Fourth of July

I had a wonderful time this weekend! I worked Friday night and Saturday lunch and made a bunch of money, which was awesome. Ingela came (finally!) to Philly on Saturday afternoon and stayed until Sunday evening. We did quite a bit when she was here!

Saturday, as soon as she got here, we went to Northern Libs and caught part of the Matt and Kim concert. Kim is by far the happiest and most excited person that I have ever seen in my life. I would be interested to see how she is in her daily life. I can imagine her jumping in and out of Starbucks and bouncing around in her chair while she eats her lunch.

After the concert, we went to my favorite place: Dos Segundos. Yum: sopes and salad = delicious! Later that evening, we met up some with friends at Devil's Alley. It was an amazing night, and we got outside tables on the sidewalk since it wasn't very busy. At the very end of the night, Ingela and I met up with my friend Renata at this funny rooftop party at the Roosevelt. It was in the pent house ... no one lives there. Most of the people there had no idea WHY they were there. Awesome views though, lots of balconies and decks. A pretty good band played for a bit.

On Sunday, we went to the 1oth st Pourhouse (delicious and cheap!) for brunch. We then planned our AWESOME road trip, which I am super excited about. We are going to spend some time in San Fran, then go through the Napa valley, stop at a winery or two. Spend the night in Fort Bragg, going to one of the top 10 microbreweries in the country. Then, we will drive to Gold Beach in Oregon, where we will take a jet boat tour before going to Portland. Hiking, exploring the city, seeing Cannon Beach and the goonies rock will all happen before going north to Camano Island and Seattle. It's going to be a blast!

My Independence Day celebrations started after that with the Penn's Landing Icecream Festival, the Roots and Goo Goo Dolls concerts, fireworks on the Parkway, and Pete's afterwards. It was an amazing day. I had such a nice time and have some fun pictures to put up.

Yesterday, I spent some time in Rittenhouse with my sister before it got really hot, which I love. I also started SALSA classes, which I am super excited about. I miss dancing so much and am super pumped to learn actually HOW to dance. I've taken lessons here and there before and have done quite a bit of dancing in the past... enough to know the basics, but not enough to be very good. I'm pumped, especially since this means I'll go out dancing more often to practice! I miss it!

Going out with the guy from Northern Liberties again this week... on Thursday. (I shall dub him NoLibs Guy). Should be nice. We are going to go to dinner, and he mentioned going back to his apt to drink beer. Haha. Sounds perfect.

Road Trips and Fun!

Jess (sister), Ingela (best friend from high school), and I are taking a road trip next month. I am super duper excited, since we are starting to actually plan it and I am looking at all the cool things that we are going to be able to do!

We are flying into San Francisco, spending a few days there, and then driving north to Seattle. We are going to take 2 days to go from San Fran to Portland, stopping at Redwood National Park and some cool beaches, etc in Oregon. I am so excited!! We are going to spend a few days in Portland, too - which is awesome. I am going to be able to see my awesome friend Emily and spend some time with Ingela's cousin. Then, we will drive up to Seattle, spend a night or two with her family friends on some island (woo!) and then spend a night in Seattle before we fly home. I'm super pumped. Ingela is coming tomorrow and we the 3 of us are going to plan our trip!

eHarmony:
I have deleted my account on eHarmony. I went out on 4 dates with the Alfa guy. He was nice, and I had a nice time with him - but in the end, there just wasn't enough chemistry. I was disappointed, because I enjoyed spending time with him - but by the fourth date, if I am freaking out because you want to go back to your apt and I don't ---- then I'm just not that into you.
I met one other person for lunch last Friday. He is a middle school history teacher in NJ and works part time on the Spirit of Philadelphia. I had a nice time with him actually, and I texted him yesterday - but haven't heard back. Maybe he didn't like me. That's okay.

OkCupid:
I rejoined OkCupid. I figured that I since I'm trying to pay bills OFF, that paying for match.com isn't the most economical thing to do. I have met a couple people so far. I met someone on Sunday who I will most likely go out with again. We went to North Third. I had a nice time, not sure about the chemistry - but I'll have to wait and see. He lives in Northern Liberties and has a red convertible.
Last night, I met someone else. We went to Nodding Head. Dinner drug on a little longer than I would have liked - but we talked about all sorts of things, including schools, religion, work, gym. He asked me what yoga is good for (an honest question, though I got a bit defensive at first). He is not quite opinionated as me (haha), but that's probably better, haha. At the end, he said that he had a really nice time. It was a little awkward, and I think that at the end, he may have wanted to kiss me. Unless I'm sure that I like someone, I found that I do not want necessarily want to kiss them.

