12-12-2016 by The Pitt News

A place to unwind: No 24-hour diners in Oakland Whether you’re hungry after getting out of the bar or finishing a late-night study session, your options are scarce. Why does Oakland — unlike many other college towns — not have any 24-hour diners? by Kelechi Urama | Staff Writer

see online for full video Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

t’s 3 a.m., and you’re in the midst of pulling an all-nighter, finishing an essay for one course and studying for a final exam in another. Your stomach growls, and you realize you haven’t eaten since breakfast. You examine your options: Market Central is closed, but you can still grab McDonald’s, pizza from Sorrento’s or Antoon’s or… Well, that’s pretty much it. Though students frequently stay up until the early morning hours studying for finals — or perhaps don’t sleep at all — food options near campus at 1 or 2 a.m. are scarce. Students at Ohio University have the Union Street Diner in Athens, Ohio — open 24 hours. Students at Penn State have a Denny’s in State College, Pennsylvania — open 24 hours. Oakland has no 24-hour options. And

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the places that do exist — like Pamela’s Diner — close relatively early for the late-night schedule many college students live by. Why? The answer, according to multiple restaurant owners in the area, is that latenight hours bring crowds from the bars, and most owners aren’t interested in dealing with inebriated college students and the security issues that would entail. The concerns about safety and security aren’t unfounded. Current Pitt students may not know that Original’s Hot Dog Shop, also known as “The O,” used to stay open until 5 a.m. and was a hot spot for late night crowds. An article titled “All About the O” ran in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2009 and described the restaurant as “bustling” with inebriated crowds even

at 2 a.m. In addition to the drunken restaurant-goers, Pittsburgh police were a regular fixture to prevent patrons from getting out of hand. Recurring violence in the early hours of the morning culminated in a fatal shooting outside the O in October 2005 and another on Forbes Avenue in August 2013. While representatives from the O declined to comment on why, the beloved late-night favorite is now open until 1:30 a.m. at the latest. Brandon Smith is the co-owner of Fuel and Fuddle, whose restaurant sees a portion of the late-night, rowdy crowd. The restaurant’s kitchen is open until 1 a.m. and the bar until 2 a.m., when it offers half-priced food deals. “After 1 o’clock, it gets kind of drunk

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in Oakland,” Smith said. “So, we kind of avoid all that. [We close at 2] to avoid the heavy alcohol hours.” Smith said he often gets comments from people — particularly those leaving nearby bars like Hemingway’s Cafe after 2 a.m. — wondering why Fuel and Fuddle doesn’t stay open later. He admitted there have been conversations about extending the restaurant’s hours, but ultimately, he’s leaning against it. “If it’s not broke, then don’t fix it,” Smith said. “It’s also a lot to ask my staff to work that hard that late.” John Ritter — co-owner of Ritter’s in Bloomfield, which is open 24 hours Wednesday through Saturday — is also wary about security. Ritter said 1 to 2 a.m. closing times is probably going to See Diners on page 3

Diners, pg. 2 continue as the norm around Pittsburgh. “Late at night, you get a lot of riffraff. People get in fights, and things get damaged. It can be a headache,” Ritter said. In addition to safety concerns, however, some owners said it’s too expensive for them to stay open late. Michelle Mazzella, the co-owner of Pamela’s, says that even the popular Forbes Avenue diner would have trouble justifying the cost of extended their hours late into the night. “[Extending hours] requires hiring new staff, more prep work from the cooks and there would have to be a new dinner menu,” Mazzella said. “It’s not cost-effective.” But maybe the situation is different in Oakland — where the demographics differ from other non-college dominated neighborhoods. Ritter’s owners haven’t considered branching outside their Bloomfield location. It’s a “mom-and-pop kind of place,” Ritter said over the phone, but he

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acknowledged that the 24-hour model could work in Oakland. Pamela’s location in Oakland did have a brief stint as a 24-hour diner “about 10 years ago,” according to Mazzella. However, it switched back to its current

restaurant open past its current closing time of 11 p.m. The Porch is owned by Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, a restaurant division that also owns the 24-hour Eat’n Park diners located around the city and Hello Bistro.

Late at night, you get a lot of riff-raff. People get in fights, and things get damaged. It can be a headache. - John Ritter

8 a.m. to 4 p.m. schedule after a month due to a lack of traffic. Pat Kelly, the manager of The Porch, also questions the cost of keeping the

“The hours are based around the sales flow of traffic coming into the city,” Kelly said. At the end of The Porch’s first year in

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2011, they noticed that after 9 p.m., the restaurant became “a ghost town,” and business slowed down significantly. A late night, half-priced pizza special — introduced later in 2011 — still provides the restaurant with a steady stream of night time customers today, especially during finals week, but Kelly still doesn’t believe it’s feasible to stay open later than 11 p.m. “For the amount of money you’d have to bring in just to break even, it’s just very difficult,” Kelly said. Allison Harnden is Pittsburgh’s new night time economy coordinator and recently worked with Mayor Bill Peduto to create initiatives for a safer, more vibrant nightlife in the South Side. Harnden supports the idea of a 24-hour diner in Oakland and is optimistic about its potential but said the challenge is in changing attitudes. “Part of the issue is changing the perception of a 24-hour city,” Harnden said. “It’s not just people coming out of bars that are going to go to a diner — it could be someone getting off work at the hospital or a police officer going to work a graveyard shift.”

