home again, home again.

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Seth and I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who hosted us (or offered to host us), to all of you who treated us to dinner, or brought us baked goods on our recent trip home to the States.

The trip home was surprisingly normal. I had a lot of mixed feelings about making the journey back to Pittsburgh for three weeks. There were nervous moments, stressed moments, excited moments, and emotional moments that had me crying into my pillow for no discernible reason, and that was before we even left Wellington.

Early Easter with Pittsburgh family

Neither of us had any idea what to expect. Seth has moved around a lot, but he's never gone back to visit a place before, and I have lived in Pittsburgh my entire life. We realised that when visiting with family it was as if we had just been over for dinner the previous week. Friends had a much bigger reaction, we had to answer the same few questions a million times. As it was happening it was all quite strange, but as we thought about it we realised that our family gets to talk to us on a regular basis through the power of the interwebs. They already know that Seth likes his job and that I have been teaching Kiwi kids. Our friend on the other hand rarely get more than a passing glimpse into our lives. In the past year I have only had two Skype sessions with someone I wasn't related to so most people rely on Facebook to know how we're doing.


I must say I am very proud of my friends and all their achievements. Every single person seemed to have at least one really amazing project going on in their lives, whether it be a fully funded Kickstarter for a summer tour of Europe or a new addition to the family. {Not saying that children and husbands are projects, but sometimes it sure can feel like it}. Our Back in the 'Burgh party felt an awful lot like a really chill networking event at times, with people making connections left and right. My friends are seriously amazing.

Exhibit A: Awesomeness
Not Pictured: Even More Awesomeness

I am still saddened that we were not able to visit with everyone and there were many people we did see, but not for nearly long enough. I felt deeply regretful after both my visit to Filmmakers and PCA. It seemed as if we were just barely able to scratch the surface of everyone's past year when it came time to depart. And both those visits were nearly a full work-day long!

If anyone is looking for a way to make me smile, take some pictures of the animation classroom
at PCA and the library at PF and send them to me.


Quite a sizable chunk of our trip was dedicated to work meetings. It was awesome learning more about all the amazing initiatives happening in Pittsburgh. We were even treated to a small glimpse of some creative endeavors happening in Fredericksburg, VA when we were visiting with Seth's parents. We were able to visit with Tom Lauwers who graciously donated nine Hummingboard robot kits to us so we can expand our robotics courses in Wellington, I picked Ani Martinez's brain about the Digital Corps, and I hung out with some kids at Assemble as I shared my interactive, conductive painting.


I owe quite a lot to Assemble and it's director, Nina. When I first started setting up MakerBox here in New Zealand I turned to her for advice and support. Despite the fact that we didn't know each other well prior to the move, she was very gracious and shred some of her own personal experiences with me. On this trip we made a point to rent out the Assemble space for the aforementioned Back in the 'Burgh party.

In Fredericksburg Seth gave a talk about Linux in the movies at the England Run Library. The library was incredibly modern and even featured a makerspace. In all of my professional interactions I was surprised at how comfortable I felt talking people I didn't necessarily know all that well. The Pittsburghers made it pretty easy I suppose, even acquaintances greeted me with huge hugs.

Visiting Pittsburgh actually made it easier to come back home to Wellington. I suppose it's easier to leave once you know that everything is okay. Your friends are still your friends, your family hasn't forgotten you, and everyone is doing well. On our 20+ hour journey to the States Seth expressed the fear that perhaps we would go back and realise we really missed Pittsburgh.

Sister's Day

Instead our visit helped put frustrations I have with New Zealand into perspective. It's easy to put rose-coloured glasses on when looking back at our time in the 'burgh, but honestly, many of the things that drive me insane here existed in Pittsburgh too. I just choose not to recall those frustrations.

I do miss our friends and family. I miss autumn and pumpkins that are actually pumpkins, instead of regular squash masquerading as pumpkins. I miss all the gray rainy days that Pittsburgh brings and the smell of chemicals and old film equipment that permeates the back hallways of Pittsburgh Filmmakers. I miss Christmas being in a sensible season, like winter.

Favourite park in it's spring finery...

In the end, I think Pittsburgh will always be a very important place for us, but truth is, Seth had nothing to worry about. Pittsburgh doesn't really fit us anymore. I think perhaps it's like a relationship where you have to break up for awhile to grow separately, only to ultimately get back together once you are both a little bit wiser. We still aren't ruling out returning, but now is not the time.

We've got work to do elsewhere.

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