Directions again

I had to go to Cranberry this weekend to pick up a rocking chair from craigslist. Here are the directions I got in email. This is after I explained that I am coming from the city and I have never been to Cranberry before.

Right when you get off on Rt. 228 there is a big hotel - Marriott if you continue past that towards Mars - there is a shopping center with Target (first store).

I call her and explain that I don't know where Rt. 228 is; I'm coming from the city on I-279. Here's the phone conversation:

"So, you take the exit off of 79 (to husband) Which exit does she take? The new one or the old one? (To me again) Take the new Cranberry exit off of 79. There's a Marriott right there, Target is down the street."

Thankfully, I know where 79 is, so we take 279 to 79. There is a sign that says "Cranberry next 2 exits". One exit is labeled Cranberry, the other is labeled something else. Since we're taking the "new" Cranberry exit, we assume that is the one that says "Cranberry". We take it and see a Marriott. Cool. There's lots of big box stores, so now we look for Target. We drive half a mile, no Target. There is a sign to "Mars", but it's turning toward the right, which is odd since based on the directions, Mars should be away from the highway, not towards it. We call her and tell her where we are: Marriott, Giant Eagle, Toys R Us, and Walmart are all here. We give a street name at the intersection. We get these directions:

Them: Ok, just continue until you see the Olive Garden and turn left.
Us: Is there a street name?
Them: Umm, Cranberry Commons Drive or something.

We see no Olive Garden, but there is a "Cranberry Drive". So we turn left. Nothing. We go back and pull into the Toys R Us parking lot. Call again.

"Ok, we'll just meet you there at Toys R Us. Give us 5 minutes to get over there."

WTF? 5 minutes? Where in the world is this Target?

We find out later from a friend who lives there that there are TWO Marriotts. Also, the other exit, the one that was labeled something else, was the "new" Cranberry exit. "New" is a relative term apparently; the exit is at least 20 years "new".

Getting directions in Pittsburgh

Never ask for directions from a native. People here don't give street names. They give directions in terms of local landmarks which you may or may not know of, may or may not be duplicated throughout the city, and may or may not even exist. Here's some examples of what to expect:

"Take the Liberty Tubes"

No, the tubes are not a subway. It's a tunnel. Translation: "Leave the city via the Liberty Tunnel"

"Go four stoplights and turn left."

Go 3-5 stoplights. Remember that a stop sign may or may not count as a stoplight. Also, your left might be on a one way street going the wrong way, so plan accordingly.

"take the narrow street down the hill."

This was actually 6 narrow streets down the hill. Don't worry when you think you're lost because you keep ending up on dead ends. Orient your car in a downward fashion and drive, always turning so you keep moving down. There's a main street running parallel to the bottom of the hill.

"Make a right at the Sunoco"

Pittsburghers like to orient themselves according to the nearest Sunoco, a gas station. There's one in every neighborhood, so if you're more than 4 blocks lost, you're going to be really confused.

"Turn between the Sunoco and the Karate place/Take the soft right/Take the straight-right"

Actually, this makes sense when you see some of the 5 way intersections.

"Get on Parkway East"

The trick here is to orient yourself from downtown. The Parkway is actually 2 highways. 279 runs N-S through downtown. 376 runs East from downtown. The 376 part is known as Parkway East. The 279 parts are either Parkway North or Parkway West (the southern part actually runs pretty westerly, hence the name). The trick here is that to get to your destination, you might not actually go east on Parkway East if you are already in the Eastern boroughs of Pittsburgh. So, the above direction might actually mean "Go West on 376". Of course, the person giving you the directions somehow assumes you magically know which way to go to the place where you're asking for directions.

"Take the Blue Belt/Yellow Belt/Green Belt/Beechwood Ave"

Go get a map and have a second person in the car. You're going to need someone to watch for all the signs telling you when to turn. The belts are NOT main streets, and they will switch quickly from one street to the next. Beechwood is even worse than a belt since there aren't any signs telling you that you need to turn to stay on your street.

"Make a left at the top of the hill."

Another fun one. Pittsburgh is covered with hills and ravines. I never know what hill we're talking about. I lived in the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill for 2 years, and I still don't know which hill is Squirrel Hill.

"Turn right where the ol' bus station usdabe." (Usually said within 5 minutes of me saying "I'm new to the city...")

...see, this is how I get lost. Looking for large buildings that might have usdabe a bus station.

