Business Trip

This week, I went on my first ever business trip. Sort of. I work for a small nonprofit in Pittsburgh, so traveling on business isn’t all first class and hotel rooms and expense accounts. It was more like there was a web 2.0 conference in NYC I wanted to attend, and I know a guy, who knows a girl, who got me a free table (being a non-profit and all), and I stayed with my bff from high school who now lives in Queens, so the trip didn’t cost the organization a cent.

And me? I got to hang out in New York, get my social media nerd on at a great conference, and was out of the office for a week without having to use a single hour of vacation. We all win in this situation as far as I am concerned.

I grew up only an hour train ride away from NYC, and even though Philadelphia is closer to my hometown, I spent far more time in New York. Whenever I go there, part of me is always afraid I’ll wind up wanting to move there. After this stay, in which I hung out with locals, did nothing touristy, and finally started to get a handle on the subway system, I thought; I could live here if I needed to. Thing is, I don’t want to.

I moved to Pittsburgh for college, and by the time I was in my junior year, knew I didn’t want to leave when I graduated. Pittsburgh is a great town. People say thank you to the bus drivers here. You can go out and have a good meal and get fairly intoxicated for $20 or under. They put French fries on their salads. Pittsburgh taught me to love sports, which if you knew me in high school you would understand the significance of this statement. There’s a great local music scene, real estate is basically free (at least when you compare it to NYC), and it rains a lot, which I know sounds depressing, but I’ve learned to find very comforting. Also, rainy climates are better for your complexion and guard against wrinkles.

Pittsburgh may be my adopted city, but I feel more at home here than any place I’ve ever been. Tomorrow morning I fly back. It’s gonna feel so good.