So I'm in the airport in Pittsburgh. My flight doesn't leave until 4:55, and it's only 1:38. What better way to kill some time than to bore all of you good people to death?

Here are some thoughts on my first trip north in 5 years, and my first trip to my alma mater since graduation (that would be...13 years. It makes me a little nauseated every time I say or think that).

• It was so good to see so many people I'd lost touch with. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again.


• It was also very weird to see all of them with kids. Even though I knew they had them, as most people my age do, it was still weird. I guess since I don't have any of my own, it doesn't dawn on my that other people do. They were all great kids, though.


• If I were forced to move back to Pennsylvania, I think I could live in Erie, but I'm not so sure about Pittsburgh. That's really weird, because if you had asked me when I was in college if I would ever leave Pittsburgh, the answer would have been a resounding no. And I was absolutely certain I would never leave Pennsylvania. Funny how life works out.


• When thinking about the above, I think the reason I could live in Erie and not in Pittsburgh is the fact that Erie holds almost all good memories for me, but Pittsburgh - not so much. I became my own person in Erie. I discovered facets of myself and things within myself that I never thought existed. Really, more than anything else other than my parents, Gannon formed me into who I am today. Mostly for the good.


• I wish I would have had more time today to walk around campus and see the changes. It looks a little more like a typical campus now.


• I was very serious about how much Erie reminds me of Baton Rouge. As I was driving along Peach Street yesterday, I kept calling it Airline Highway in my head. I need to ruminate more on this.


• I went to Eat'n Park for dinner last night. I had Potato Soup, which is still wonderful. I also had Rosemary Chicken which...not so much. It was bland, and the sauce had a kind of sweet flavor. The Grilled Stickies I had for dessert made up for it, though.


• Next time I do this trip, I'd kinda like to take a whole week, and I'd kinda like to drive the whole way. I like driving, and I like seeing the country.


• The one less-than-bright spot on this trip was the lunch I had with a friend on Friday. I'm not going to talk about it now, but suffice it to say, she was less than happy about where I am right now faith-wise, and she let me know it. That surprised me, because she is usually pretty open-minded and liberal. The other person who was with us was also unhappy, but I've known that for ages now. He stopped e-mailing me over my decision to become Lutheran, in fact. It shocked me that he even came to lunch (I didn't know he was going to until I got there), but I guess it was just to put in his two cents about how I was going to burn in Hell forever. I reminded him that his favorite liturgical composer (Marty Haugen) is on my team and asked him if he was going to stop using his music because he was a heretic (the guy is a liturgist). He didn't answer. I'll write more about this later.


• I have lots more to say about all this, and will probably have blog fodder for a while. In the mean time, here is some picture from this weekend - Probably Pittsburgh.