Bringing Back Braddock

Thursday I got my first taste of Braddock, PA - the defunct steel mill town my friend, Jenny, and her husband have chosen to build their life in. I visited to co-host her baby shower with another friend of ours and Jenny's mom. I'll talk more about the baby shower in another post - because right now I want to talk about the town.

Braddock is a town long lost and just recently found. Even before we officially entered the town neglect was apparent. Everywhere we turned houses were abandoned, boarded up, condemned. Storefronts on Braddock Ave were long ago forgotten and the town took on an eerie quiet.

But when I took a moment to really look, it became obvious that Braddock was once something great. The houses that remain have large bay windows and wide open front porches where one can imagine the occupants enjoying a cool drink and a neighborly chat on a cool spring afternoon. The abandoned churches and schools, all unique in their architecture were once proud and grand - now they find themselves crumbling and exhausted, waiting patiently for the wrecking ball.

Upon even closer inspection, Braddock shows real hope. Sort of like a single green sprout of life in a long forgotten barren field. The town has become a sort of haven for artists and free thinkers. People who take the ruins of the town and create undeniable beauty. Gardens are flourishing in empty lots where rotting houses once stood. Life is being breathed back into this town that perhaps once seemed hopeless for recovery.

Visiting Jenny in Braddock, really seeing what she has become a part of - it makes me proud to be her friend. The people who can see the value there in a town most would simply detour around - well, those are the kind of people the world needs more of.

Leaving on a jet plane

So tomorrow morning I'll be getting on a plane to fly to Pittsburgh where I will be co-hosting a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Jenny.

It seems like only yesterday (it was April 1st) that Jenny called me up and told me she thought she just might need to get a pregnancy test. Maybe.

I, of course, urged her to go get one immediately.

And what do you know? Jenny's preggers. It was a little funny that she found out on April Fools Day.

No really, honey, it's really NOT a joke. Really.

So tomorrow's the day that I get on the plane and all the hoopla can ensue.

I'm really excited because it will be the first time in a long time I'll see a couple of my old friends. And it will be five WHOLE days that I don't have to check homework or make anyone go to bed on time or anything like that. And I got a window seat on all flights there and back and I do love window seats.

But I do have a little confession to make.

I'm totally not a seasoned flyer. I mean, I'm not at all afraid of the flying part. Or the landing part or any of that. I'm just nervous about the whole airport thing. The security and the checkpoints and the "does my mascara count as fluids?" and "will I need a seatbelt extender? the HORROR!" and "what if my e-ticket doesn't work for some reason??" and all that stuff.

It would be one thing if I wasn't flying all by myself. Hopelessly alone.

Another if The Man could actually go through the security checkpoints and stuff with me and all that.

But no. I will be all by myself.

And it's the first time I'll be flying by myself since 9/11. And only the second time I'm flying at all since 9/11. And the first time since 9/11 I'll be flying on a real plane. Cause I sort of don't really count the 19 passenger plane we took to the Bahamas a couple of years ago.

19 passengers... yeah. It was an experience.

So I'm nervous, yes. And I think I might make a trip to the airport bar before I board. Because it's never too early to drink in an airport, is it?

Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to?

I met Jenny in 6th grade. We were both in our middle school's "gifted" program which ensured we'd be seeing a lot of each other over the next few years. There were only a handful of girls in the program so we stuck together pretty tightly but Jenny and I didn't really cement a solid strong friendship until high school.

I'd have to say it started when my best friend at the time, Brian, got himself a bit of crush on her. She got herself a bit of a crush on him back and the next thing I knew I was being a third wheel to their summer romance. Until he somehow convinced me to break up with her because he was too chicken to do it himself.

Every time I think back on that I want to find him and smack him for convincing me to do it. Then I want to smack myself for actually doing it.

Somehow, though, Jenny and I were always close after that. Even when we got our first "real" boyfriends and cars and had different classes, Jenny was always someone I could turn to when crisis struck.

We decided to lose weight together and ate fruits and veggies and alfalfa sprouts and ran miles together. When I wrecked my mom's car she was the first person I called in a panic. When I was sure I couldn't stand living at home one more second, it was to Jenny's house I ran, even though I had friends who lived much closer. We were co-editor in chief's of our high school newspaper together, formed our own literary magazine, and banded together against injustice at all costs.

When we graduated from high school we went off to the University of Florida together and moved into dorms right across the street from each other. Before long, we moved into an apartment together.
Here we are in that apartment. It was the 90's and we were rebels. She's the one in the amazingly cool Goth purple cross dress. I'm the one in the fishnets.


Here we are in Boston. I'm the one hugging the snowman. She's the one sitting on him. It's my first. In fact, this was the first time I had ever seen snow and getting to Boston was the first time I'd ever been on a plane. Jenny's the one who convinced me it was alright to just buy a plane ticket and go somewhere. I remember feeling like such an adult... though maybe not at this exact moment.

Jenny and I have changed so much since that first day of 6th grade. I was the perpetual rebel and she was the good girl back then. Somewhere along the way it's almost like we switched. I settled down and had kids and Jenny did stuff.

She went to Europe... many times. At some point she decided to move to Oregon. From Florida. I'm not even really sure why, and back then I protested. I mean, really, could she PICK a farther state to live in (little did I know)? Why did she insist on being so FAR AWAY?

But that's Jenny. When Jenny decides to do something she does it. Nothing seems to stand in her way. I am in awe of her. I remember when she packed up her little car and drove across the country with her dad. Clear across America they drove stopping to see the Grand Canyon on the way. Jenny arrived in Portland and decided that wasn't far enough. She moved to Juneau, Alaska.

She met her soon-to-be husband and they were married in Vegas on Halloween. Because that's what Jenny would do. I can't picture her in the white dress with the big veil with bridesmaids and a DJ. That's just NOT her.

After she decided she'd had enough of Alaska, Jenny tried Portland again but again it didn't stick. She's found herself a home in Braddock, PA where she and her husband are renovating a 100 year old house.

Her bravery and sense of adventure always amazes me. Her life is a journey and I don't think she knows what her destination is. I can't imagine it being any other way. I live vicariously through her so if she stops being adventurous I guess I'll have to pick up the slack.