Weekend Trip to Philly

One of my PC Helps friends from Philly was having a surprise birthday party.  Mitch convinced everyone to go and KW did all of our trip planning with plenty of events to keep us busy.

The trip started at 4am on Saturday morning.  Dom drove his wifey and KW over to my condo to pick me up.  After 4 hours of driving we stopped and switched drivers (each of us taking 4 hour shifts).  KW drove the rest of the way.  We arrived at the location of the surprise party early so we took an hour to get lunch at a near by Italian place

We arrived at 1pm  and shortly there after found ourselves yelling "SURPRISE!"  as he walked throught his door:

I don't know if our friend, Eric, was more surprised at the party or the fact that 4 of his friends from Ohio drove in to see him.

Eric was given the royal treatment, including a throne and goblet fit for a king!

He was then served a birthday cake by his loyal subjects:

After which he mingled with the commoners,

Hit a pinata:

Thank goodness he had his walker to help him get around!

We all had a lot of fun.  I even convinced Mitch to take a picture with Eric and I (she definitely took the spotlight!)

After the surprise party we dragged ourselves over to the hotel KW had booked for us, the Hyatt Place, to check in:

We had a fancy room with 2 beds, and a fold out sofa bed.  While everyone laid down for a nap (which I was literally desperate for since I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before), I went to the Hyatt gym and worked out for 1/2 an hour and then came back to the room to shower and change for the evening.  After my shower, I laid down for my nap.  I had crawled into bed for all of 30 seconds when KW's phone rang to tell us our friend Edwin was downstairs and we should come hang out!

I nearly cried.  I was so tired!  Everyone else got up, though, and I would NOT be the party pooper, so I said a longing good bye to the bed, slapped on some makeup and joined the group.    I didn't take any pics with Edwin, so here's a random picture stolen from Facebook:

Edwin picked us up and drove us to Phoenixville for dinner.  We went to the Ironhouse Brewery for dinner.  I had their blue cheese burger, which was delish!

We had some time before we needed to meet up with our other friends in philadelphia, so we went back to edwins to play cards against humanity.  By this point I was so sleepy I was starting to feel "sleepy-drunk".  You know, that point in exhaustion where you start slurring words and reaction time decreases and everything seems just a little off.  While Edwin, Mitch, Dom and KW played cards against humanity, I laid on the couch to sleep.  I think I had too much soda at dinner because I couldn't sleep, but, luckily after a half hour of laying quietly and relaxing I felt energized and ready to go.

After Edwins, KW drove us into the city to Mc Ginty's to meetup with Geoff and Kristen.

I was designated driver, but, I got a bunch of free soda's and water, so that was nice.  There was a lot of laughter and everyone had fun!  Dom KILLED it at pool.  He was unstoppable.  Also, I really liked the bathroom wall there.  I really enjoy some positive graffiti!

We closed down the bar, and then the majority of the group wanted to go back to Geoff's house for some wii bowling.  As designated driver, I do what the majority wants.  It was fun!  While KW snoozed on the couch (he was sound asleep), Mitch and Dom played Geoff and Kristen.  Geoff won the first game, Kristen won the second game.  As a nerd, the thing that most interested me about Geoff's house was the charging station.  How cool is that?!!

By the time we got back to the hotel it was 4 in the morning.  Everyone quickly got ready for bed and promptly passed out.  We were up again by 8 or 8:30 the next morning.  While Dom slept a little longer and I showered, Mitch and KW went to get breakfast.  We were on the road by 10:30am and home by 5:10pm.

I drove the whole way home.  I picked up Mitch's shift as a HUGE thank you for helping me edit papers written for my classes.  It also worked out well because I love driving and she does not.

When I got home, after having been awake for 42 of the past 48 hours, I kept thinking "I am UNSTOPPABLE".   I laid down on the couch for a few minutes and passed out promptly.  I slept for a couple of hours, then got up because I had to eat something (I hadn't eaten much all day, so I needed something!)  I went to bed around my regular time (11/12) and woke up at 7 this morning.  I'm still kinda sleepy today, but nothing I can't handle.

All around it was a great trip!  I hope we do it again soon!!!

Back Pain, Hungry Knives and Dinner with Friends

This past week was thankfully slow!  I'm down to 2 courses for school (yay and yippee!) and last week was an easy "post on the message boards and watch lectures week" No major papers or major assignments.  This is great because my back is in SO much pain still!

Monday, after a day of sitting at the library I stopped off at walmart to pick up this omron elector therapy device:

It reminds me of the thing they use at the chiropractors office after a session to relax the muscles.  It worked surprisingly well.  I use it once in the morning before going to the library (a great excuse to veg and watch the morning show on NBC) and once before going to bed.  It does a surprising job and easing the pain, if only for an hour or 2.

I called dad for recommendations.  Dad has had back pains on and off for his whole life, so he know's some tips and tricks.  He recommended drinking a sip of diet tonic water (with quinine) a couple of times a day.

This has to be the grosses drink ever.  The first sip tastes like carbonated water, but then the bitter aftertaste hits and BLECH!  Yuck, eww, etc.  So gross.  I tried mixing it with crystal light, but all it did was make my crystal light bitter, so, I'm going with the "a couple of swigs here and there" way of getting it down.

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when I cut my baby pinky fingernail?  Well, that same knife obviously has a taste for blood because it some how cut me on my index finger.  I'm not even sure how it happened.  I was cutting onions then an avocado when I noticed I was bleeding rather profusely.  I ran to the bathroom and baindaided it.  Still.  Beware of that knife, it knows and loves the taste of human flesh. (sorry about the poor quality.)

