background, FYI

[jaeclectic]

I am staying at a hotel in a neighborhood of Pittsburgh called Oakland, known for universities and hospitals. This happens to be where I went to high school, and lived for most of my (precocious and slightly abbreviated) high school years. My undergraduate alma mater (CMU) is also quite close by. In somewhat more recent history, although not really connected to the neighborhood in my emotional memory, this is also the vicinity of the hospital where I spent time hanging out in the waiting room of the neurosurgery intensive care unit.

Really, however, this immediate area just evokes high school for me.

Oddly, when I was planning the trip, I didn't (consciously) think about that aspect. I was just picking a hotel off the list on expedia that seemed central and convenient.