Tents and tests: Hillman during finals week Janine Faust Staff Writer

Students often study and sleep in Hillman Library during finals. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Every chair in Hillman Library is filled, every table strewn with textbooks and notes, every face marked with the undeniable signs of exhaustion and stress. Students are curled up in their PJs, clutching caramel macchiatos and murmuring math formulas and historical dates. Many have stayed for a full 24 hours, since Hillman keeps its doors open around the clock for finals week. Some may have laid out sleeping bags or even mattresses on the floor in preparation for a long night with a semester’s worth of course material. Some may have even pitched tents. As students flood the floors of the library, the staff at Hillman help them find books,

keep caffeinated and keep the peace by waking up any snoring studiers. Like managers of a factory, the staff works to help students manage stress but say that despite the late and busy hours, finals week is one of the most fun and memorable parts of the semester. Caroline Brown, the information area manager for the Hillman Library, discovered a tent in the Thornburgh reading room eight years ago around finals. A sign taped to the outside of the tent, large enough for three or four people, read “respect the tent.” “It was empty, so we took it down,” Brown said. “A couple hours later, a student showed up asking where his tent was, and we had to tell him he couldn’t have it in the library.” During finals week, study spots around campus are packed with students cramming for their last exams. Hillman Library is notoriously busy at all hours of the day and night, filled with students drinking large amounts of caffeine, surviving on little to no sleep or possibly setting up a campsite with everything minus a fire.

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Brown, who has worked at Hillman for 16 years, describes finals week as “one of the most fun times” in her job. “People can get stressed, but they also come in with good news about grades and reports when they come to drop stuff off or pay fines,” Brown said. “Plus, everybody’s looking forward to going home for winter break.” Brown once found a mattress (sans owner) in a reserved room. She also said sleeping bags and the like are not uncommon after the start of finals. “Right after Thanksgiving, we fill up every morning, and it stays that way until late at night,” Brown said. “A lot of kids study in their pajamas.” If confronted with a sleeping student, Brown said she and her colleagues just let him or her be unless they hear snoring. “Other students find it irritating, especially if it’s on one of the quieter upper levels, so we just tap them on the shoulder and let them know,” Brown said. See Hillman on page 15

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December 12, 2016

UP ALL NIGHT For students with insomnia, the inevitable sleepless nights become time for studying — but at a cost.

by James Evan Bowen-Gaddy

Kelly Shaw is lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering why she’s so tired, but she can’t sleep. At this point she’s just a third-grader, so she asks her father what to do. He tells her he bets she can’t count to 2,000 before falling asleep, so she takes him up on it. “It worked the first couple of nights,” Shaw said. “But once you start getting to 2,000, the counting isn’t as effective.” Shaw, now a senior at Pitt studying psychology and sociology, has given up on counting to high numbers to fall asleep these days because she knows it won’t work. She’s a self-diagnosed insomniac. According to Pitt researcher and UPMC sleep expert Dr. Peter Franzen, 10 percent of the population is affected by insomnia, defined as “difficulty sleeping despite adequate opportunity.” Franzen said a clinical diagnosis of insomnia is less common, but many people have insomnia symptoms,

such as trouble sleeping and daytime drowsiness. When it becomes a chronic problem, he said, patients begin to call it insomnia. “What we know is that insomnia is really common,” Franzen said. “Everybody is going to suffer from some nights of insomnia at some point in their life. Whether it becomes a consistent problem, and then you could say have an insomnia disorder — well, that’s a different story.” College students, including Shaw, can be seriously affected by it. He stressed, however, that many students are typically victims not of insomnia but of sleep deprivation, a more conscious choice that can be avoided. “Those are two very different things,” Franzen said. “Sleep deprivation [is when] you’re not getting enough sleep, but you could if you just tried. Insomnia [is when] you have an adequate sleep opportunity — you just don’t get enough sleep.” After so many years of battling insom-

Harpreet Bassi , who is self-diagnosed with insomnia, often spends her nights drawing and reading. Jordan Mondell ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR nia, Shaw said she is tired of having restless often staying up all night at least once per week and using that time to catch up on nights. As a child, she asked to go to “night school work. She said it’s much easier to get things school.” In college, she has adjusted her work schedule to fit into her long nights, See Insomnia on page 7

The Pitt News SuDoku 12/12/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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December 12, 2016