Yummy breakfast place

Lest you think everything in the burgh is bad, I'll put in a good post. :)

Kavita and I had brunch at Square Cafe yesterday. This was my second time; Saul and I ate there when we first moved to Edgewood. As before, the food was fantastic and the service was very good. You'll pay around $10 per person, but they have pricer and less expensive stuff on the menu. It's worth it though. The food is pretty standard breakfast fair, but usually with a twist. They have lunch foods, too, but I'm still working my way through the breakfast menu. It's going to be hard since they always have 3 daily specials, so I tend to order the daily specials thinking "I'll get something off the menu next time...."

Anyway, if you're annoyed by the lines at Pamela's, I suggest coming down to Regent Square and eating here. It's on Braddock, at the south end of Regent Square.

The "international foods" aisle

An open letter to grocery store managers:

I humbly ask that you please do not segregate my food based upon vegetarianism, organic basis, deli-ness, or supposed-country-of-origin. This is extremely aggravating for those of us who shop in your store. While it might cause me to spend more time in your store, it does not cause me to purchase more items. It only causes me to curse at your ill-witted attempt at marketing.

Let's have some examples, shall we?

Hoagie Rolls are bread. They belong in the bread aisle, next to hot dog buns. Not your fancy deli section.

Refried beans. They belong in the canned goods aisle, next to all the other beans. You put them in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle. Really, this isn't hard. BEANS written on the can, and with a picture!

Rice vinegar. It has vinegar in the name. Let's think; maybe stock it next to the vinegar? Do you know how much time I have spent staring at "Cider Vinegar", "Distilled White Vinegar", "Red Wine Vinegar", etc, looking for this? Yup, you put it in the international foods aisle. Thanks so much. Very helpful.

Amy's brand of tomato soup. This is good stuff. I always forget to buy it because it's not in the SOUP aisle. No, it's in the back corner of the store where you stash away all of the "vegetarian and organic" foods. Why do you hide them from your customers? Please make it visible, this soup is quite yummy. Way better than Campbells.

Brie cheese. Your store has cheese in no less than 3 locations. There's the "normal" cheese section by the milk. (This, by the way, is where all cheese should be.) Then there's the "deli" cheese section for expensive cheeses. Then there's the section in the middle of the store for cheeses that aren't quite "deli-worthy", but aren't "normal" enough to be put into the other section. To make it worse, the organization isn't consistent. I have to check all 3 sections if I want to buy some brie. Please, put the cheeses together and make my life easy.

Olives. I'll let you put your lame little olive bar separate from the other food since they aren't in cans. That's fine. But the black olives are in the condiments aisle, and the green olives are in, you guessed it, the international foods aisle. They usually hang out near the "Italian food", as though no one else ever uses olives.

Brown rice. Should be next to rice. It's in international foods. Same goes for other grains, such as cracked wheat. I buy cracked wheat. I never buy it at your store anymore because I have given up trying to find it by determing what ethnic group you think it belongs in. I go to the Strip District for it instead. It takes less time.

Soba noodles are noodles. They belong with other noodles. It's in international foods. Oh, and by the way, they're Japanese noodles. If you're going to insist on segregating them by origin, at least put them next to the Japanese food. Not the Chinese food or Vietnamese food.

Red pepper flakes are a spice. They belong in the baking aisle. Next to the other spices. Yet this in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle next to the Taco Bell seasoning (which is soooo not Mexican, don't even get me started).

Please, I beg you, do not segregate my food by supposed country-of-origin. You aren't going to get it right, anyway.

Thanks,
Frustrated Giant Eagle shopper

Bus Schedules and Probability

As any large city, Pittsburgh has a mass transit system. It's run by the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT for short). It's also the worst public transit system ever.

You wouldn't know it if you were to look at the display case of maps in the CMU University Union. There's dozens of blue bus schedules, and they only have the ones that CMU students might be interested in. The buses run along major pathways, and they appear to come very frequently. Notice the keyword "appear".

Let's say, for example, you were in Squirrel Hill, at Forbes and Wightman. You want to get to CMU. What time should you arrive at the bus stop? There are many options: 61A, 61B, 61C, 59U, 61D, 61F, 56U and 501. We'll not look at the last 4 since they aren't as frequent. You'll notice that the 61C (www.ridegold.com) comes every 5 minutes. When you add in the A, B, and 59U, you'll realize there should be a bus coming every 2 minutes. How totally awesome is that? I think I'll just go outside right now.

