Groovy London

Groovy London clubs, pub and bar highlights:
Cafe de Paris - cover bands, confetti cannon
Freedom - TU kids not realizing it's actually a gay bar
Lock Tavern - out door seating, hipster eye candy (even if they don't talk to me)

Sorry this is a weak post. I may post again in the near future with pictures, or I may leave this for another 6 months

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

After I moved my stuff to the new summer apartment, my parents and I stayed in Philly so they could actually see the city. We rented a gross hotel room, but were like whatever we'll deal with it. When we went to take showers in the morning though the water was all brown. My dad

went to complain/get our money back and they gave us half off because of gross water and half off for the reason listed as 'wife distressed' haha. He hadn't even said anything about my mom being upset. I guess that's just a standard discount? Anywho, before we noticed the brown shower water, me and my mom found a HUGE hairball! It was so gross. This is a picture of her

putting a cup over it so we didn't have to look at it.

Chloe liked the duck horn just as much as Corrie and Dee haha. My sister and Alec weren't as happy when they had to drive home with a very loud duck in the back seat.

Tomorrow it's back to Philly! It's going to take me like all day to get there, but I'm excited!

Ramblin'

I don't know what to blog about...

I'm home. It is gorgeous and sunny but a little cool. Everything is so green here. I forgot how good and fresh it smells.

It took us 8 hours to get home. Before that I showed my parents around Philadelphia a little bit. I think they liked it. The car ride was excruciating though. My iPod was trapped in the back so we had to listen to my dad's which is 95% blues. Some of the music is good, but after 8 hours of blues with nothing to read and only the highway scenery to distract me it got a little painful.

My sister, brother in law and niece are coming today! And I guess my nephew is coming too via my sister's prego belly. It's so bizarre. I've been away for so long that it doesn't seem like she's actually pregnant. It's so different this time - being so far away I mean. It's definitely bittersweet.

I'm going back to Philly on Tuesday! I'm bussing it all the way back which is always an adventure, and then I'll arrive at my AMAZING apartment. Seriously the location is amazing and the apartment is the cutest thing ever. I cannot wait to explore!

My sister and maybe my mom apparently compared Philadelphia to Iraq haha. I'm not even sure what that means

Summer Songs and Sentiment

i just found a piece of cereal in my wallet haha. new low.

i should really call veronica. and my dad. i'm definitely not going to dinner with the plannies and their spouses when i get home. god i am SO grateful for the friends I have now and that I escaped Amesbubble.

i'm sooo excited to live in Philly this summer. i don't know how it'll go. sometimes it might be hard but i am so excited for the adventure and just relieved (i haven't totally figured out why)

this has been a fantastic yet bizarre year. i learned so much and got so much closer to amazing people.

Oh Hey There

I haven't posted in over a month! I'm sorry. I'm back now.

I don't think I can really fill you in on everything. Some of the highlights though...

• Went home for my niece's 5th birthday
• Went on an AMAZING road trip from Philly to Austin, Texas and back

• Searched North Philadelphia for the elusive "banger," eventually found said banger but it was not as much fun as the search had been (especially thanks to a Juan encounter haha)
• Went to Diplo/Major Lazer concert after drinking two cans of FourLoco and had SOOO much fun - thought I remembered everything until a boy I apparently met called me the next day... I'm still not really sure why he called...
• Went on such a good bike ride! We went to Kelly Drive and then into the city. It was so pretty and so empowering!

And that's how I got to today. Other things happened obviously but those are highlights that come to mind. I'll try to be better about blogging again.

Roaring 20s!

There aren't songs or words to describe how in love I am with my friends right now. Luckily there are some pictures...

The beautiful birthday girl

February Babies
'Giving It' to her/him

Scary Mask Bro

People We Don't Know

In honor of mustachio up there

This weekend was one of my favorites. Seriously February, thank you for all these birthdays! It's the greatest month of the year.

Jersey Shore, Mansion, Roaring 20s, Rave = Amazing! I had so much fun dancing - Temple parties need more dancing.

Now there are a million facebook pictures and every single one makes me crack up. I was literally crying from laughing as I looked at them. Randomly throughout the day I'll think of something that happened this weekend or a picture of someone with a mask on and just start giggling

Basically, I LOVE my friends. I love how much fun we have together. I love being young. I love dressing up (I'm pretty sure over half my facebook pictures are of me in costume). I love dancing with cute boys. I love all of it!

