I so needed Saturday

This past weekend, I went to Philadelphia for a conference. I decided that on Saturday after the conference, I would spend the remainder of the day practicing some much needed self care with one of my all time favorite activities - sight seeing and history. So I started the day off with trying to find a Starbucks (I also decided to completely indulge myself) before I went to the conference.

Betsy Ross' House

I happened to find one downtown that just so happened to be across the street from Betsy Ross's house. How cool that the history of the city is so integrated in its everyday happenings. I am a history junkie. I decided right then and there that I could definitely live in that city just because of the history factor. After the conference (which was in a way sketch part of town), I headed back downtown and hopped on a double decker bus tour. I really think that's the best way to learn some fun facts about the city. We saw SOOO much.

Eastern State Penitentiary

One of the sights that we saw was the Eastern State Penitentiary. Wow, that is the most intense scary looking prison I have ever seen in my life. The purpose was to cut people off from the outside world and force them to serve their sentences in solitude. I was starting to feel bad for them until I learned that when Al Capone was there, he had an Asian rug in his cell, had a private chef, and weekly visits from his "manicurist" (that's how the tour guide said it and I'm sure there are a lot of things that could be substituted there but I don't know which is right ...).

Rocky!

And of course a big highlight was the Museum of Modern Art where we got to see this statue of Rocky. I learned that the steps that he ran up are actually towards the exit of the museum. The front of the museum only has seven steps.

After the bus tour, I went walking around the city for several hours. I actually talked to strangers and got them to take some pictures of me. And along the way I realized that I have an obsession.

People have probably heard me before mention that I like history and love historical markers. I like to pull over when I'm driving so I can read them. No lie, there are probably 20 pictures of historical markers from walking around the city. I had to take pictures so that I could have reminders about everything I was learning. I would even walk out of my way in order to read what they had to say. Although a lot of Philadelphia's talked about who was born in the city. I prefer the ones that talk about what happened in that spot.

At the end of my trekking, I went and saw the Liberty Bell. No lie, the state Pennsylvania is misspelled on there. I never knew that. And then I hiked out to Jim's Cheesesteaks and stood in line for an hour and a half so that I could try one of these infamous sandwiches. I trekked back out to Independence Hall and had a picnic dinner surrounded by history that shaped this country. And then I was back in my hotel room at 7:30 pm, took a nap, watched some tv, and then slept. I didn't think about school work or research or internship. I got to relax. It was great.

On Sunday, I took a leisurely drive back home and took a detour through Delaware so that I could grab brunch out there. Granted, I ended up eating at a Dunkin Donuts but, still, I went to Delaware :-)

I was so not ready for this week to start.

Self Care

My research project has pretty much been freaking me out and causing me to have anxiety attacks. Not cool at all. The need for self care has increased. I thought that everything was already figured out given the sobriety of my internship but apparently not. So this week I started running.

I love running. I love the high that you get when you just finished running a distance you didn't think possible or the good kind of soreness you feel afterward. I love being out alone with my thoughts and some good running music. In April 2007, I had quite a health scare where I honestly thought that my days of being able to even walk were numbered. The pain and frustration that I experienced cannot be verbalized. I've slowly been recovering and despite my doctor's orders to give up running, I can't. I love it too much. I don't know if I'm putting myself on a fast track to new hips/knees/whatever but I can't have someone tell me I can't do something that I want to anymore. Now granted, I'm not being stupid and taking it easy. Today was day 3 and is my endurance running day. K joined me and we went for 45 minutes of nonstop running followed by a 15 minute cool down. I didn't really break a sweat and was never out of breath. It didn't even feel like a workout. But it felt good. I loved being able to run for that long.

Last night, I met up with a social work intern from the hospital for dinner. I felt so bad because I thought it was a group of us and when I got stuck at work talking to a patient, I didn't think too much about being late cause I thought I was meeting up with a group. Oops. So we ate at Pazo and then RA Sushi. Oh my. I love sushi. Waco is not the town for sushi lovers. I love to eat. Being back in a metropolitan area has been great for my appetite! It was so good to spend time outside of work and outside of the house. I needed it. But it made me miss all my friends back in Waco so much more. I'm definitely ready to settle down into an area for a good long time.