Only 2 more classes to go to! (perhaps forever?....) Going to be so nice not to have reading every week. hurrah!

Kicked off my job hunting in earnest last week. Tweaking the resume, spreading the word, gathering contacts. Hopefully something will come through soon. :::crosses fingers::: (I'm on LinkedIn if anyone else is.)

Phila. Gator Club Gator Guzzle (ie pub crawl) yesterday was so much fun. I ate a hearty lunch beforehand and limited myself to a beer per place, but it was getting a bit difficult at the end despite my preparation! Ended up at one of the member's houses for a post-party, incidentally a mere 2 blocks from my apartment. So we actually drank our way closer to my house over the course of the day. Did the Orange Blue chant at New Deck Tavern, sang lots of Journey songs and We Are the Boys at Blarney Stone. Met lots of cool people (true Gators and Gator-supporters alike), lucked out being the only young unmarried female (ie drinks bought for me/never at a loss for someone to talk to ;) and just a general good Gator-y time. Talked about Timmy. Denver is also blue and orange as it turns out!

Officially registered for the Philadelphia Half-Marathon. (and I think the running bug is back. oh how I've missed it.)

Also, so many of my regular tv shows haven't been new so I've been Hulu-hunting for just anything and this weekend I got addicted to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and wait for it... Southern Belles: Louisville. (oh god. its on SoapNet. lol) Well, Jamie Oliver is brilliant and if he came to Philadelphia I would totally go take free cooking classes.

not sure how else to describe this weekend's weather as anything other than blustery. it has dipped several degrees and gotten quite windy and so back to the spring jackets...

From Friday, a recap: Went to the Penn Student Healthy center early in the morning because I had pink eye. Just in the left eye, thank goodness. But it had progressively gotten worse all week, at first I thought it was just a sty from stress and stuff but then my eye got red, and hurt, and crusty. and clearly wasn't going to just go away on its own. ughhh. The medicine has been miraculous. It looks normal again and doesnt hurt much anymore. I have become a complete germaphobe though, and basically do not touch my face anymore. lol.

Struck out for Bala Cynwyd (suburb of Phila.) to find Target and Hallmark. It was glorious. I miss the suburbs. All that PARKING. beautiful. Got cute summer sandals that are all strappy and as if I'm hardly wearing shoes, so light. Then WalMart, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. It was like a 4 hour shopping adventure. I loved it. Got to do some actual driving, more than the stopping at lights at every block like in the city. Movie night with the girls at Lori's. Watched Saved which I hadn't seen in years. Hilarious. It got us into a discussion about what happened to Mandy Moore. lol.

Saturday I met CJ for lunch at Pad Thai Shack in Center City. Humongous plates of food. Still trying to persuade him to join me next Saturday for the Philly Gators' Gator Guzzle bar crawl through University City (my neighborhood!). I've only been to 1 of the 4 bars, so this should be a good introduction to drinking spots within walking distance.

I also watched The Other Boleyn Girl which reminded me that The Tudors is still on my Blockbuster queue. I read the Boleyn book back in high school but my memory is spotty about it as is my recall of European history so I was vaguely aware of what was going to happen next in the movie. Like right as things were developing I'd think "and then she has a daughter, not a son".. and then he divorces the Queen... oh riiiight. yikes. maybe I should brush up a little more on that stuff (or just watch the movies!)

And then today, I went to a Catholic Mass. One of my friends in my class is a Jesuit priest and he was guest sermoning at the oldest Catholic Church in Philadelphia tonight so he invited us all to come. I think the only other Catholic Mass I've been to before was Pancho's cousin's wedding in Venezuela and that was in Spanish so I really had no idea what was going on. But it was really beautiful tonight. The church itself is incredible, but more in a quaint and pretty kind of way (its from the 1700s) than an ornate and over the top way. Sean's part of liturgy was personable and funny and I really enjoyed going.

Now it is 10 o'clock and I've caught up on Gossip Girl and Real Housewives of NYC (I know, I know. but they are so ridiculous) and its time to clean up and do a little more light reading....

So...

For as long as I can remember, I have had a goal of running a marathon before I was 25. (Why 25? I don't know. But I suspect that when I was like 13 or whatever, it just seemed impossibly far off and old)

Well, I'm realizing that this is like a little over a year and a half from now so I better get going. I'm in my 7th week of running 3 times/week. Doing just 2.5 miles each time but I know I could go more if I pushed myself a bit. Maybe eek out a 4 miler if I was determined to breath through it. Anyways, I looked up the Philadelphia (Half) Marathon which is in the end of November. Plenty of time to train. The only caveat is that registration prices start climbing every month after the end of April.

I believe I could do the Half. 7 months is definitely enough time. Its actually enough time to train for a Full. but I'm a little nervous about that.

SO.

Should I sign up for the Half now? or should I wait a little and see how my running goes before I commit the money? Or, do I try to aim for doing the Full in November? (I think if there are enough spots open you can actually bump or down to a different race once you've registered. So If I sign up for one its possible to change it later. If I sign up for the Full, should I also scout out a Half beforehand? to get some experience?)

Either way, I'm going to run a Full before December 9, 2011.

Well...

Here's to the next 5 (plus?!) years in Philadelphia. Pancho decided on Penn this week. I suppose it never really dawned on me that I could be living here that long. I've just been plugging along as a "well, I'm living here for a year and maybe longer." but I don't think I really thought about that last part. I like it here so far and all but well... 5 years is kind of a long time... lol.

Good thing I finally bought these really cool City Walks tour cards last week. I've been eyeing them since last summer. Its a pack of 50 6"x4" cards that have suggested walks around the city and neighborhoods. I haven't really gotten a chance to explore as much as I'd like so thought this would be a fun way to see all the requisite but also funky and out of the way places around here. 2 of the cards are in my neighborhood! (I was relieved to see that at least I've gone to most of the places listed on those)

And speaking of how awesome Philly is (yup. just full of Phila. love today) I was completely unaware that a) Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters are the same company and b)they are headquartered here! and I have passed the Anthropologie store a million times but havent gone in (just don't trust myself) but I read that the building downtown is actually its flagship store AND its in an old converted mansion that is like amazing with a lot of the original architecture and fancy staircase and an elevator with a couch apparently.

It has been Florida hot this week. I just walk outside and take a deep breath and soak it all up. Had my first iced latte of the year this morning, part of my recent rediscovery of my obsession with Dunkin Donuts.