Insomnia, pg. 6 done when no one else in Oakland is awake, letting her stay focused. It’s only when the sun comes up that she’s reminded this isn’t normal behavior. “There’s been a lot of times where my roommates come down during what’s morning for them, and I’m just like, ‘Oh sh**, the world’s awake now,’” Shaw said. Franzen said this kind of behavior is not recommended or healthy for students trying to learn, however. Studies show that sleep deprivation affects not only mood but also memory and motivation. More than once, Shaw said, her sleep impairment has seriously worried her. Once, as she studied for an exam after two sleepless nights, she began to hallucinate. “I was just looking at PowerPoint printout notes, and there was this colored blob that was forming in the middle of the page and moving,” Shaw said. Although insomnia can start for many reasons, including illness, chronic pain, stress, side effects of medications or depression, Franzen said it often spirals into a “chronic insomnia that maintains itself.” Because of this, Franzen says a strong treatment route is behavioral interventions, which focuses on changing habits that could be causing insomnia. “People might think they want to lay in bed and be resting, but what you’re doing is just training your body to say, ‘When I’m in bed, I’m going to be frustrated and awake,’” Franzen said. “You want to break those associations and know that when you’re in bed, you’re going to be sleeping.” With one study from June 2016, Franzen and a team of researchers found that having a sleep diary could improve sleep. The subjects, students from Carlow University, kept track of when they went to bed, when they woke up and how many times they up each night. Franzen said that even though they didn’t have a control group — a requirement for claiming causality — they were still surprised to see many of the students’ sleep improve. The other method towards solving insomnia is pharmacological treatment — drugs like Ambien, Lorazepam or Lunesta. Harpreet Bassi, a Pitt senior studying biochemistry, has battled insomnia symptoms intermittently since high school and consistently since her sophomore year of college, and has attempted to take melato-

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nin supplements as a treatment. She’s also tried stronger treatments like diphenhydramine HCl, a non-habit-forming and nonprescription drug, but she saw little benefit to taking either drug. She said the one chemical that can help is alcohol. “Drinking nights are great,” Bassi said. “The alcohol puts you to sleep. Some nights I just go to bed a little earlier, [but] I’m still going to bed at 3, 4 a.m.” Franzen said many college students believe this to be true but that alcohol is actually detrimental to healthy sleep. Since alcohol is a strong hypnotic, it will easily help aid someone in falling asleep. This doesn’t last, however, because once they starts withdrawing from the alcohol, their sleep becomes much lighter. “You might have an easier time falling asleep, but you’ll have a harder time throughout the night,” Franzen said. When Bassi isn’t trying to treat her insomnia, she’s reading or drawing. The activities she likes to do during the day feel better than simply lying in bed doing nothing. “My night drawings are a lot better,” Bassi said. “Just more detailed. I guess I have more time where I’m not doing anything [else].” Even though this gives Bassi a few more hours to work at night, she finds the effects of sleep deprivation during the day erratic. “Sometimes, if I haven’t slept a night, I’m super loopy the next day, and that’s kind of one of the best feelings,” Bassi said. “Just like, ‘Whoa, everything seems unreal.’ The high without the drugs. Other times I’m so tired, I don’t want to talk to anyone.” Shaw echoed this feeling of elation that can come about the next day. She said if she’s pulled an all-nighter, she’s hit with a rush of energy around 8 a.m. “I’ve definitely experienced a mental crash where my brain turns off but my body keeps moving, and it’s weird, but there’s something kind of enjoyable about it,” Shaw said. Although Shaw takes melatonin pills, she said she’s not really interested in trying any other treatments since the extra time has become necessary to her work schedule. “I hit the point where I started accepting it and working with it,” Shaw said. “I’ve made it my thing, and — I’m not going to lie — sometimes I take a little bit of pride in it.”

December 12, 2016

Sleep Attack: Living with Narcolepsy Maya Puskaric

Contributing Editor When I think back to high school, I mostly remember sleeping through more classes than I was awake for. I remember pushing myself out of bed in the morning with the mantra, “just get up and get dressed, and you can sleep through homeroom and first period.” Only after a chorus of three alarms and my mom’s screaming do I remember flinging myself into the shower just to then fall asleep on the floor of the tub. Once, during a routine checkup when the doctor asked if there was anything I wanted to discuss, I spoke out for the first time about my sleep concerns. She barely looked up from her clipboard and told me there was nothing to worry about. I was just an average teenager. Teenagers are sleepy. Water is wet. She rattled off a few facts about young adults needing more sleep than children, said I had a clean bill of health and moved on to the next appointment. A year or so later, I tried to bring it up again. This time, she asked me a set of loaded questions inquiring how much I slept, how often I exercised, how well I ate and other habits no high school student would ever practice appropriately.

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TNS When I answered truthfully, she scolded me: if I was not getting a consistent eight hours of sleep a night, there was no way to prove there was anything wrong with my sleep. My exhaustion was the result of poor choices. Having a full schedule of AP classes, I had no way of actually sleeping for the full eight hours she needed to prove anything. So, for four years

of high school and two years of college, I assumed constantly fighting to stay awake was something everyone dealt with — that it was my fault for not living a healthy lifestyle. During my spring semester of sophomore year, I had a mix-up with my class schedule. This resulted in me having class straight through from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. As the semester

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continued, I began to struggle intensely to stay awake or remain even vaguely coherent throughout the day. After falling asleep for the umpteenth time in my last class of the day, my professor pulled me outside and reprimanded my actions. He asked if I was okay, but I had no reason to believe I was not, even though I desperately felt otherwise. I was completely destroyed by that interaction. I felt like I was a failure of a student who was letting my drastic laziness control my life. I was irritable, frustrated and so extremely, hopelessly tired. I stayed awake in his class from then on by sheer terror and a strategy of well-timed snacking on sour Skittles. Still residually frustrated, the following summer I used that interaction to will myself to talk to a new doctor. As I sat outside in the waiting room, I played through all the ways she would reject what I had to say or dismiss me to see a therapist. But, unbelievably, she listened. Not only did she listen, but she seemed genuinely concerned. I left that day with instructions to make an appointment with a sleep specialist and a prescription for some basic bloodwork. I also left with a little more hope about the situation and a lot more fear about See Narcolepsy on page 15