It's a new month and you know what that means?!!  NEW CALENDAR PIC!

On Fiday I got stood up for a date :( so I messaged my friends desperately asking them to go out with me.  KW, Dom, Mitch and I all met up at the Harry Buffalo...eventually.  I originally recommended we go to Quaker Steak and Lube because I saw they had a bucket of wings and I just wanted wings so bad!  Anyway, turns out the location I got was for a quaker steak  in the airport, so, we changed course and all met up at the Harry Buffalo by the mall.  My food was great, but poor dom got the weirdest pale orange sauce on his ribs witch made them almost inedible.  

I'm very lucky to have great friends who will meetup with me on a moments notice when I'm feeling sad.  I was all smiles after hanging out with such a great group of people!

Trip to Philly!

Joel and Kate moved into their own place and were having a housewarming party, so I had a pretty good excuse to go home for a week.

One of the first things I saw when I got home was dad wearing this shirt.  While lost is a pretty old show by now, I still totally geeked out!!

Now that dad is retired he has some free time to work on projects.  Granted, he doesn't have a lot of free time; Dad is always busy with one thing or another (while I was visiting he was working on helping family members with taxes!)  One of dad's projects is a sampler quilt.  Look at all of these awesome squares he made (please note that on the last picture he was sticking his tongue out at me, but still managed to take a good picture!)

I also got to spend time with my mom (she's the prettiest, right?!)

We were both reading the same book (from the written in red series...SO GOOD)

Joel and Kate's housewarming was the day after I arrived in Philly.  I met their puppy, Gizmo, who absolutely adores dad.

A lot of Kate and Joel's family showed up

And they received a lot of nice gifts.  The below pictures aren't even 1/4 of the "opening gifts" pics I took.

There were also lots of laughs

While I was home...it snowed!  In PA in March, this is a bit unexpected!

I still had online courses, so I spent most of my time in philly locked in my room working, only really venturing out for food.  Which brings me to my next topic:  I always forget how amazing dad's cooking is.  Food is one of the BEST things about going home.  i only got pics of one meal (chicken lettuce wraps with homemade ranch dressing), but dad also made steak and broccoli, eggs in a cloud and much much more.  SO GOOD!

On Wednesday, I took a break from school to go visit the newly renovated Lower Merion Libraries.  Our first stop was Bala Cynwyd.  It use to have a dark, dull brick facade, but now, WOW!

Bala now has a fancy young adult room.  I don't know if I mentioned it in this blog, but I'm going to try and focus my MLIS on Young Adults, so, at every library I took a picture of the YA room.  Mom was a willing model <3

Bala cynwyd also has a library cat!  Mom gave me a quarter to feed to it!

Next we went to Ludington Library.

Ludington is COMPLETELY different.  I mean, they gutted it and redid everything.  It doesn't look anything like it use to.  There are 2 entrances now, and lots of windows and it's all around beautiful.  My only qualm was that the YA room wasn't as robust as it could have been, or even as nice as bala's YA room:

Next mom wanted to show me here library.  Ardmore library is also where the processing center is.  I got a rare, behind the scenes tour of the processing center and it was cooler than expected!!  I may want a job working processing someday.

Mom showed me the Ardmore kids room, which had been rearranged and then explained what renovations she was expecting for her library in June, when they close down.  As with the previous 2 libraries I had to get a pic of the YA room.

2 things of interest in the Ardmore childrens library:

1.  A creep half human half slug duplo man/woman"

2.  Mom still had a poster that Jaida had made in high school:

I can't wait to see how the rest of the rennovations to the Lower Merion Libraries turn out!  Is it weird that I enjoy touring libraries?  Mom was a great tour guide and I learned a lot!

On thursday I studied and studied and then took a nap because I was overwhelmed with information.  When I woke up, no one was home.  There were no notes.  I went downstairs and saw, what I thought was a video playing.  I thought maybe dad was watching a movie and stepped away for a minute.  Nope.  Nope, nope, nope nope!

The last day before I left I went over to Joel and Kate's to play Risk on the Xbox 360.  The first game was dad v. Joel.  I think Joel won (but it was only because he had the most practice playing it on the xbox).  The second game was Joel and myself, and the computer won.  It, it just wiped us out.  Stupid Red.  The one thing I took away from my visit to Joel's house was how much Gizzy loves him

I arrived back in ohio safe and sound.  The next week was spring break, so I spent it reading (murder of crows and the maid of fairbourne hall) and watching all of the harry potter movies.  It was relaxing and all around awesomesauce.

Saturday it snowed.  I mean, come on ohio!  It's only 3 days from april and still snowing!?  To quote our weather man "March came in like a lion and is going out like a lion".  Sigh.

Yesterday I met up with Dom, KW and Mitch for lunch at olive garden then we went over KW's house to play Ticket to Ride.  It has to be my new favorite board game EVER!  It was so much fun!

KW won the first round, Mitch won the second round and I won the 3rd round.  So.  Much.  Fun!!!

This week I'm back to school.  It doesn't look to be an exceptionally tough week for school.  On a sad note I threw my back out.  I forgot how painful it is.  I try not to sit too long, especially when watching TV.  I spent most of last night pacing in front of the TV b/c sitting was too painful.  Wish me luck.  I hope it eases soon.  Until then I'll be using lots of Aleve (well, one every 12 hours) and walking.  If you have any great remedies, post them in the comments!