OH MY

WOW!

Damn, that is intense.  How long have I been saying this guy needs a stylist?  Wife does not equal stylist.  Please Ben Roethlisberger's wife, keep it up!  You're blowing my mind...

2011->2012

I feel a little sentimental about the end of the 2011 regular season, mostly because I can't imagine football--no, Steelers Football--without Hines Ward.  Over the last 14 years I've gradually become a woman and come of age as a sports thinker parallel to his incremental accrual of hall of fame accolades.  So in a sense I feel I've grown up with him.  And that's right, I just likened womanhood to hall-of-famedom.

2011 challenged me to watch him on the sidelines and in the press conferences with less swagger, less bling, and greater humility.  Maybe that's what becoming a man is all about.

I cried when he got that 1000th catch cause I realized I had seen almost all of them, and it all sort of flashed before me, my life and his, spanning the 1st and 1000th catch.  Its overwhelming if you really think about it.  I realized that this sort of affiliation/identification of regular people with public figures is no longer a behavior that I observe with incredulity of my elders but something that has been slowly becoming part of me.

As soon as it was announced that the Steelers' Wild Card game this Sunday would be at Denver, all I could think about was how Ryan Clark would be ineligible for play, and how bummed that made me feel.  GD sickle-cell!  Imagine how strange it must feel for him to have to sit out because he might bleed!  #25 has been at the top of his game and really coming into his own as the exact sort of safety to compliment the cosmic safety style of Troy P..  Hopefully we make it to Baltimore so Clark can shine!

What adds insult is that we have to haul it to Denver and play without Clark because they won the AFC West with a paltry 8-8 record.

Does anyone else out there object to the term 'Wild Card'?  It implies that you only got with the luck of the draw and that you're the joker or jester to the court of the other teams that 'deserve' to be in the playoffs.  Well sometimes the joker makes it all the way to the top!!!

GO STEELERS!!!!  and please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you

A quick few photo-presents to add to your Christmas tidings...

These two photos were sent to me by two of my friends, who are themselves very close friends going way back to college study abroad days.

The photos are very similar in concept and amazing-ness.  Without further ado I present the images with special thanks and holiday regards to Christian and Matt.

This is a REAL screen-shot of a 'Words with Friends' game and these are the REAL letters that he got!!!!  Unfortunately 'Yinzers' is not a permissible word.  Phooey, you app makers!

Photo taken at the Pittsburgh International Airport last Thursday night!  What does the plane say?  I always knew I was good with kids but come on, I didn't know they were tagging my nickname on airport furniture!  (BTW, kids, not to be persnickety but it's MS. not MISS)

Congrats to Homestead Charlie on the win yesterday!  

Happy Holidays to all!  xoxo Ms.  Pittsburgh

NEW *BLING*

Catch All Post

Hello readers!

I'm sorry that my posts have been few lately. I've been focused on graduate school applications since September!

Did you see the Patriots game? How awesome and vindicating was that?

YEAH MIKE KNOWS IT!!!!







(get ready for the dark side of this question...)

Did you see the Ravens game? How wretched and intolerable was that?

I woke up to the New York City Marathon the morning of the Ravens game. The Marathon never ceases to amaze and create an acutely emotional state. For one morning only, the streets of the metropolis become a place of shared effort toward a common goal, and non-participants stand and cheer in support, offering positive vibes to total strangers as they stream past. Total opposite of the usual experience! I find it very, very touching and always seem to have a few tears on hand, welled up and ready to roll on Marathon day.

I received an image from my friend Shahin, who took an arbitrary shot out his front door to commemorate the race and upon close inspection noticed... THAT guy. You have to look real close...

Do you see him?  Running a marathon wearing a wig and twirling a T.T. no less!

What are the chances??? TO THE POLAMALU MARATHON RUNNER: If you are reading this, please contact me @ mspittsburgh@yinzyang.com!

Thank you, Shahin, for your impeccable timing and for bringing this bit of magic into the light!

Next to the Steelers v Ravens game at my aunt and uncle's house. The only shot I have from the whole game is this:

SAD LOST PUPS, UNABLE TO PLAY. Heartbreaking. Like the game.

Actually the game hurt my entire network of nerves and my stomach more than it did my heart. The Ravens are so evil and vile that I have a hard time exposing my heart to the likes of Sugg's crazy double row of grinded-down hyena teeth and bloody lips, Ray Lewis' evil hero face paint, or the head coach who I think of as "the Fonz"-- looking much more like he should be running a pizza shop than an NFL team.  I always want him to be hit in the head on the sideline by a "foul ball".
Ugh, I find it all so hard to bear. To their credit.

"What's the deal..?"

"...with the Steelers?"

I've been hearing this question a lot lately.

Yesterday, I provided the following answer to a friend via email:

"The deal with the Steelers is lack of depth in the perennially bad positions, while the best players in some of the historically more solid positions are older and slowing down. Plus shortened training camp really hurt us; things were by all accounts really unfocused and disorganized in Latrobe (coaching weakness?). So...I don't know...Plus Tomlin looks like he's really taken to the new Pgh cuisine, maybe indulging in the offerings at the new How Lee a little too frequently. And somehow Dick still looking like he could slay a lioness without need for vision correction."

What do you guys think?

-Ms. Pittsburgh

Terror-ifying Game

UGH

Today, for the first time in my life, I was scheduled to work through the first game of the Steelers season. Significantly, it is 9/11/11 and I work in downtown Manhattan. So there's a lot of things going on today--lots of events and speculations that are out of the ordinary. Of all the things that could have happened, the least likely in my mind was for the Steelers to play a real stinker of a game against the Ravens. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened!

I received frequent text messages from my cousin Rachel describing something gamelike I could not really imagine. Troy throwing punches after the play? Ben not working at all (unfortunately that one is imaginable...)? NO SECONDARY??? My responses ranged from 'WTF???' to 'S*%#' to 'UGH f*#@!*' to 'Is anything working???!!!!', back to WTF!!!'.

I don't know what to say, other than "this sounds like the worst game of my adult life" AND "gee was I lucky to be scheduled to work during this game of all games". I think I was seriously spared some trauma. Most notable observation from the game 'highlights' on the internet is that Ben appeared to be passing to Ed Reed.

Cue magical thinking:

1. Maybe the Steelers have been watching too much True Blood?

2. Maybe Ben's off his stride after having an allegation-less summer?

3. Maybe the Ravens are going to win the Super Bowl and the Steelers just had their worst game of the season

Let's hope for a better game next week, when Ms Pittsburgh will attend the 2011 home opener at Heinz Field.

Remember: there is no Yinz without the Yang.