Magic Hour

Today I picked up my camera and went outside. I grabbed the dog (arguably not a great idea with a nice camera) and walked. I stopped and I took pictures and we ambled along the waterfront barefoot (also arguably not a good idea in a dog-friendly park) and it was wonderful. This year has been overwhelming in both good and not-at-all-even-a-little-bit good ways, and I have learned a lot about things like priorities and my non-negotiable need for sleep. I am (slowly) learning it is okay to let crusades go, and to let less important things slide to just make it through the day. Do I have fewer pictures of my time here in Philadelphia? Yes. Did giving myself permission to set down my camera for most of the last ten months make my ramble today much more enjoyable/freeing/relaxing? Absolutely.

Here's to longer days.

E.D.

Lazy Sundays.

Sundays are the days that I pull everything back together for the week. I make lunches for the week, do laundry, and relax. Today I made it over to Reading Terminal Market to check out Iovine Brother's Produce. And I will be going back. They have generally reasonable prices, and in the back they have "grab bags"- bags of produce that is slightly damaged or closer to its expiration date, and all the bags are a dollar. I grabbed a bag of tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. The produce was all really nice, and I made veggies for all my lunches for the week using only half of each bag - which is about $1.50 for the whole thing. I was a little worried about finding reasonably priced fresh produce, so I'm so glad I found this!

Shifting Beds

Hello again internet! Guess what! On Thursday, I moved for the LAST TIME. For a year anyway. I CANNOT ACCURATELY EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT THROUGH THIS MEDIUM, BUT REST ASSURED THAT I AM OVERJOYED. Last Sunday, one of my lovely and selfless friends with a car took me to IKEA so that I could get queen bedding (You read that right guys, I sleep on a twin bed no more!). The actual date that I was going to move was a little up in the air, so I decided to go ahead and wash my sheets. I am really glad that I did, because while I was at work on Thursday afternoon, I got a call saying that my new room was ready, oh and they moved the bed out of the room I had been using. So, once I made it back from the Phillies game, I went into crazy moving mood and moved all of my things. I am SO glad to finally feel settled, and this room is awesome. It has giant (frosted) windows, and an attached bathroom that I'm pretty confident is larger than the bedroom I shared with my sister for about twelve years. Now that I am done moving, I feel a whole lot less like I am in Limbo, and more like my year here has actually started (Which is good, because I have been here for four weeks already.). Everyone else gets here on Saturday, and I can't wait for them to move in!

So. Many. Stairs.

Hello again! Guess what guys...I moved! Which is awesome. Because now I only have to move one more time, and that move is within the same building and means I get first pick of rooms :)

So, what does this move mean? Well, the last move got me to Philadelphia, but I was living in sketch-land, and spent a lot of my free time in the cemetery. There was a kitten, but I am still so grateful to now live in a (super-duper) nice area.

I went from a tiny attic nun-closet with negative air conditioning to a giant room (there are two couches, an armchair and a real bed) with central air. I'm moving up in the world guys. Quite literally actually, as my last room was on the third floor and this one is on the fourth. Although I would not suggest moving all your stuff up 56 steps all by yourself. I made the mistake of carrying my giant duffel up all by myself, and I am now sporting some lovely bruises and scratches on my collarbone. My new friend James helped me carry up the rest of my stuff, which was much appreciated (It is amazing what you can get new friends with cars and a love of gelato to do for a milkshake).

This new place is also in the middle of everything. I am a ten minute walk from work, a five minute walk from the library, and a two minute walk from all my sister's favorite stores (come visit me, nudge nudge).

Oh, and did I mention that there are TWO CHIPOTLES WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE? No? WELL, THERE ARE. I may miss out on some of my absolute favorite Tex-Mex, but at least Chipotle will always be around to be my comfort food. :)

Out of Context In Arkansas (and Louisiana, but who's counting?)

Remember back when I was in London, and I did a reasonably okay job of updating this thing? When I had a dream of continuing it throughout my senior year of college as a way to document the year? Yeah? Well, that was before senior year ate my brain, so that didn't really happen. In the few moments I was able to escape from the brain-eating, I did do fun things like go to New Orleans and explore abandoned theme parks.  So I figured I would do some retrospective out-of-context posts. Just for the heck of it. The first two photos were taken in New Orleans pre-stomach plague of death (But that's a story for another time.), and the third was taken in the fish hatchery of Dogpatch USA.

So You Live In A Convent

Hello again!

Week one is over. Weird. I'm not really sure how that happened. You know those weeks where there is so much going on, and 85% of it is overwhelming, and some really good stuff has happened, and some really bad stuff has happened, and some really weird stuff has happened, and you don't really know how to process any of it? No? Well pretend, because that's about where I am right now.

I am still thrilled to be here, but it has been a roller-coaster this week. On Saturday, I moved into the place (convent) I am living in right now. The nuns lest in 2005, and it is now populated by 22 camp counselors. The building and grounds are beautiful and the building I am in was built in the early 1800s, which is pretty cool. Let me tell you, I now have new respect for northeastern weather. Ninety degrees isn't that hot when you can escape to air conditioning, but when you live in an attic room with a broken window A/C unit that prevents you from opening the window, ninety degrees becomes a whole new animal. The neighborhood was described to me as "urban" and "diverse". My mother suggested I stay in a youth hostel for the week. It's really not that bad, but I haven't been going out in the neighborhood on my own. I work in Center City, so I take the bus there, and I am excited to move closer tomorrow so I can get out and explore on my own. I worked a lot this week, and when I get too stir-crazy in the convent I go and hang out in the cemetery. It's pretty and there are cats, which is cool.

Monday I started work, which was great and overwhelming and weird. I showed up on Monday morning, and had to go through a bunch of HR stuff. In the middle of a lecture on worker's comp stuff, I had this bizarre moment where I realised that I now have a real job. And that's weird, and I don't know how I feel about it. It's not the work that's weird. That's overwhelming in different ways. This was one of those holy-crap-I'm-a-college-gratuate-and-sort-of-considered-a-real-adult-and-I-don't-know-how-to-handle-this things. My actual job is similar in a lot of ways to when I worked in foster care as an intern, but for some reason business cards and worker's compensation doctors lists freak me out. Is that just me? Possibly.

Now that I have had a day to recover by binge-watching Hemlock Grove (So. Good. Check it out. Unless you have a really weak stomach and/or hate horror. It's really not scary, but can get a little graphic.), and sleep in, I declare my first week here a success. Next weeks starts tomorrow with a cross-city move, so I'll let y'all know how that goes.

Time For a New Adventure

Hello again internet. I realise that it has been quite a while, and I apologise to the three people that kept up with this little corner :). I made it back from London just fine, although I would have to say that the adjustment to back home was harder than the adjustment to being abroad. This could have something to do with the fact that I expected to have to adjust when I went abroad. I did not expect to have to adjust when I came back. But I digress. Everything went (reasonably) smoothly, and I graduated with a BA in Psychology this May. YAY!

Now I am off to live in Philadelphia for a year to work as a case-worker. Have I ever been to Philadelphia? Nope. Ever lived anywhere in the Northeast? Absolutely not. So stick with me guys, this should be an adventure.