And you wait. In the snow. For 45 minutes.

While you wait, 8 buses go by in the OTHER direction.

(Did I mention that the walk to CMU is 30 minutes? But of course, by now, you won't leave, because you're due for a bus anytime now, right?)

Oh my God! A BUS! We're saved! Uh...wait...it's not stopping. Why? Cause it's full of passengers farther down the line who were ALSO waiting for a bus for 45 minutes, and they just can't squeeze any more in.

But not to worry. There's another 3-5 buses right after it. You see, the PAT buses get lonely out on the cold Pittsburgh streets. It's scary out there. So they pack up. Now, hopefully, you've run across a big pack, and you'll hop on the last one. If it's a small pack, well, then you're SOL. Better start walking.

It seems that every time one waits for a bus in Pittsburgh, at least 3 buses go by in the other direction. Even considering the packs, there are never enough buses coming by to account for the number that SHOULD be coming. The current theory is that Pittsburgh has several wormholes that cause the laws of probability to warp in unusual ways.

BTW, if anyone is thinking that the buses are late because they are "caught up downtown", this theory has been proven false. I once caught the very FIRST 61B of the morning. It was around 5:30 in the morning. The bus was coming from the East neighborhoods, it had only 3 people on it, and it was 10 minutes late. Besides that, SH to CMU is going towards downtown, not away from it. Of course, the buses in the other direction are always fine.

Lest you think this has something to do with traffic, let me assure you that, as a graduate student, I have frequently ridden the bus at very odd hours. The probability never works out in your favor. Wormholes.

There do appear to be certain pathways on which there are no wormholes. The 56U, for example. It only comes once an hour, and it only comes during the main commuting times. But you better not be even 1 minute late to the bus stop. When the schedule says 9:36, it means 9:36. We can therefore eliminate any wormholes on the 56U pathway.

I propose someone make this a research project. Please. Pittsburghers are freezing at the bus stops.

Easter and Snowing

It's early April, and today is Easter. Two weeks ago, there were white and purple crocuses blooming in my yard. I had herb seedlings ready to plant this weekend. We should have had a beautiful Easter weekend, and I should be out in my garden.

But Mother Nature had other plans. "Time to shit on all of you Pittsburghers and remind you where you live" she says. It's snowing. It's been snowing for four days. This is ridiculous. This is pretty much the only really nice time of year here, and this year we get snow.

When I was a kid, Easter was the inaugural jump in the swimming pool. My brother usually performed the ritual by racing through the length of the house and then cannon-bombing into the pool. Extra points for getting the grandmas wet. It was usually just a tad chilly to be swimming, like 78 degrees.

Not so much with the swimming here. It's 30 degrees, "feels like 19" according to weather.com

Oh well. At least it's not sticking to the ground.

Welcome

I'm Ciera, born and raised in California. Now I live in Pittsburgh. This blog is a place for my ramblings on living in "the 'burgh". It might help a little to know where I'm coming from.

I don't think I realized how much of a Cali girl I was until I moved to Pittsburgh. I can't surf, I hate skiing, and I think LA is disgusting. I never really thought about being raised in a "California culture". I'm a pretty average Californian, actually. I'm ethnically a mutt, though I am Armenian on my mother's side and third generation born in the US. I'm politically liberal, but really just left of center in California. I was raised in the Central Valley, and my extended family still raises grapes (for raisins) and now almonds (a recent change). I went to school at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, on the central coast. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Software Engineering.

My fiance and I received job offers from Google, in Mountain View. However, we also were accepted to Carnegie Mellon University, the best school in our field. As this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we packed our bags (and the turtle!) and headed cross-country to Pennsylvania.

Saul has graduated with his Masters in Software Engineering and is working at the new Google Pittsburgh office. I'm still at CMU, working towards my PhD in Software Engineering. We recently bought a home here since it will be several more years. We live here with our cat (Puppy) and our turtle (Terabyte).

In the last year and a half, we have created many long rants about Pittsburgh and life here. If you are planning to move here, please do not let this turn you away! I really enjoy my CMU colleagues, and we do have fun. It's just an interesting experience, and it probably isn't as drastic if you're from another part of the country.

If you're a prospective student in the School of Computer Science and are concerned about moving here, please feel free to email me at cchristo [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu. It's probably not as bad as this blog makes it out to be.