Apartment

The apartment hunt is done, and i found a near-perfect place for a great deal. (i'm pretty proud of myself.)

Pros:

• About a mile and a half to school, so on days that i walk i'll get three miles in!
• A block from the R8 train that goes right into Center City (and from there to NYC, Washington DC, or the Phila airport)
• Larger than any apartment i've ever had before - 875 sq feet with 1.5 bathrooms and a tremendous walk-in closet, dressing area, and den
• Huge kitchen that is its own seperate room -- not the galley style i've always had
• GREAT fitness center with three elliptical machines and four treadmills so that i can start injecting workouts into those other three days a week that i presently don't utilize
• Newly remodeled stuff that still SMELLS like new carpet and cabinets
• Because i'm an educator i get a discount package on rent and security deposit
• 4 blocks from the trendy Germantown Avenue shops
• And the best part... the windowsills are wide and low so Sao can sit on them and watch the world go by

Cons:

• Air conditioning is not central, it's wall units
• Heat is gas (and therefore $$)
• No balcony
• It's on the ground floor of the first apartment building i've ever been in with elevators!

Can't wait to show you guys this place!
i'll be moving in officially in late July, and will have about a month until school starts where i can hopefully do some traveling. Maybe see some of those babies i've never met!

Will update better with photos when i return to Wichita in a couple weeks.

Yeah, baby!!!

First city ever to win the Super Bowl and the Stanley cup in the same year.
First hockey team to win the Stanley on the road in 32 years.
Youngest captain ever to win the Stanley.
First Pens cup since 1992.
i LOVE this town!

Learning to Spell It

Seriously, i have GOT to learn how to spell Philadelphia. It keeps coming out Philaldelphia or Phliadelphia or Phialdelphia. This reminds me of the fifth grade, when i hated my first name so much i wanted to go by my middle name, but couldn't spell it. So my teacher came to me one day and pulled me aside. She said, "honey, if you can't spell it, you're going to have to go back to using Ellen."

i feel like any minute now, some Philly cop is going to come knock on my door and say, "ma'am, I'm sorry, but if you can't spell it, you're going to have to go back to Kansas."

i found out last week, i have cousins on the Main Line in Ph-- Ph--- Philly. So i can stay with them and don't have to shell out for three nights in a motel 6 while i look at apartments next week. It's my father's mother's brother's son, so he is my first cousin once removed. And get this: he has two children (my second cousins), one of which goes to the school i'll be teaching at next year! She's a senior, and i won't teach her, but that's pretty nifty, isn't it?

On a side note, have you ever watched a cat fall asleep sitting up? It's too cute.

Remembering to Ask

First off: don't be alarmed, i was speaking of my father's wedding, not mine... which is not planned nor even conceptualized. Dad got married without a hitch (pun intended... heh). At the reception i was kind enough to ask Donna when they were leaving for Virginia on their honeymoon, and she said, "Is that where we're going?!" Aaarrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Once that was over last week, i just have four weeks to wait around until the Klingenstein Institute begins! i'm filling it with the reading i have to do for the program, working out, and making phone calls for apartments. i am very excited over a few of them, and will be going out on the 17th to scope them out. i have to remember to ask a whole litany of questions that i almost never remember to cover (central air? cat friendly? dishwasher? garbage disposal?) so i may well get out to some of these places and find them baking in the June sun with no a/c.

All the ones i'm looking seriously at are within walking distance to the commuter trains. So i'll be able to go into center city without taking the truck. Nice, eh?


Speaking of questions i need to remember to ask... the questions that i must start remembering to ask guys when we first start going out is growing, and soon i won't remember them all. This list doesn't come out of my purse like an interrogation sheet, but i do try to work them into conversation fairly early on. Say, first four weeks. If their responses are not what i'm looking for, it just saves everybody a lot of time. It's not meant to be mean, or put guys on the spot.

Also, responses do not preclude friendship. See, i don't hold differing opinions against people. The truth is, though, i'm just not going to be long-term compatible with people who don't agree with me on a few things. Up until yesterday, they have included the following:

1. Have you ever been cruel to an animal?
2. Do you live on your own?
and
3. How do you feel about birth parents?

i have been carrying on a flirtation with a guy i met in the last two weeks... he's local to the Philadelphia area but happened to be around Pittsburgh for a bit. We started emailing every day. It was a great exchange of ideas and dreams. i was getting very excited to get to Philly and spend some time with him.

i decided it was about time to tackle some of the big questions. So i asked him about religion. And the very next response was the big I. Intelligent Design. We went back and forth for a bit, but eventually i had to say, look, we're not going to be anything but friends.

He got offended.

Seriously, i'm sorry. i'm a biologist. i just don't see myself falling for someone who thinks my life's work is a load of bull. Best friends who banter and argue intelligently over the topic? Sure, any day. Grab me a beer and hit me with your best shot, buddy. But a lover? Mmm, no. When i get excited over a new discovery i want to be able to share it with the person i'm with. When i am crafting my lesson on big bang i want to be able to bounce ideas, not hide it away.

So....
4. Do you accept evolution as a scientific theory in the vein of gravity and quantum mechanics?


Pffft......

(Sorry, no pictures, and none for a while yet... my camera is full of photos from my dad's wedding, a hike i took last week, and a bad body-shot i tried to take in the mirror... but i'm staying with my mom and out of respect to her i won't upload the pics from dad's wedding on her computer. You understand..........)

i will be back to Wichita in four weeks to pack and move, and may well get the photos done then.