Have A Good Sandwich

PittGirl’s all the rage these days, from comments in the CP to her raging lovefest with The MacYapper. In light of this, I wanted to republish the interview with her that was first published in HaGS’s former life in… holy hell, 2005!

The person: PittGirl from The Burgh Blog

The place: Jimmy John’s, 506 Liberty Ave. Pittsburgh PA, 15219

The date: October 4th, 2005.

The sandwiches: Woy – #5 (The Vito Italian Sub), Pittgirl – #4 (The Turkey Tom)

Abstract: After a miscue where I went to meet PittGirl at Jimmy’s on the wrong day (definitely my fault), we were able to successfully meet up the following week. She told me, “You’ll know me when you see me.” Sure enough, I did. I found Pittgirl to be a funny, confident, and (yes boys!) attractive young woman. She prefers to remain anonymous and to this day is a bit of a mystery to me. I don’t even know her real name, and I spent 45 minutes with her at lunch!

In this first installment, we’ll learn where she’s from, what inspires her, and about her healthy relationship with SteelerNation.

Have A Good Sandwich: Are you from Pittsburgh originally?

PittGirl: Born in the East (Pittsburgh), and I went to school in Texas.

HAGS: Where in Texas?

PG: East Texas. So that’s why I seem to have an accent, that I like country music…

HAGS: How long did you spend there?

PG: 4 years. But I came home every summer. For work, internship, stuff like that.

HAGS: Which did you like more?

PG: When I was here, I missed Texas. When I’m in Texas, I miss home. When I was in school, when I said home I was talking about Pittsburgh. Then when I would come up and visit here I would say, “I gotta go home.”

HAGS: East Texas must have been a bit of a culture shock.

PG: College was a culture shock for me. I didn’t have… I was too concerned with college life to even care about where I was at times. I had probably about a difficult 6 months… I don’t make friends that easily… it’s just hard for me to make friends.

HAGS: I’m a little surprised!

PG: It took me a really long time to make a really good girl friend. Guys are easier, but girls… I don’t know, but I really have to put forth an effort.

HAGS: The inevitable question, why do think that is?

PG: I have noooooo idea.

HAGS: I know some women find other women difficult to get along with, is that it?

PG: No matter who it is, once I get to know them… I’ve never really had conflict in my life. I have no idea why that’s harder for me. My best friend in college was a guy and still is. It’s just easier, but I have no idea why. So it was hard for me to go to school in Texas. By the time I got over that and I had my friends and I had my groups… then it was like, “Oh, this is what I expected.” So it wasn’t a culture shock because it was so gradually coming at me while I was trying to figure this social thing out. Did you go away to college?

HAGS: No, it was home in Erie.

PG: I will encourage all of my children to do it because it was the best thing I did.

HAGS: Work brought you back, or did you just want to come back?

PG: There was nothing there to keep me there. That’s really the only reason. All through high school I really put it down… and then when I left, I was really happy that I did.

HAGS: There was an article on a Pittsburgh blog about “boomerangers”. And that’s what I’ve noticed about Pittsburgh natives. I mean, I was glad to get out of Erie and glad to be staying out. People have a tendancy to leave for a while… realize how much they miss the area and how much they love it and end up coming back. That sounds like something similar to what you experienced.

PG: Yeah, yeah. Because all through high school my friends that went to college here were just like, “Oh, I have to stay here because I don’t know what to do anywhere else.” I was like, “I can’t wait to get out of here!” But then they stayed and then left. I left and then came back. It’s odd, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else unless I get rich… and then I’d move to maybe L.A.

HAGS: I was out there and I was feeling the same way and was really excited about visiting and so on. But then, when you live through an earthquake and it’s not so fun anymore. I was out there and there was an 8.6 way, way east of the city. But it is beautiful. The weather is… I was out there for about a hundred days and only two days it rainted for about three hours.

PG: The only time I was there was Pasadena, for the Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade in college…

HAGS: Oh, yeah!

PG: So I think it’s just a fun time but I would never live there most likely.

HAGS: So you’ve been back in Pittsburgh for how long?

PG: About 10 years.

HAGS: And now you’re the creator of The Burgh Blog and its interesting take on Pittsburgh. You’ve singlehandedly managed to anger the Steelernation and also incur the wrath of pigeons. What is it about… and we’ve talked a little about this before… what is it about blogging that attracts you to the medium?

PG: I don’t know why I really started doing it. Just one day out of the blue I had all these ideas… not even ideas… just thoughts that came to me over and over, like the pigeons. The fact that Pittsburgh is generally just not an attractive city. The people! It’s just genetics. It’s a Polish town! That upsets people when I say that but I’m not the only one who notices these things. And in e-mails to my family… it’s a large family, no one knows I have this blog. Nobody! Not any of my sisters. We go back and forth a lot, and we always try to outdo each other… So one day I just said, “Let me go see what this whole thing’s about.” Not really sure if I was going to keep up with it… but it’s also been a good creative outlet for me, for writing. ‘cuz that’s something I don’t have a lot of time to do.

