Blue Belt Keep Right

23 years old

Squill, Pittsburgh, PA

Male

This is serious business. - see all 1

Trespassing on a Beautiful Day, Near My House Apr 28

About twenty feet ahead of me and maybe two below are power lines running along a creek. The sound of the one-way water current drowns the hums of the two-way electricity.

The stream is in a valley with hills slanted comfortably, the home it's forged without much disturbance.

The hills are densely populated with forest life; trees suspending birds with beautiful, thoughtfully composed melodies--never singing out of key--tunes any songwriter would envy.

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i was told the ladies would like this one

no one told me the ladies would like this one

Twenty Minute Autobiography

I live about two miles from my birthplace. My house is in Squirrel Hill. It's easy to find. It's one of the nicest houses on the street. If not nice, it's big. The house is two halves. We've got four bedrooms, three floors, and a tornado door. So does the family on the other side. Our living spaces mirror each other.

When I walk home from the bus stop up the cracked and uneven sidewalk, I'm a champion for making the climb. The hill crests where my house is, and the post-cigarette, wheezy, self-awarded 1st prize for getting home alive often ranks high in my daily achievements. (Actually, I'm more fit now that the weather's been nice. I walk many miles a day when it's nice. Still smoke, though.)

I was born on August 1st in Oakland at Magee Women's Hospital a month before I was due. I had pneumonia for a while and lived in an incubator--then incubators were eerily similar to the machines that baby chicks are brought up with.

I fit snugly in my dad's right hand when he was finally allowed to hold me, my feet barely passed his wrist. But I grew. I grew in North Versailles, I grew in North Huntingdon, I grew in Greensburg, and now I'm growing back where I started, in Pittsburgh.

I remember almost nothing of my time in North Versailles. I remember my old beagle Bo, getting a little brother, and a red shag carpet. I can recall some parts of pre-school and kindergarten.

I moved to North Huntingdon before the start of first grade. I was taught for the next seven and a half years in a Catholic grade school down the street. I graduated 8th grade in another place, Harrison City, because the original school was condemned for being built upon unstable pyrite mines. Pyrite is fool's gold, it expands when touched by humidity and oxygen.

I lived with my parents in North Huntingdon while I attended Catholic High School in Greensburg. It was probably a waste of their money and my time. Although from it, I decided to write.

I am slowly making my way to a nonfiction degree at Pitt. I live with [six] people in this house. I share my bedroom with Kait (Kait and I used to date, but now we don't.) Adam's room is cattycorner, Dan's is adjacent, and Emily's is across from mine. Dylan lives in the living room, Jack lives in the basement.

I love this city. And, soon I'll have to let it go. Really, I'm not being fair to myself or this fair peninsula if I don't travel and get to know other cities. It pains me to consider it, but, what if Chicago is better than I thought it was? Lake Michigan is beautiful. It remains free, unlike our rivers here. Our rivers are constricted and forced to take the shape of their concrete containers. They don't get to give the surrounding people cool, relaxing afternoons, and they certainly aren't allowed to quench the land. Perhaps Boston has better food, or Seattle has better skiing, or Atlanta has warmer weather than this southwest corner of Pennsylvania, I just don't know and I need to find out.

Still, I can't let go yet. This is my birthplace, my stomping ground, my geographical mother.