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December 12, 2016

OAKLAND AT 4 A.M.

see online for full video At 4 a.m. on the Sunday before finals, Oakland is a ghost town. Ashwini Sivaganesh CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER At the top of the Cathedral steps, first- cycling down the road ... maybe not 4 a.m., was really fixated on the fact that this didn’t Ashwini Sivaganesh and Brady look like any mandolin he had seen before,” year Caleb Kim holds out his hand for Ester maybe 2 a.m. — not quite this late.” Langmann The Pitt News Staff

Oakland at 4 a.m looks like a scene pulled from a wintery, post-apocalyptic horror movie. A fresh coat of snow covers any surface exposed to the 28-degree windchill, and the streets are empty besides the rare truck or charter bus, racing through traffic lights from intersection to intersection. Visitors aren’t welcome into most of the buildings that make up Pitt’s campus. It’s the Sunday before Finals Week, but if you venture outside and into one of the few spots that are open 24 hours on campus — the Cathedral of Learning, 7-Eleven and Towers — you’ll see a side of Pitt reserved for the inebriated and the insomniatic among us. 4:06 a.m. — Cathedral of Learning The Bigelow Boulevard crosswalk hasn’t been traversed for the last hour — apparent by the lack of car tracks and footprints on the lightly dusted pavement. The intersection of Fifth and Bigelow, usually a choreographed exchange of students bustling from one side of the street to the other, now only saw the swirling of snow every time the occasional car passed by.

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Lee, who is moments away from falling flat on the sidewalk. Besides their water-repellent puffer jackets, the duo’s shoes suggest they didn’t expect the weather change. Then again, the last time they were outside was 9 p.m. Kim and Lee cooped up in a fourth floor conference room to study, a new regimen that’d manifested itself in the weeks leading up to finals. “During the day, I find myself very distracted by floormates and such. I have a prime time from about 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. where I’m just super into academics. But before and after that, it’s just a little ... meh,” Kim said. Instead of studying in Hillman for his pre-physical therapy classes, Kim is now accustomed to leaving the Cathedral to the sounds of Christmas music playing from the security guard’s phone — today was “Frosty the Snowman.” Kim doesn’t anticipate waking up before 2 p.m., but before making a pit stop at 7-Eleven on his way home to Tower A, he’s knows there’s a chance of experiencing something unusual. “I remember earlier in the year there were naked cyclists. That was weird.” Kim said. “They were like in their underwear and

4:17 a.m. — Hillman Library It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when or how it gets this way, but sometime between the exodus from Oakland’s watering holes and the alarms of UPMC’s morning shift workers, Hillman Library becomes a glitch in the matrix — a sea of sleep-deprived scholars working toward a deadline, but having crashed from their last caffeine dose, have little concept of time at all. On the ground floor, there’s a group of guys so far gone that a couple of them have twisted Joker smiles plastered on their faces while the others look shell-shocked, staring through computer screens. Next to them is a whiteboard, a collage of equations and penises. Nick Bersin, one of the men in the group, looks freeze-framed — slightly slumped in his chair, smiling, holding a mandolin. When he’s startled from whatever post-exams fantasy he’s in, Bersin talks like he hasn’t seen another human being in hours, raving about his mandolin, giving the strings a pluck or two every other sentence. “I had one guy on the bus on the way here — God, it was like 2 p.m., this is so depressing — who asked me about [the mandolin] and

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Bersin said. Bersin, a junior German, Eastern European and French major, just came from an event for Cornerstone, a campus Christian group. A box of Count Chocula cereal, standing tall to the left of his laptop, is his fuel for the night. He bought the treat on impulse at 7-Eleven a few hours ago on a caffeine run. “I’m six years old in my mind,” he said. “Sometimes, if I really hate myself, I’ll get cookie dough and just eat it.” And the work. There’s his capstone paper, three essays and three finals, which normally would be doable, except he’s an interpreter for a young German student at the Falk school, so he has to get up at 10 a.m. — if he even decides to go to bed. “I’m actually writing a paper that was due four and a half hours ago,” he said. “Honestly, at this point I’m not tired, and I have a perpetual stack of work.” 4:31 a.m. — 7-Eleven Kalina Bland, 21, and Raelynn Davenport, 23, shuffle around the counter restocking supplies as they started settling into the quieter hours of their 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. Davenport leans on the counter and See Oakland on page 11

finals week horror stories

Brady Langmann

Culture Editor

Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR If you’re feeling anxious or upset before an exam or just need a pick-me-up, you might be in luck — the Donut Guy could be in your class. During his first year at Pitt, before an exam for Biology 1 — a class famous for weeding out those entering the premed track — Travis Slopek figured he’d buy three dozen pastries from Dunkin’ Donuts and share them with his classmates. “I did it on a whim because it was a tough class — because, you know, who doesn’t like donuts?” Slopek said. Slopek, now a senior psychology major, has since dished out treats before

approximately 30 tests, mostly for hardto-pass science classes. He said most of his peers are surprised when he walks into a midterm or final, boxes stacked high in his hands — they expect him to ask for money for the food. Slopek’s motivations are much simpler than that. “They asked me why I did it, and I was like, ‘Well, it’d be really cool if someone did this for me,’” he said. “I’d be pretty happy if I came to my Bio 1 or Organic Chemistry or whatever horrible science class we were doing and just gave a little something like, ‘Hey, everything’s gonna be cool, we’re gonna make it through. Enjoy a donut — you’ve made it this far.’”