Then I went home and at 2 AM, I got violently ill. (I won't be eating at Nodding Head anytime soon).

Fourth of July Weekend:
I work tonight and tomorrow lunch at Dock St. (I'm trying to get my credit cards paid off, and should be able to pay off the one by September! Then, I can put all of that money into my other one! Its a lot of working, but looks like it will help me get the bills paid off pretty well!) Then Ingela is coming. I think we are going to go to dinner with a friend who also has a friend coming into town and hang out with my friend Megan. Sunday, I want to go to the ice cream festival at Penn's Landing and probably will be around the Parkway for the concerts (roots and goo goo dolls!) and fireworks. It's going to be wicked hot though. I'm not sure how long she will be sticking around, but I think that Megan and her roommate are having a party too which should be fun.

Monday, I'm going to start taking salsa classes! I'm super duper excited about that too! My environmental science class at CCP is over now, so I will have 3 extra nights per week free! Crazy. I'm going to be able to go to the gym more and have time to sit around at home (or... go out. haha).

Broad St Run!

Yesterday was the Broad St Run. It was really hot.

Despite the awful heat, I managed to finish without dying, passing out, or needing medical attention of any kind. I consider that a bit of a feat in and of itself! :)

I didn't run it nearly as fast as I was hoping that I would. I actually ran it in like a 11:40 mile, which is a minute per mile SLOWER than last year. It frustrates me a little, but that's okay. I lost my running partners really early on. The one savior of the day were the hydrants. They had them open like sprinklers, which was really nice. You got soaked running through them, but I ran through every single one on the right side of the road! Afterwards, leaving the Naval Yard, I didn't feel so great, but a great brunch at the house of a friend of my roommate really helped!

Later on, I took a bus out to Valley Forge and met up with far away guy. We had a really nice time .... drank some German beer, ate food at the Sly Fox Brewery, played the bean bag toss ( I seriously need some practice), and watched True Blood. (This was exciting, because I don't have HBO - so I've only seen the 1st season. I'm still waiting for the 2nd season to come out on NetFlix!) At the end of the night, he drove me home - which was really sweet considering it was completely and totally out of his way.

Phillies game on Wednesday (Cinco de Mayo!)

St. Patrick's Day!

Katie and Brooke came to visit two weekends ago, the 13th and 14th of March. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day Philly style with our own personal version of the Erin Express. Not deterred by pouring rain, we got decked out in our kelly green and went to an empty New Wave for brunch. We then headed to Moriarty's to drink bud light in a green bottle with Becca and friends. After that, we ran across the street to Irish Pub, where we spent approximately the next 4 hours. We had a really good time there, so our original plans to hit up Erin Express bars were postponed (maybe next year).

Becca's boyfriend, Brandon, and some of his friends were pounding the Irish Car Bombs, but we decided to stick with just one. After a couple hours, we got out our Irish temporary tattoos and went to town. The pot of gold on my foot took about 4 days to scrub off!

We left Irish Pub to go to Mad Mex in University City around 6 - shortly after Katie's phone broke in two, literally. We had dinner there, and then we headed to my sister's - her and Candie were having a little party. Some people didn't show up due to the rain, but it was a nice little turn out anyway.

Sunday morning, Katie, Brooke, and I had brunch at Sabrinas and walked around the Italian Market before they headed back home. It was a great weekend! :)

Birthday Party!

My birthday party was a ton of fun! My friend Liz came up from Baltimore and at one point, I counted 25 people in my apartment!

For starters, I wore an adorable outfit. We had an amazing taco bar that was a big hit, and people brought lots of Mexican themed fun snacks like guacamole, black bean dip, tortilla chips, etc. We had lots of booze - various Mexican beers, bud light (thanks to Becca), sangria with fruit and brandy (thanks to Megan and Mike), and margaritas (thanks to C, H, and H!) I, of course, partook in all of the various alcoholic beverages. After awhile, we had two lively games of Apples to Apples going on (one in each room), and I think everyone had a lot of fun!

