haven’t been reading anything else. Trust me.
As far as my identity is concerned- I apologize that I didn’t send my full name, date of birth, address and social security number when I first commented. I just had a slight hesitation since you had, you know… posted a photo of my father in multiple locations on the internet. (Still creepy, by the way. )
But, I do appreciate you removing the picture. Pretty cool for a creepy mommy blogger.