Oakland, pg. 10 watches her night manager rattle off a story about some of the drunken shenanigans that take place on a traditional weekend night in Oakland. “I legitimately watched a girl stand at the donut case for a half an hour, drunk, just staring ... I kept asking her if she needed help. She said she knew what she wanted, but she really didn’t,” Bland said. Bland’s pink hair — which matches the icing on the donut that the drunk girl never bought — and colored contacts show no signs of fatigue. Meanwhile, Davenport, who just started working here on Thursday, slowly rests her head further into her arms near the cash register. Besides the hourly visits from Pitt police in need of caffeine, Bland and Davenport

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Ian Loughney had an offer to go to a gettogether at his buddy’s house on the Friday night of finals week this past spring. It was one last chance to see his friends before the summer — enjoy a beer or two. One problem: his last final, Renaissance Art, was Saturday morning. He was going back home on Sunday, too, so he couldn’t go out Saturday night. “I was like, ‘Alright, it’s fine. I’ll go over there, I’ll have a couple beers, I won’t get too crazy. I can come home after it, and I’ll study a bit. I’ll go to bed and wake up for my final,’” Loughney said. “It seems like everyone who’s ever said that — that just does not happen. That plan went to sh** so quick.” Loughney doesn’t remember much from that night, but by 9:30 p.m., he somehow made his way to Carnegie Mellon University’s campus, waking up in a stranger’s room somewhere on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside about an hour before his final started. He didn’t even have a

aren’t expecting a lot of visitors before the end of their shift. For Bland, nothing will top an incident three months prior when a group of basketball players from a visiting school posted up near the slurpee machine one night. “[These guys] sat at the slurpee machine, under it, pulling the slurpee machine and drinking it. It was literally about who could do it longer, and they were under there — one had a brain freeze — and I was like, ‘You guys are crazy,’” Bland said. 4:43 a.m. — Towers Lobby She looks like a mannequin — still, eyes closed, behind a glass pane. As 5 a.m. nears, Ciara Smith, Tower B’s security guard from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. that morning, slowly lifts her eyelids and peers through the window. With finals week approaching, this shift is an easy one so far: No red and blue lights, uniforms or screaming

pencil. Incredibly, he booked it down Fifth, bought a pencil at 7-Eleven and made his way toward the Frick Fine Arts building. Midway through identifying famous paintings and sculptures on Powerpoint slides, his stomach turned. “I’m halfway through it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no,’” he said. Loughney pushed his way past his TA and professor standing at the door, stumbled into the bathroom and barfed in a toilet, the classroom close enough that his instructors heard just about everything. They must’ve thought he was actually ill, because the teachers asked if he needed more time. He ended up pushing through and finishing the test — one of the instructors told him they’d go easy on the grading — and he saw a “B” on MyPitt the next week. “While it was happening, I was like, ‘Wow, this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,’” he said. “But afterward, I just thought it was funny.”

students. “Tower B, there’s always the ambulance,” Smith said. “There has never been a shift the ambulance didn’t come — well, tonight, they didn’t come. There’s always either an ambulance or police.” Smith, 18, says that Tower B usually doesn’t slow down until 3 a.m. She’s numb to it all at this point — first-years trying to sprint past her station and up the stairwell without swiping in first, others paranoid that she’ll write them up. Although she expects an alcohol-related incident or two a night, Smith enjoys the relative peace and quiet, especially considering that she’s pregnant. “[The night shift] is easier than the daylight shift because you don’t get bothered by anyone,” she said. 4:58 a.m. — Central Oakland Past Forbes and down Atwood, through

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Louisa and Bates, it’s all silent, except for the occasional car passing through, warding off the temptation to walk down the middle of the street or make snow angels on a stranger’s lawn. All of it serves as Pitt’s backdrop, its movie set: porches only populated by a bike or a beer can, neon lights outside pitch-black storefronts, the snow falling faster, lit by the orange glow of a parking garage or a lamp post’s white light. Oakland at 4 a.m. — the silent neighborhood, inhabited by the characters who carry the stories of our drunken nights and halfconscious study sessions — is something that most of us will never see. In bed, at work or somewhere in between, almost everyone is where they’re supposed to be, from the Hillman heroes to the clerks and guards that keep it all running, even with Oakland’s eyes shut.