I was definitely tipsy/drunk and having a great time, and everyone started leaving around 12:30-1:00. Around that time, Megan mentioned going to a bar to meet her friend from work. I decided that this would be a fantastic idea, despite my sister and Liz trying to convince me not to go (taking back their initial enthusiasm). Well, it was my birthday, so off we went. We took a cab all the way to 16th or 17th and got a beer when we got there.

This is what I remember: talking to Megan's friend, falling off of a bar stool. That's all. We came home not long after arriving, and I went to the bathroom (where I threw up). Keep in mind that I do not remember this. The next day, I woke up - not feeling too terrible - and promptly went back to sleep. We went to Sabrina's for brunch, and after that, I felt totally fine. So fine, that I went for a run later that evening.

That cute sweater I'm wearing in the picture? It's missing. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it. My skirt was in the bathroom. My tank top in my hamper. I thought that maybe I left it in the bar, but my much more sober sister told me that I did not even take my coat off there. It's the mystery of the evening. If it turns up at any of your homes, please comment and let me know.

A few more pictures from the evening:

Dates and Updates

So I went out with the guy from the northeast again last Tuesday night. He normally works on Tuesdays, but he switched around his schedules. We went to Bar Ferdinand and got a yummy cheese plate, a meat plate, some calamari and dessert. He was cuter than I remembered him being, and I had a good time with him - it was very comfortable conversation, etc... but I'm just not really sure how much spark there is there for me. He is in Puerto Rico this week, and he called me yesterday to see how I was doing, etc... which was really nice. I'm going to go out with him one more time and see how it goes. He is in school, and he also works a lot. I think he has off Friday nights but works every Saturday. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I dated someone for about 9 months who worked the complete opposite of me, and it can be really draining on a relationship after awhile.

I've had some contact with the Med Student. I had a really nice time with him, and he said he was going to call sometime yesterday/today. I got an email yesterday saying that he had tried to call and would call back today, but I never had a missed call. He texted me this morning to wish me a happy birthday and said he would call. He hasn't yet, but there is still time. He just finished his mid term exams (as a second year med student he is quite busy), but his birthday was a couple weeks ago... so he said about doing something for our birthdays. I hope we do get together, because I have been on like 6 dates (3 different guys) since I met him 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I'm still going back to wanting to get to know him better and such. I haven't forgotten about him yet and am still quite interested, so that must be a good sign. I like that he emailed to say that he called (and he had emailed over the weekend to say that he texted, but I didn't get that one either).... we shall see.

Today is my birthday! I had a special birthday lunch and a birthday dinner today, plus a birthday nap, a birthday cupcake, birthday balloons ... and I had a fun party on Saturday. I have friends coming into town this weekend to continue celebrating and am going to the Fridays After 5 thing at the art museum with some friends this Friday to celebrate too! I am such a lucky girl!! (Celebrating is a little exhausting though ... and not so good for losing weight!!)

I'll update with pics and stories from Saturday when I can.

Preview: Awesome party, 2nd tequila shot was a bad decision, bar at 1:30AM was a bad decision, but didn't feel so bad on Sunday as a result of the effects of the bad decision! Oh, and the cab driver gave me a bottle of water on the way home from the bar I shouldn't have gone to. And I managed to lose my cardigan, but not my coat or phone or purse.

Pre-Birthday Celebrations

On Saturday, Meg P came to visit me in Philly for round 1 of the birthday celebrations. As soon as she got here, she locked her keys in the car at the parking garage. It was a new car, and she didn't realize that it locks automatically or something. We waited maybe 20 minutes for AAA, and the guy was able to jimmy it open pretty easily.

We then went to the grocery store and bought lots of food to make some yummy thai/indian/some type of curry. My sister and my friend Sarah both came over for dinner, and it was delicious!! I was a little stressed near the beginning because I was cooking curry - which I never done before ... and I managaed to spill coconut milk all over the stove (which my roommate said looked like baby puke), but it turned out great. Not too curry actually, because there were so many vegetables and should have been twice as much coconut milk, etc - but that's alright. There's always next time.

I drank a lot of wine with dinner. Woo. Then we went out to Sugar Mom's for a fancy can of PBR (woodchuck for megp) and had a photo shoot in the bumper cars.