Name Games

Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead
They are coming June 3 if anyone wants to go with me! We can go see them and then hangout at my beautiful, adorable apartment (on the roof or roaming the streets of South Philly)

I noticed when we attempted the ABC game that there are patterns or connections between the names of guys I hook up with or like and the way they act/treat me. For instance in my experience...

Daves are super flirty and ask you out on dates, but are usually too flirty for anyone's good and don't usually stick around for second dates.
Wills call you back (sometimes it takes months though) and kind of linger around for a while.
Ryans are my tattooed rebel crushes and always seem to have girlfriends.
Gregs are tall black men, 2 for 3.
Charlie is actually a nickname for Satan (2 for 2) and they will, right when you think things are going well, publicly abandon you.
Kevins are creepy guys you makeout with just to makeout with someone, gross I know.

I'm Having a BABY!!!!

Well my sister and brother-in-law are!!!

I teared up when I first saw this. I'm so glad Chloe will have a sibling! My sister is about 10 weeks along and her due date is in early September.



I can't help but have a couple selfish thoughts which I feel really guilty for though. First, I think I'm going to London in the Fall so I probably won't be there when the baby is born or meet it until December.

Secondly, I wish I lived closer or that I could still fly home. Seeing this video made me so home sick. I miss my family and it kills me that I can't be a bigger part of Chloe's life. Up until the time Chloe was like 3.5 I was always around. I won't have that with this kid.

Also I always imagined myself living wherever I wanted and hoped to live in California or out West somewhere for at least a little while, but now I feel even more conflicted. I want to be close to my family. Does that mean I have to move back to at least the Boston area when I graduate college? I guess I don't have to worry about that yet, and I should just enjoy the baby growing process.

We're having a BABY!!!

Best Birthday Weekend!

I cannot even describe this weekend. It was the best and definitely one to remember - Phamous Philadelphians Party, silly shenanigans at a Jersey Shore party, embarrassing moments caught in glorious myspace-esque pictures, a record breaking snow storm (thank you snow gods! you know me too well), getting to and from the party in that snow storm, waking up to a snowed-in world and the BEST FORT EVER, spending days in the fort with some of my all time favorite people, food, more fort time, sunny birthday, family dinner, delicious vegan cake (thank you Caitlin!) and more fort time.

It was bizarre and fantastic. It was not how I would have imagined my 20th birthday because it was wayyyy better. Haha

All of the pictures as a whole are an excellent story of the weekend. Fort Nam was so weird. It was like going into a time warp. At least five of us would be stuffed in there for hours at a time before we thought to leave. Once outside I would question my time spent in there. It was like an alternate universe where I was also drunk because even though I wasn't Nam made us all a little insane. Perfection.

And if you think any of this is weird... listen to this song

20 has been good to me so far. Thank you everyone. I love you.

Growin' Up

I got an internship at the Philadelphia Daily News! And I've already gotten a couple good size clips I feel kind of grown up going to work at the office, and even though I don't have to dress up that much I still kind of do.

This is how I want to dress, but I tone it down most days. (By tone it down, I mean pull my skirt down haha)

I'm only taking four classes though, three days a week. Part of me doesn't like it because I see less people my own age. I think this is just exaggerated by my fear of growing up and working in an office where I don't get to meet that many new people... or maybe it's just my fear of growing up.

My birthday is less than a week away, and I'm going to be 20! YIKES! That is so old, but still very exciting. And I literally cannot wait for my birthday party!

Moving Pictures: Peanut Racing

I can't really explain this. It makes me laugh. I love them. This is us, and that is it.

Saving the World One Piece of Cheese at a Time... Maybe

I made these vegan cupcakes for my friend's birthday. They didn't look too bad, but they didn't taste too good. Oh well, it was an early vegan baking experiment.



A year ago I decided I wanted to become vegetarian. I didn't really know that much about it, but I had never been a big meat eater. At school I got grossed out by the mystery meat they used, and I did kind of considered the ethics of killing another animal to eat it. To be honest though I wasn't that passionate about it. I just knew that it wouldn't be too hard for me to give up meat and I wanted to try it.

I told myself after one year, I would decide if I wanted to stick with it. At times I seriously thought that I wouldn't. It's been a year and all of the sudden - I'm not really sure why or how - I started researching it more. Now I think I want to be mostly vegan.

I am really grateful for the support of my family and most of my friends, but still people tell me I'm crazy (probably true) and ask me over and over again why I would even consider it.