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December 12, 2016

Stephen Caruso SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

J. Dale Shoemaker Managing Editor

And here it is again, another sleepless night and my last at The Pitt News. These feelings are all too familiar: the dryness of my eyes, the vague throbbing in my head, the pain in my neck. Probably the biggest lie I’ve told myself over the past three and a half years is a recurring one: I’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour. Instead, I just became really good at functioning on five or six hours of sleep every night. Even on the nights I couldn’t get home from the office until 2 a.m. and knew I had to be awake for class at 9 a.m., I couldn’t force myself to go to bed. Instead, I’d sit in my standard-issue Pitt chair at my standard-issue Pitt desk and read essays or write long emails or scribble notes about future plans. I’d use the time to think, reflect on the day, plan the next day and decompress. Occasionally, I’d lose track of time until the clock confronted me — 4:30 a.m. — reminding me tomorrow was already happening. Sleepless nights, if taken as a whole, have defined my time at Pitt. When I think back over the moments that have helped shape myself and my future, they always took place in the dark. I can almost never remember the sun. It’s always those twilight hours, between bedtime and sunrise, that have molded my worldview, sharpened my dreams and helped me figure out who I am and who I want to be. I owe my life to those nights. As a now-22-year-old and soon to be graduate, I suspect I am not alone. My first semester, when Lorde’s album came out, I was taking my first journalism class. I was writing my first piece of longform nonfiction, a braided essay about growing up in Hollidays-

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burg, Pennsylvania. “Pure Heroine” was on repeat, either in my earbuds or out loud from my phone. My weeknights, one after another, were spent dreaming, as Lorde did in every song. I had escaped my small central Pennsylvania town — the world was wide open. But that also terrified me. I had a panic attack when my friends started talking about signing a lease for an apartment. I was thrilled to be on my own but hadn’t realized I wasn’t ready for the realities of the world. Laying in my Tower C bed each night, my mind spun constantly, oscillating between elation at the possibilities of the future and fear of everything I didn’t know. Was nursing the right major for me? (It wasn’t). How could I prove myself as a writer? How hard did I have to work? How do I leave a legacy? When am I going to die? How am I going to die? I didn’t sleep much that semester. I dropped my nursing major after my first year here and threw myself into journalism, a decision made largely over the course of my sleepless nights. It was the career I had wanted from the start but didn’t talk about because I didn’t think I’d be able to get a job. With that fear still nipping at my heels and knowing I needed to prove to myself I’d made the right decision, I poured myself into The Pitt News, writing as much as I physically could. At night, after I’d filed a story, I’d sit up at my dorm room desk, this time in Lothrop Hall, and think: Was I working hard enough? How could I get better? Was I on the right path? Was any of this work going to pay off ? My head would spin, and my nights were dreamless.

The Pitt news crossword 12/12/16

The sleepless nights that made me

Find the full story online at

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December 12, 2016

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December 12, 2016

Hillman, pg. 4 Like Brown, Waide Matthews — the maintenance manager for the stacks at Hillman — came across a tent in one of the reading rooms on the library’s third floor. “It had a note on it saying anybody who wanted to sleep in it could,” Matthews said. During his 21 years working at the library, Matthews has seen students sleeping under tables, putting up blankets as dividers and camping out in group study rooms. Yet, the craziest thing about finals to Matthews is the aroma that hangs in the air right before the impending week of doom. “Kids don’t go to their dorms to shower, and combine that with the pizza and Chipotle and whatever else they’re eating, and you get something funky,” Matthews said. Elizabeth Harrison, a shift leader at the Cup and Chaucer Cafe, said the flow of students increases during finals week. Instead of dashing names on cups, she just yells out the type of coffee. “We usually get a five to seven minute break between customer rushes throughout the semester,” Harrison said. “We usually don’t get any more than a minute during finals.” Harrison, who has been working in Hillman for 13 years, said up to 3,000 people come and get coffee assembly line-style during finals, shuffling into line, placing their order and then trudging

Narcolepsy, pg. 8 what was to come. My sleep doctor was a kind, inquisitive man who wanted to test as many variables as possible. The day of that appointment was when I started to finally understand I had been right all along. Some X-rays, an overnight sleep test, a lung function test and a multiple latency daytime sleep test — or MLST — later I received my official diagnosis: narcolepsy. During my MLST, I had fallen asleep in less than three minutes on all five monitored naps and hit REM sleep twice, a clear indication of narcolepsy. What made my diagnosis tricky was that I do not present the symptom of cataplexy. When narcolepsy is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the idea of someone falling asleep in an instant, unable to wake up. This is not entirely true. Cataplexy is a sudden episode of muscle weakness that can be brought on by intense emotion such as laughter or fear. The person suffering the attack will remain awake and aware the entire time and can experience symptoms as slight as slurred speech or as severe as temporary paralysis. Although cataplexy goes hand in hand with narcolepsy, narcolepsy can exist without it or develop later in life. Because of this misconception, doctor neg-

