mysteries of pittsburgh

Lately, I feel confused as to whether a lot is going on, or nothing at all. Last weekend Anna and I went to Pittsburgh to visit (this is mildly complicated) a friend from Phoenix who was visiting this guy from Pittsburgh that she'd met recently and really liked. He let us stay on his couch cushions arranged in a bed-like fashion on the floor for about three days, which was super nice of him considering he didn't know us at all and Kara only somewhat. But anyway...
Pittsburgh was nice. We went to a lot of bars, a lot of restaurants, kayaking, on a picnic, saw live-band karaoke and a Violent Femmes concert for a dollar at a summer festival. I also saw my friend Raquel, albeit briefly, for the first time in about four years. Ironically, she lived in Pittsburgh but was moving to Syracuse the day after we got there.
This was perhaps the funniest thing for me, or at least the one I'm most able to remember. We were taking a cab to the karaoke place; it's impossible to get cabs there without calling ahead apparently, but we snagged a woman who was filling up at a gas station. After we got in the cab, she called somebody and told them she had picked somebody up and he was going to have to eat dinner on his own. Here's a rough transcript:
(cab driver hits curb with rear tire as we turn)
driver: "Sorry! I can't see for shit at night!"
(We all give slightly nervous laughs)
me: "Are we making you miss dinner?"
driver: "No, that dickhead just wants me to sit there while he eats. What a fatass dickhead!"
(general laughter)
She continued like that the whole way to the bar, calling him a slew of pejoratives and enjoying our appreciation of her language. Perhaps it was because we were all exhausted, but she was hysterical.
Anyway, since we got back, things are back to the norm: checking my email, checking craigslist for job and/or apartment openings, and eating. I'm a lazy bum. But Lauren H-L is coming tonight to visit, which is incredibly exciting! I also haven't seen her in maybe four years or a little more.
Yesterday I got a whole new box of checks that have my current address on them. I'm moving in less than a month, and it takes me about three years to work my way through a box. Excellent.