A Very Pittsburgh Day

It seems like it’s been forever since I last posted. It’s been a busy time with work and competing in the Diamond League finals on Duolingo 🦉 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 . Plus, when there’s not much interesting going on in my life or I don’t feel up to it, I won’t post it.

I’m trying not to make this Spring a repeat of last year when I was going through my crap and trying to figure out how to do things around my new job. But sometimes it feels like it.

However, yesterday felt like a good day to get out of the house. I had plans to meet my aunt and go to Phipps with her to check out the Billy Porter Flowers 🌺 and Fashion 👗 exhibit.

The dress designs were absolutely amazing and showed off a lot of color. There were selfie 🤳 stations at the exhibit and backdrops where you could strike a pose. I’ll let some of the other pictures tell the story.

We spent a hour there taken in by all the flora and fashion. Billy Porter is a Pittsburgh icon in the art scene 🎬 🎭 , up there with playwright August Wilson and of course, Michael Keaton. I read his memoir back in November 2021 as I was just beginning my journey.

Fun fact: Billy Porter attended Carnegie Mellon University and Josh Gad was a student of his.

While I’m looked at as an inspiration for my gender nonconforming adventures, Billy Porter was a trailblazer long before and he had two strikes against him already. He was sent to therapy to “fix” his effeminacy (Jess mentioned conversion camp to Bobby in the “Black Girl Magic“ episode of Queer Eye and he was glad she didn’t go through with it).

After we left Phipps, we drove around Oakland and looked for a place to grab a bite to eat. We couldn’t find the bistro that was recommended eating so we looked around. I was willing to go across the street and eat at the Indian restaurant but wasn’t sure I could handle all the spices.

We settled for some classic Pittsburgh fare and ate at Primanti’s on Penn Avenue in East Liberty. This is a newer location and it has outdoor seating. Down the road are the Duolingo headquarters and a recently opened Whole Foods Market.

I dropped off Aunt Sue at the hospital afterwards and then went home. My Very Pittsburgh Day had come to an end.