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back to their workload, espresso in hand. “We serve up to 250 to 270 people an hour, easy,” Harrison said. William Owens, who has been unloading trucks with items for Einstein Bros. Bagels and the coffee carts for three years, said everything in Hillman runs out fast around finals. And as a server at the complimentary coffee carts during the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift, Owens said he is astounded by the large number of students who are still camping out in Hillman, desperate for a dose of caffeine to keep their eyes open while they pour over old midterms and readings dating back to September. “Chips, tea, cookies, coffee, milk –– it all sells out,” Owens said. “There’s hundreds of [students], packed into the rooms like sardines at 10 o’clock at night … These people are busy, and they don’t play around when it comes to coffee.” While working during finals week, Owens said he’s seen students padding across the floors in pajamas and coming up with bizarre methods of keeping themselves energized. “I saw a dance party going on in one of the reserved rooms late at night,” he said. “Don’t know how long that was allowed to keep on.” As the hours wound down to Monday and morale dropped to the week’s lowest point, Brown had one plea for students who have decided to make Hillman a temporary home: remember that supplies are limited. “Please,” she said. “We’re completely out of giveaways at this point, and our staplers keep disappearing.” ligence and a stigma around sleep disorders, it is estimated less than 25 percent of people with narcolepsy are ever diagnosed. Of those who are, it takes on average three to ten years of bouncing from doctor to doctor to get a diagnosis. In addition to narcolepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, idiopathic hypersomnia and other sleep disorders go vastly undertreated for similar reasons. My battle has just begun. I still have a long way to go fighting insurance to pay for my medication, playing trial and error to discover the right doses and dealing with medication tolerance as it happens. Still, I have never felt so at ease with life. Knowing that I am not making up my feelings and that there is something truly, physically wrong causing the problems I face is comforting. I no longer feel guilty when I have to put off plans to nap or pause studying before I fall asleep on my laptop. So far, the medication has helped greatly in combatting my symptoms, but I feel there is a long road ahead in figuring out how to balance its negatives and positives. Of all I have gained from this experience, what I can say is this: only you know what is normal for your body. If you feel like something is wrong, do not be discouraged by one, two or even more doctors and people who tell you to forget about it. Nobody can know you and what is correct for your body better than yourself. Do not ever be afraid to seek answers about your physical or mental health.

December 12, 2016

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December 12, 2016

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December 12, 2016

I N D E X

Rentals & Sublet

Employment

• NORTH OAKLAND • SOUTH OAKLAND • SHADYSIDE • SQUIRREL HILL • SOUTHSIDE • NORTHSIDE • BLOOMFIELD • ROOMMATES • OTHER

• CHILDCARE • FOOD SERVICES • UNIVERSITY • INTERNSHIPS • RESEARCH • VOLUNTEERING • OTHER

**AUGUST 2017: Furnished Studio, 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Bedroom Apts. No pets. Non-smokers preferred. 412-621-0457 1-2-3-4-5 Bedroom Houses & Apartments. 376 Meyran, 343 McKee, & Atwood, St. James, Bates St. $1,095-$2,000. Call 412-969-2790. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 bedroom apartments and houses available in May and August 2017. Nice, clean, free laundry, includes exterior maintenance, new appliances, spacious, located on Meyran, Bates, Oakland, Semple, Wellsford, Dawson, Juliet. 412-414-9629.

1-6 Bdr Apt./Houses. Updated kitchen, air conditioning, laundry. Some w/ parking.Summer 2017. 412-445-6117.

Services

Announcements

• AUTO • BIKES • BOOKS • MERCHANDISE • FURNITURE • REAL ESTATE • PETS

• EDUCATIONAL • TRAVEL • HEALTH • PARKING • INSURANCE

• ADOPTION • EVENTS • LOST AND FOUND • STUDENT GROUPS • WANTED • OTHER

2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom houses available ASAP. Call 412-385-3273. 2,3,5 BR houses. Available now. Bouquet, Atwood, & Dawson. Please call 412-287-5712. 3247 Juliet St. 2 BR. On street parking. $1100 plus gas & electric.

3722 Parkview Ave. 3 BR. Washer, dryer. $1800 + gas and electric. 3316 Juliet St. 4 BR. Washer, dryer. 2 full baths. $2140 + gas and electric. 421 Semple St. 2 BR. $1120 per month plus gas and electric. 3227 Hardie Way. 2 BR. Plus gas & electric. $890 per month. Laundry on site. 412-596-8732

1,2,3,4,6 BR. Available August 2017. Bigelow Boulevard, Truro Place, Craig, and Neville Street. Call 412-287-5712.

3408 Parkview Avenue 412-455-5600 CALL NOW Close to Campus! Studios, 1,2,3 BRS Avail May- Aug Pet Friendly & Parking

Boulevard. Free laundry. Central air. Really nice. 412-414-9629.

430 Atwood Street 412-455-5600 CALL NOW 1BR $675 & 2BR $895 4 Blocks from Campus Avail May-Aug. Pet Friendly!

2-3-4 bedroom houses. Available now or January 1st. At corner of Parkview and the

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Classifieds

For Sale

4 bedroom house near Playhouse & Mcgee Hospital. Spacious, equipped kitchen w/ dishwasher. Two large bedrooms. Freedom of expression encouraged! You can paint mural, engineering technology improvements. Material costs deducted from rent. $1800/mo+ utilities available immidiately. Contact Ron at 412-983-0279. 5,6,7 bedroom houses available. Located on Niagra, Chesterfield, Lawn, and Ophelia. Contact Brent 412-680-6209.

6,7&8 bedroom houses available starting August 1st 2017. Five minute walk to Pitt. No pets. 1 year lease. Call 412-983-5222. Dawson Street 3 bedroom house. Full backyard. Washer and dryer. $870+utilities. Available August 1. 412-334-2461. House for rent. Available Feb. 2017. Ideal for students. 34 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, large eat-in kitchen, front and back porches, large basement/storage. W/D included. Near universities/hospitals. On Pitt and PAT buslines. 1 block from minimart. Comfortable home. $1500+. 412-337-3151.

