My husband Chuck and I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh, our hometown. We traveled there on a long, nightmarish flight – another story for another time – for two big parties on separate days.
My youngest nieces, Becky and Lizzie, are the last of the Sciullo clan’s 10 offspring to graduate high school. Their celebrations overflowed with sumptuous food, shared memories and talk of college plans – a juxtaposition of past and present that more than once turned time’s canvas inside out. Read more…
With Stanley Cup finals in full swing, the PlayStation controller has been more like an umbilical cord for Steve on nights the Penguins are not playing. I think he believes he can keep cup hopes alive by winning on the video game. So on PlayStation evenings, I get to watch anything I want on TV. FREEDOM!
The other night I flipped through my choices on our movie on-demand channels and saw “The Business of Being Born.” It’s a documentary produced by Ricky Lake about maternity care in the United States. After a bad experience with her first child, she opted to have a home birth with the second. For many people (myself included), the idea of giving birth to a baby at home is both a foreign and scary concept. Read more…
Growing up in Pittsburgh during the late ’80s, I often heard stories about the powerhouse Steelers of yesteryear. Usually, the tales of hard-nose sports glory came from my father or uncles. Every Sunday afternoon during football season, they’d sit in my grandparent’s front room, paying homage to the days of “Mean Joe Green” and Lynn Swann.
Like most western Pennsylvania folks who watched the team win four Super Bowls in the 1970s, my family drew pride from the black and gold. To many Pittsburghers, the Steelers represented more than just champions. Instead, they carried the mood of an entire city upon their shoulder pads. When they won, people were happy at the week’s outset. When they lost, well…. Read more…
With the New Year comes the potential for great possibilities. Yes, this includes the old standbys – weight loss, financial improvement, increased leisure time… But I’m a realist, and therefore choose to set my hopes on something more likely to happen: A Steelers run to the Super Bowl! What can I say, I’m an ambitious guy. Goals just seem easier to accomplish when they involve no physical or mental effort from the actual goal setter.
Yes, there was only one resolution on my list when the yearly speedometer rolled over to 2009 – “Don’t choke on Bugles while watching the NFL post season.” Read more…
