Catching Up

Saturday I spent the day walking around Philly, getting my hair cut, checking out thrift stores, and such:

Please excuse the stupid face- this is more to show that no, I didn't cut it ALL off.........yet ;-D

Walking to the River-couldn't tell you which one...

Random Korean war memorial-very cool though

I found a giant Italian style Naschmarkt (open market) in the middle of Philly!!!!

Amanda---these are like 2 bucks a can, if it's what you like I'll send ya some (or bring some home with me)!!

Random Cool building...

Pics!

Pictures that were promised before:

Sylvia:


w/ Erin:




Janet (SM):






Valerie (ASM):

I'll post another blog with pictures from my Saturday jaunt later today- gotta go tape a set!

Walkin to work.....

So yesterday I learned a couple things. First, when you walk down the street in Philly wearing giant rain boots, people smile at you more. This could either be because a) they think you look ridiculous and feel sorry for you, or b) they find you much less threatening and feel it is alright to make a little bit of human contact. I prefer to think it's b.....but who knows?

The second thing I learned: on the way home from work there is a place called the Warsaw Cafe. Oh yes, there is a polish restaurant on my route to and from work. Which I never knew about before. You should be jealous :) Although, I now either need to find someone willing to go with me (apparently polish and german places don't do much for vegetarians.....) or suck it up and go alone. Which it will probably come to that :-D

Today I went to my favorite coffee shop (Bonte) for the first time since I've been back, and as luck would have it, it was free waffle day! Heck yes! It is going to be a good day :)

Success!!

Sooo, today was full of Rockband and football (damn Eagles lost though...) and tons of fun at Janet's, so that's not the point of this posting.

I just wanted to announce, that when I came home at 10:30 pm, and all the lights were off, I dressed in black (of course), Sylvia DID NOT try to eat me!!! Yea!!!!! She came running down the stairs, I got a bit tense when she kinda jumped on me, and then she ran to the couch and wanted me to scratch her tummy. The pit bull likes me. Woohoo!!! :-D

Todays happenings and audition updates!

Sooooo I could have been productive today.....instead I decided to walk 2.5 miles to a movie theater to watch Slumdog Millionaire (Very good, I must say) and then decided I didn't feel like walking yet so stayed and saw Revolutionary Road (a bit slower, very good, but depressing) as well. That's basically all I accomplished today. So I guess in fairness I did walk almost 5 miles (in the wicked cold), but all in all a lazy day :)

I am officially auditioning for the Manhattan School of Music on Friday, February 27th at 11am :) My Cincinnati audition is three days prior to that (in NY as well), and I have yet to call Brooklyn College (which I really need to do.....). I did not receive an audition for the Curtis Institute, but I'm not too surprised nor am I upset by this :) Keeps me from coming up with an excuse to get out of rehearsal. So now I just need to find an accompanist for both auditions, and all will be well :)

A roommates first impressions

I arrived in Philadelphia yesterday, and waited at a coffee shop (Lava) until one of my roommates (Erin) was off work. She met me there with their dog Sylvia, who is a blue pit bull mix. Sylvia is a bit territorial of the house, so Erin wanted her to meet me before I was there to start getting used to me :) The dog is gorgeous, and very well trained (she's going through professional training currently) and seems to magically remember who I am once I give her peanut butter......... :-D

I met one of my other roommates, Justin, when I got to the house, and the three of us went out for drinks (I for food) later that night. So here's what I've learned about the roomies so far: Erin is studying for her PhD in neuro-psychology and is an intern at a rehab hospital that specializes in brain damage (including strokes and such). Her partner (who also lives with us) is currently in Peru until Monday visiting her family (her dad is the health minister of the COUNTRY), so more on her later :) Justin is recently done with school, and is both a nutritionist and a chef (which is kind of awesome). He used to intern at a hospital in Parker, CO, so sometimes knows the places I talk about. Currently he works at a hospital in Jersey. He also was an intern for a woman who is a nutritionist/chef that caters for individuals by making meals that are healthy portions of really really good food, but recently she was asked to go to New York to film a show (it's the one on Food Network that is like-who will be the next Food Network Star-kinda thing-mom we watched this once) so he is now getting paid to run her business for at least the next month. They are both really nice, and seem very outgoing, so I think this was a good pick for me :) The area also seems to have many more people my age than where I stayed last year, which is nice.

Pictures will follow soon!!!!

To begin with....

Soooo I've never done a blog before, and I'm also not very good at the whole, journaling thing, but I've decided that to keep everyone up on what's going on in Philadelphia (and in the future, other places) I would go this route :) But as I said before, please don't be surprised if it is not updated as often as it should be!