HAGS: Well, you started writing at age 11, correct?

PG: Right.

HAGS: And it’s kind of been an ongoing thing.

PG: Right.

HAGS: And you said you haven’t done as much as you would have liked.

PG: Correct. And the writing with me would be great… because I’m a quiet person.

HAGS: I’m finding this very interesting!

PG: I know that, I know this! I’m not shy, I’m just quiet. I prefer to stay home, not go out and stay out late. Just a quiet person. It doesn’t mean that I’m not outgoing.

HAGS: Right, two different things.

PG: So when I have my alone time, I’m not thinking of people or things I have to do tomorrow. When my family used to travel, they would love it… So when there was a big long family trip and we were on the road for hours and hours that’s what I was doing in my head… writing dialogue and scenes. Now my thing now is staying motivated to write the blog. Every day I’m like, “Man, I wonder if I’m going to have enough tomorrow to write about…” And there definitely days where I’m like, “I don’t have anything..” but then something will pop! It’s like golf, you know… I’m never doing this ever, ever, ever again then you’ll hit a straight one…

HAGS: It keeps you coming back.

PG: Correct.

HAGS: What’s the best thing you’ve gotten out of it so far?

PG: The best thing I’ve gotten out of it…

HAGS: Is there anything really rewarding, other than you get inspired… is there something that you’re like, “Wow, this makes me appreciate that I do this.”

PG: I think it’s just the outlet. I don’t think any of it affects the way I word things… whether its the comments I get or how many hits I get. So it’s not anything that I get…

HAGS: Which is a common reason why people do blog, so that they get that “pat on the back” and are looking for some sort of celebrity status.

PG: The only thing I’m really getting for myself is the outlet. Being able to say that I’m thinking. So that’s why I’m not saying, “Yea! Twenty thousand hits!” When I get twenty thousand hits, it wasn’t “Aw, good!” It was, “Thanks for coming!”

HAGS: Which is why you are maintaining your anonymity, because it gives you that freedom to a certain extent. And that’s, unfortunately, a sacrifice people sometimes make when they express themselves. I, honestly, when I started I anticipated remaining anonymous. That’s what I planned on doing. But then I became wrapped up in the starting of Pittsburgh Webloggers website and you can’t really rightly do that without identifying who you are. You have the unique position to pull it off.

PG: It’s important also because of my work. I have my hands in a lot of things around the city. I know a lot of people through my work, and I have to be careful to not offend people. Because if they knew who I was…

HAGS: Like Diamond Dave?

PG: I worry about him a lot…!

HAGS: Well, that other woman was very nasty also. She made some sort of…

PG: “Blueeyedgirl”!

HAGS: “Blueeyedgirl”! That’s it.

PG: I have to believe that “Blueeyedgirl” is brown-eyed, plain, large… I firmly believe it! She just picks on me… I mean, there’s other… there’s other… anytime I post anything she posts it over there. And their like, she’s like, “I wonder if anyone reads her blog. Who is this person?”

HAGS: So you think they are missing the boat that you are affectionately…

PG: A big boat.

HAGS: That you’re affectionately being satirical about the city.

PG: And the best part was some of the comments that were made toward me…

HAGS: Well, that one sentence alone…

PG: Yeah! It’s like, “Hello kettle!” But I didn’t say that… just so sorry you were offended. There’s people that take it very seriously…

HAGS: Have you gotten any hate mail, or people that are really upset?

PG: No. No. No one really sends e-mail except to say, “Hey, I found your blog. I thought it was good.”

HAGS: What would you consider your biggest inspirations for what you write about?

PG: I get most of my inspiration from the news.

HAGS: Obviously you have huge fans over at The Trib…!

PG: Oh yeah, they love me there. I’m just waiting for it… Everytime I check my e-mail account I’m like, “Here it comes!”

HAGS: (laughter) Here comes The Trib!

PG: Here comes The Trib! I know that somebody over at The Trib reads the blog. And I also know that lately they have not made any mistakes with their pictures putting something out there they shouldn’t… somebody saying, “Uh-uh, don’t let it get to…”

HAGS: My all time favorites is the tractor trailer overturned and, um, what was the other one…

PG: The surgery one was pretty…

HAGS: … that was pretty bad. But the tractor trailer one… “Put this on your office wall!” It’s just ridiculous… and one of the things that is funny is that you’re pointing out the ridiculous. Something that is not common-sensical. The one that got me immediately hooked into reading it was the hurricane one. I don’t know, it might have been Hurricane Dennis… “located in the lower right corner of this picture.” (laughter) And it’s just this absolutely massive storm..

PG: (laughs) I know!

HAGS: Oh yeah, that was Fox News… it was just awesome.

PG: I don’t know, I guess I’m just observant. Instead of just looking at a picture for what it is, I look at the background. And that’s where, sometimes, things just pop out.

(Stay tuned to see what else pops out with Pittgirl. Sorry… we assure you her top stays on during the duration of the interview…)

Editor’s Note: There’s a lost “part 2″ of this interview that may see the light of day at some point!