Perusing Pittsburgh

My heart grew with anticipation as my husband opened up the much awaited e-mail from Carengie Mellon’s MBA program March 14. 

The title of the e-mail was, “Exciting news from the Tepper School of Business at Carengie Mellon,” making the suspense almost unbearable for the few seconds it took to open it and then follow the link to a module with the school’s decision for admittance.

As if it were something out of Harry Potter, the screen displays an envelope that unfolds to a “Congratulations! You’re in!” with confetti swirling the screen and more cartoon-like displays. I looked over at my husband and I’m not sure what I saw, exactly. Disbelief was probably the first expression followed by excitement. “I can’t believe I actually got in,” he said. 

With that, we started to plan for our first trip to Pittsburgh for Carnegie Mellon’s Welcome Weekend. It was scheduled a month after the acceptance e-mail. With Erik’s crazy work schedule as a manufacturing engineer and taking care of our two young daughters (Ava, 3 and Izabelle, 1) we weren’t left with much opportunity to get everything in order. 

The drive to Pittsburgh was long and both of our girls do not ride well.  With the roads winding and turning through the mountains, I turned back to look at my oldest, Ava, who had turned a scary shade of white and I knew she was going to be car sick. Moments after realizing this, the inevitable happened and we stopped the car two times in the next hour to clean her up.

Three changes of clothes and two hours later, we arrived in Pittsburgh. We had scheduled appointments to view apartments in Regent Square before checking into our hotel. With two cranky munchkins, this proved to be another challenge. There were a couple of apartments that were nice, but being that we hadn’t decided whether or not Erik would attend in the fall, no leases were signed.

For the next two days the trip seemed to be just as eventful as the arrival. Erik was busy going to conferences and meeting with current students and professors. The girls were tired of being cooped up in the hotel room, so any chance to make a run for it they took full advantage of. Probably the most amusing part of the trip was when Erik left his itinerary on the roof of the car and drove away with it still up there.  Folders, papers and directions scattered all over the road leaving Erik no choice but to run around in traffic to pick it up. 

The last event during our intro to Pittsburgh was a dinner ceremony at Heinz Field. We decided to bring the girls to see how long they would last. The answer to that is, not very long! Once we stepped outside to the bleacher area of the stadium, they took off in opposite directions climbing up and down the many stairs. We gave them a few minutes to wear themselves out and then we left Erik to meet and greet and headed back to the hotel.

By the time the weekend was over, I was utterly exhausted and a little discouraged with how I was going to handle bringing the girls to a large city when we were used to more space. Our family has been notorious with relocating frequently—first from our home state of Maine and then to Rhode Island—and the thought of yet another move made my stomach turn. 

On the drive back to Rhode Island the girls fell asleep almost immediately and I finally got the chance to ask Erik what he thought of the weekend. 

“It was amazing and I love the city,” he said. 

After he described his part of the weekend with such excitement, I couldn’t help but reconsider my mild hatred for the packing process. 

I guess one more move couldn’t hurt!

Danielle is a new resident to the Point Breeze neighborhood. In this new column, she will explore the East End of Pittsburgh from a newcomer's perspective!