As I had written a couple of weeks ago, I am moving out of Philly. I will be moving out in two weeks. After I take care of some necessities, I am taking road trip across the southern US to visit some friends. I will ultimately end up in Los Angeles where I am meeting up with one of my best friends. We’re renting a place there for a little while and going to explore (and re-explore) many places in California.
So I’ve been busy packing up my most prized possessions and tying up loose ends here in Philly. I’m a bit stressed out because I have so much to do in the next two weeks. But I am happy to get out of Philly. I knew it was time to leave when I got a parking ticket the other day in a place where they had just added new “no stopping” signs. Surely, it’s time for a big change and a new chapter in my life.
Perhaps my next blog post will be from the road in somewhere, USA. Until then…
I don’t even know where to start with 2009. It’s been a rollercoaster year of trying to figure out my life and myself. I’ve had a difficult time staying positive about most things because there always seems to be a downside to everything. It’s been a year of discovering changes, meeting a lot of new people, travels, and setting personal goals.
So what’s next?! I’ve lived in Philadelphia for a little over 13 years now and I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with this city. Alas, it has never felt like “home” to me. I feel like I’ve spent the better part of the last 8 years just floating along and not doing anything in my life. Granted, I don’t regret it because I never would have gotten to the point where I am today.
Traveling has been the one goal that has stuck with me ever since I was young. I’ve always wanted to “see the world”. And while everyone is always saying that I’m going somewhere and I travel more than most people do, I personally don’t feel like I’m traveling enough. In August when I left Calgary, one of my best friends told me that I need to give up my life in Philadelphia so that I can change my life and travel. I left telling him that I can’t do it because I am too settled at this point in my life now. Fifteen minutes later, I was on the plane and crying my eyes out because I knew that he was right. We live finite lives and we’re not getting younger. We can’t take our “stuff” along with us when we die. And whomever said that there’s no time like the present was right. So I will live out those dreams of traveling and photography.
For the last four months, I’ve been creating lists of pros and cons on moving out of Philadelphia. The pros won. So sometime in the next couple of months, I am moving out of Philadelphia for good. I don’t know exactly when I’m moving, where I’m moving to, or what’s next and it scares me. My plan seems to change every week, but I’m realizing that maybe not having a plan is “the plan” after all.
A chilly night in Philadelphia.
I just recently discovered shareurmeal.com run by a few great people here in Philadelphia. While many of us take in the luxury of dining out…or even dining in our nice warm homes, someone else isn’t as lucky and is going hungry.
You can help to make a difference in the lives of those going hungry in southeastern Pennsylvania when you are savoring your own food. Create an account on shareurmeal.com. When you’re dining on scrumptious yumminess, go ahead and snap a photo of your meal with your fancy little phone. Email that photo to the designated email address provided through shareurmeal or simply upload it directly to the site with a caption that describes the meal. For this small fraction of your time, a sponsor will dedicate $1 for every meal posted to United Way’s LIVE UNITED: Food for Thought initiative, which is a campaign to beat rising hunger in Southeastern Pennsylvania. And you don’t need to live in Pennsylvania to do this, but know that you are helping someone through this one small task.
I can only hope that others throughout the country and the world catch on to create great social change in the simplest of ways such as this. Thanksgiving in the US is right around the corner. So when you’re chowing down on your dead animal, think about the number of people that it could have fed or the people who don’t even have the luxury of doing the same with their family and friends. Instead, they’re digging your turkey scraps out of the dumpster the day after Thanksgiving.
Today I had these amazing huevos rancheros at Sabrina’s Cafe in South Philly, I posted the photo to shareurmeal and Drexel University donated a $1 to the cause. Now it’s your turn. So pass it forward!
At least 1,000 people filled the Piazza in Northern Liberties to watch the Phillies clench the 2009 National League title on the huge Jumbotron TV. We grabbed our lawn chairs and headed out to celebrate the excitement of watching the game there. I left at the 7th inning to head into the city. I walked around on Broad Street, hearing the screams of excitement resonating throughout the streets as people watched at the nearby bars. Philly cops were wearing riot helmets, mounted police officers waited on their horses, lamp posts were greased on Broad Street, and some newspaper boxes were removed. When the Phillies won, people filled the streets…celebrating every way they knew how. Of course, it was nothing like last year when the Phillies won the World Series, but people were happy and that’s what this city needs. Now the Phillies are off to the 2009 World Series! Go Phillies!!
A big huge thanks to istockphoto for making one of my images the Free Image of the Week on the front page of the site! And many thanks to my awesome model, Arthur, for making this image happen!
If you have an istockphoto account, download it while it’s hot! After all, it’s free! There will be another free image available every Sunday on istockphoto.
And if you don’t already have an account on istock, send me an email and I can hook you up with a referral and some free credits to use as well! Enjoy!
I’m back from Maine. I drove 12 hours straight to get home on Saturday. Just really tired from driving long periods of time for over 2 weeks. I’ve been really busy trying to catch up on things after being gone for a while and preparing to head off again in less than a month, all the while dealing with all of the things that life throws at us. Like food poisoning, which I’m currently trying to get over. blah.