John CR Kelly Realty has studio, 1, and 2 bedroom apartments available for rent for Fall 2017. Starting from $635-$795. Located on Meyran, Pier, Ward. Call 412-683-7300 to make an appointment today! Large 1-2-3 BR apartments available August 1st. 3450 Ward Street. 312 and 314 South Bouquet Street. Free parking. Cat friendly. Call 412-977-0111. Large property management company needs person to create professional floor plans for rental units. Paid by job. Work around your schedule. Email interest to leasing@lobosmanagement.com. Limited 4,5,6 bedroom apartments & townhomes located in South Oakland. Larger Groups may want to explore renting 2 or 3 smaller apartments located in the same building. Call John C.R. Kelly Realty 412-683-7300 for Fall 2017

R A T E S

Insertions

1-15 Words

$6.30

$11.90

$17.30

$22.00

16-30 Words

$7.50

$14.20

$20.00

$25.00

(Each Additional Word: $0.10)

Deadline: Two business days prior by 3pm

Numerous 2 & 3 bedroom apartments located on Meyran, Halket, Fifth, Ward, and Bates. Starting from $995-$1775. Available August 2017. Call John CR Kelly Realty. 412-683-7300. Studio, 1 Bedroom & 2 bedroom. 216 Coltart. Off Street Parking. Available Aug. 2017. Free heat. Greve RealEstate. 412-261-4620. AVAILABLE NOW – SHADYSIDE/FRIENDSHIP $200 MOVE IN SPECIAL! Holden St. 2BR – Roof Deck! $1450 Maryland 3Br $1545 New SS Appliances! South Fairmount 1BR Private Entrance – $795 All Apartments are Pet Friendly! Call 412-455-5600 for a showing

AVAILABLE NOW – SQUIRREL HILL LUXURY RENOVATIONS! MODERN! GRANITE! SS APPLIANCES! ALL NEW! Eldridge St. – 1Br $895 Shady Ave –2BR $1295 or $1650 Murray Ave – 3BR $1695 4BR $1750 All Apartments are Pet Friendly Call 412-455-5600 for a showing 3,4,5 BR Sarah St & Wrights Way. Close to Pitt. Call 412-287-5712. Avail Aug 2017. 1-6 bedroom. All newly renovated, airconditioning, dishwasher, washer/dryer, and parking. Available Summer 2017. 412-915-0856.

Additional

$27.00

$30.20

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$29.10

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Email: advertising@pittnews.com

Participants Wanted for Paid Psychology Research for a research project at Carnegie Mellon University examining physiological responses (heart rate, blood pressure) while individuals perform behavioral tasks. To be eligible for this study, you must be: •18-30 yrs. old •In good health •Fluent in English You will earn $25 for your participation in this 2-hour study. For more information, call The Behavioral Health Research Lab (412-268-3029) Note: Unfortunately, our lab is not wheelchair accessible.

Phone: 412.648.7978

RESEARCH STATISTICAL INTERNSHIP (unpaid) available immediately in the Biobehavioral Oncology Program of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). We are seeking a student to volunteer up to 10 hours/week, continuing through the spring semester, to help with analysis of data from studies of psychological, behavioral, and brain influences in cancer. Candidates should possess good computer skills, attention to detail, good organizational skills, strong work ethic, and the ability to work autonomously. Interested individuals should contact Ms. Jessica Manculich at mancjf@upmc.edu. Please provide your resume, a brief statement of your background & goals, and current availability.

Newly renovated apartments for rent. 2,3,4 bedrooms available for August/September 2017. Atwood, McKee, Dawson, and Bates. Please call Mike at 412-849-8694 for more information & for viewing.

December 12, 2016

82 year old man in North Oakland one block from Pitt needing help with personal care and assisting with therapy at home and daily pool exercise. Great opportunity for health and rehabilitation science students. Part-time/fulltime. Insurance not necessary. Free live in housing option. $10-$12/hour. Contact Mike 412-901-4307 or felafelman@gmail. com. OFFICE INTERN Shadyside Management Company seeks person w/ min 3 yrs. college, for upcoming spring semester, to interview & process rental applicants, do internet postings & help staff our action-central office. Part time or full time OK starting on January 2; full time in summer. $12/hour. Perfect job for continuing soon-to-be seniors, graduating seniors set to enter grad school, returning grad students, and first-year law students. Mozart Management. 412.682.7003. thane@mozartrents.com. Waiter/Waitress, Dishwasher/Cook: 20 hours/week, great working environment. Cafe Sam, 5242 Baum Blvd. Apply Monday-Friday 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Receptionist needed

for tax season. Oakland and various Pittsburgh locations. Apply at hrblock.com.

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South Fayette Twp.

School District. Substitute Teacher Positions.

Substitute

Paraeducator Posi-

tions. Positions available for all grade levels and areas of content.

Complete job descriptions are available at:

www.southfayette.org South Fayette Twp. School District

3680 Old Oakdale

Road McDonald, PA 15057 EOE.

Phlebotomy

Training Centerwww.

justphlebotomy.org 2 evening classes

weekly, 5 weeks +

excellent Clinicals.

Call 412-521-7334.

Help Wanted, COOKS, SERVERS & BARTENDERS! Part-time/Full-time. Experience not necessary but preferredwill train. Stop in and apply today, located in the Shadyside Business District, 412-621-1188. 5431 Walnut Street.

A happy, loving couple wishes more than anything to raise your newborn with care, warmth and love. Expenses paid. Please call 516-308-1613 or email OurWishToAdopt@gmail.com

December 12, 2016

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December 12, 2016