We met up with my friend Megan and her boyfriend Mike at Sugar Mom's around 11 and after awhile we headed over to National Mechanics for a little dancing. I only had 3 beers out, but the wine I had with dinner really went to my head. I had a good time at National Mechanics dancing and what not.



After we left National Mechanics, Meg, my sister, and I went to the South St Diner, which is now open 24 hours. It's a little blurry after that, but I remember that I got the hiccups and we apparently walked my sister to her car and then went home. I woke up the next day and had shut the cats in the room with me. I almost always shut them out of the room. Not sure what I was thinking. Oh wait, the wine was thinking. I was passed out, but Meg said the cats walked over her a bit.

We woke up around 10 the next morning. I wasn't hung over - but I was still completely exhausted. Meg wanted a cheesesteak, which I ate and it promptly made me feel ill. Don't worry, I went to the gym anyway. Bad idea. It was a rough two miles, let me tell you. But I finished it anyway.

Party!! :)

So I went out for a friend's birthday on Saturday. She had a bunch of girls over for wine, cheese, and crackers. We had a lot of fun and managed to get some chocolate on the white couch. We oxy-cleaned it though! :)

After we left her house, we went to Ladder 15 where pretty much every girl met her boyfriend/guy she's dating. Awesome. It was fun though. I bought one drink and then people just kept putting drinks in my hand. I think I probably had 4 beers or so. I was drunk but not too crazy drunk or anything....

However, I managed to leave my debit card at the bar. I didn't even have a tab, but I must have it in the credit card book thing after I signed. I was still pretty sober at that point, I don't know. Maybe it fell out of my wallet when I was paying for coat check? I called them on Sunday, but they said they couldn't find it/didn't have it. Oh well. I got a new one, which looks like play money.

I also managed to lose my camera. I remember having it in the bathroom about 20 minutes before we left. It wasn't inside my clutch, which was stupid, and I think that there is a good chance that I left it there. Sad. I realized that I didn't have my debit card when I was in the cab, but I don't think I had my camera at that point. I didn't realize it at the time though.

It was fun, but I feel bad that I lost all of the pictures I took of her birthday! I am usually the picture taker of the group when there is a special occasion! Oh well. I usually lose my camera about every 6 months - sober, drunk, whatever. I can't hold onto it for some reason. This camera I bought last March. That is almost a year, my friends. Not too bad. It survived Italy and everything.

Winter Wonderland

Tomorrow will be Philadelphia schools' 3rd snow day in a row. The second big snow storm in the same week has left trees, power lines, awnings, roads, and roofs with ice, snow, and slush. I have seen at least 4 trees in my extended neighborhood down, blocking the road. Pretty crazy, really. Right outside my house, a branch fell from the tree.


Despite near-blizzard like conditions, I decided to trek over to Irish Pub at 12th and Walnut for some an adventure of snow, food, and beer. What else do you do on a snow day - especially when you know that you have the next day off as well?





























Irish Pub is only a mile from my house. I am generally a pretty quick walker, however, when you are walking through a blizzard - it's tough to get anywhere very fast. 30 minutes later, I arrived at the bar in desperate need of a drink. We had a nice time. Played some cards and attempted to play Catch Phrase, except that none of us could pay enough attention for that game. 4 1/2 hours later, we left the bar and trekked home. A friend and I actually found a cab. The poor cab driver was from South Jersey, had been working since 10 AM and was stuck in Philadelphia because all of the bridges were closed. Poor guy. It was a great snow adventure!

Medieval Times

Last weekend I went to DC for the weekend to visit my friend, who recently got back from Iraq. She just got engaged (congrats!) and her fiance was there as well. It was great to hang out with him, play Wii, make fun of southern accents, etc. We took a road trip in the snow (and the unplowed lanes of 95) to Medieval Times, because well, they wanted to go and had already bought tickets. It took 2 hours to get there, when the trip should have taken maybe 40 minutes. It was a lot of fun, though, and we didn't die.


We arrived just in time for the show to start. We were seated in the section for the yellow knight, who died in the end. However, before he died, he gave us flowers! :)


It turned out to be a pretty fun time. We sat in the front row, which was cool. The chicken they gave us was the size of my entire plate. The show lasted about an hour and a half, and the drive home was much less dangerous than the drive there. It didn't snow very much in DC, but apparently - they don't plow the roads so much.