Saturday, November 20, 2004

feeling like grover
Those of you who have known me for a long time know quite well that before all of this butterfly insanity started I ran around the internet using names such as Grover, GroverC, and the most ridiculous of them all, SGroverC. All are references to history-making president and my favorite Democrat (yes, I just said that), Grover Cleveland... whose first name was Stephen.
Today, I feel like the other Grover... the fuzzy & blue guy from Sesame Street. My parents have a record (yeah, I'm just barely old enough to know what those are) of Sesame Street songs that I used to listen to often and Grover sings a song about being proud of himself. Today, I'm proud of me.
I did an amazing thing last night. I drove to Pittsburgh. I spent an hour and forty-five minutes in my car, in the dark, by myself without cruise control and went to the Oratory in Oakland. For those of you who have never visited the 'Burgh, Oakland is one of the many sections of the city, and home to several colleges & universities.
The last fifteen minutes were the longest fifteen minutes of my life. I was not even a block away from my destination and I saw a sign that lead me to believe that I was on the wrong street. The saying about driving in Pittsburgh is that you just can't get there from here... and I was starting to believe it. I drove myself in a GREAT BIG oddly shaped circle and did manage to get back to where I needed to be. I arrived only 10 minutes late (I think) and had an enjoyable time which I'll save for another post later on today.
I have never in my life gone into the city by myself at night. It was a big day for me. I attribute my success to praying the Rosary on the trip down the interstate. I think having that kept me going where I might otherwise have gotten frustrated and/or scared & turned around & went home. Incidentally, I was able to pray all four sets of mysteries in the time it took me to drive down. I used a CD by Kitty Cleveland and Father Robert Cavalier to help keep my place.
In all, it was an uplifting and liberating experience, but I still refuse to parallel park and back out onto a road with lines on it. I'm much more confident about hopping in the car and going somewhere new, but I have to know I'm going to find a parking lot or an insane amount of open space on the side of the street when I get there.

Stay tuned for the answer to the burning question... Why was I in Oakland?
# posted by Amy : 10:40:59 AM