Here are some of my reasons:

• Farming is a HUGE industry in the US, and much of it is done with factory farming type methods. Animals are mass produced, pumped with chemicals, raised in tiny crates, subjected to pain and then brutally killed all so that we can eat them, when in most cases we would not starve if we didn't eat them.
• Mama cows are baby and milk machines. They are bred for the sole purpose of getting pregnant only to have their babies immediately taken away - how can anyone say that any mother creature doesn't mind having her baby ripped away from her? ... Well maybe like sea horses or something are an exception. Plus the cows are made to produce way more whey than natural, which causes pain. Then they are not milked by nice farmers but by big machines that cause painful sores that get infected and bleed/puss into the milk.
• Egg laying chickens are a whole other story that is equally, if not more, depressing.
  

• Then such large scale farming has an incredible environmental impact. Raising all these animals uses SO much fresh water. According to ChooseVeg.com, over half of all water used in the United States goes to livestock production.
• A Cornell University study estimated that the US could feed 800 million people with all of the grain used to feed livestock
• And then if you do it all right, there are health benefits to not eating meat.

I'm not saying that meat is a useless source of food. A lot of people do depend on it. I don't even think I have an issue with meat and animal products from 'free range' animals, but when I have vegan alternatives available why support farming that causes animals so much pain?

I'm not preaching veganism like a born again religious fanatic. This is a purely personal decision. I'm trying it, and we'll see what happens. I'm not trying to sway other people and I don't care if my friends want to sleep on piles of pork but I'm writing all of this because so many people have been asking me why I'm doing it.

After all this, I'm still not promising I can be 100% vegan. I figure if I'm mostly vegan I can make a contribution without being too much of a burden on friends and family. If I go to someone's house I'm not going to demand that their parents make me a vegan meal. I won't eat meat, but I think I can make an exception for a piece of bread once in a while that has an egg and some milk in it.

I know regular farming has a big, often negative impact on the environment, so I have to consider that too. There is so much to consider it's kind of overwhelming, but I'm going to try this.

Amesbubble Under the Sea, Something Special

(sorry my camera is dead and the charger is at school)

Last night was Annie Fish's birthday so we threw an 'Under the Sea' themed party. We go all out on our theme parties, thanks mostly to Ben. Normally the parties are small and everyone who comes is basically who we always hang out with. Last night though the front door was like the mystery door.



Every time you opened it there was no telling who was going to be standing there. At one point I opened the door wrapped in seaweed (green streamers) with like drag makeup on to find four guys, only one of which I've talked to since high school and who were always too cool for everyone, standing there. I don't think they were ready for our bubble machine, strobe lights, and streamer covered walls/ceiling, and some of them couldn't handle it.

The ones who did stay ended up being a lot of fun. We danced around and played a ton of good music. I even made a new best friend just for playing Home by Edward Sharpe.

It's weird to think about how high school is definitely behind us now. I don't know. It was kind of a random, towny night but it was fun. I'm ready to go back to school but I know that when I come home I have towny, Amesbubble to fall back on.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

The beautiful bicycle I got for Christmas! It's a Raleigh and it is PERFECT.

If I could find it online, I would post Snow Aorta by Javelin. If you can find Javelin I recommend them.

I had originally wanted just like a crummy city bike so I wouldn't have to worry about it, but this bicycle is my glorious. We think it's from the late 70s - early 80s, and it looks like it was hardly ever ridden. It is brown with sparkly paint! It has the cutest seat and little bag. I love the frame, and it has little details that make it super classy. This is far from crummy, and I'll definitely worry about it, but it is beautiful and I can't wait to ride it in the city!

Memory Tapes - Bicycle

Memory Tapes was supposed to play in Philly on 1/10/10 but had to reschedule the show. The date hasn't been settled on yet, but check http://www.r5productions.com/ for more info.

2010!

I don't know what it means, but I like it - life and this song


Hello 2010! I have a pretty optimistic outlook for you. 2009 will be a hard year to live up to. I made amazing friends, had crazy adventures that I couldn't have even imagined, and made some awesome memories that I will always treasure. I also really feel like I grew as a person. I'm excited for all the possibilities 2010 holds!

It's also crazy because it's a new decade. It seems that people are overlooking that. 2000-2010 was only ten years but it was my entire adolescence. Now 2010-2020 will be my 20s. That's terrifying, but incredibly exciting!