Josh Anastasia

One of Ness’ brothers lives just outside of Pittsburgh and invited us to go down for a couple of days for a party he was having.  The last time I went to Pittsburgh I was on a class field trip and I don’t really remember much about it, just bits and pieces.  But anyway…

We left Friday, later than we expected to, but still pretty early.  When we go to New York, we usually leave after midnight, so this was a welcome change in our regular travel routine.  Heading out there, all we knew was that there would be a pig roast (not something I’m into, but hey, if that’s your thing…) and beer.  Food + Beer = Amazing.

On Friday night we jumped right into the party, which turned out to be a party for his wife’s birthday.  We also had just found out that his wife is pregnant again (Congratulations because I don’t think I got to say it when I was there) and that was cause for more celebration.  We settled in and started drinking.  There was a keg, which turned out to be Natty Light, but I’m not complaining.  It does the job and I’ve had worse, a lot worse.  Watching the pig roast kind of turned my stomach.  I’m not really a fan of pork, unless it’s bacon.  Pork, the other white meat, just makes me gag a bit, so I didn’t eat any on Friday.

Ness was excited and asked if she could cut the head off.  She’s crazy, but in a good way.  We took some pictures of that and also took some video, hopefully if her brother sends us those, I’ll put them up.   Friday night was pretty fun since Ness and I played hide and seek in the dark with the young’ns.  It’s been awhile since I ran like that, but hey, I’m losing weight and running won’t hurt me.  Unless I fall and break a bone.  That’s highly likely since I’m accident prone.

Saturday was awesome.  Her brother decided that he was going to make tamales with the left over meat from Friday night and took us into Pittsburgh to head to a Mexican grocery store in the Strip District.  I’m not a fan of bridges, and if you’ve ever been to Pittsburgh, you know there are a ton of them.  On top of the bridges, Pittsburgh has some of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen (it’s not just Pittsburgh, it’s Pennsylvania) so I almost had a heart attack a few times when we were driving.  Once we finished shopping, we went to Primanti Brothers and had some sandwiches.  Think Panini sandwiches but better.  Turkey, cheese, cole slaw, and french fries.  The sandwiches were so big that Ness and I shared one.  Seriously, the best sandwich I’ve ever had, and I’d move to Pittsburgh just so I could have one whenever I wanted.

Once we were safely across all the bridges, we ended up going to her brother’s sister-in-law’s house where he made the tamales and worked on that keg of Natty Light some more.  Ness and I had originally planned on leaving late Saturday night because she had to work today, but I couldn’t drive because I had had too much to drink so we ended up spending the night again and left early.

The drive home was insane.  Most of the way back to Cleveland, it down poured and we could barely see ten feet in front of us.  But we made it safely home and Ness still had time to take a nap before work.

Other highlights of the weekend:

• Playing Gears of War with Ness’ nephew, Tynan on X box 360.  I sucked, but it was the first time I actually played the game.  He was patient with me though so that made it great.
• Playing with all the kids on Friday and Saturday.
• Hanging out with Ness’ niece, Gabriella.  She’s only 4 and smart as all hell.  It took her a day or so to warm up to me, but after that she was a lot of fun.
• Putting up with the crazy dog Charlie.  He’s psycho.
• Friday night hanging out with the neighbor, drinking some more, and listening to my 80’s mix tapes.  You can never go wrong with beer, a bon fire, some paper airplanes, and some great 80’s music.
• Saturday night watching The Goonies with Ness as we were trying to fall asleep.

We’ll be back in Pittsburgh in September to go to a Hanson concert.  Hopefully we’ll get another Primanti Bros. sandwich.