Glowstick

A true account of my life and how I made it awesome. +my cat

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Fun Fact: My mom won Mrs. Pennsylvania America 2017! She is amazing. Her platform is her organization “You Are Beautiful Project” which she Co-Founded and is the Executive Director for. She uses this organization to help high risk youth that have been fostered, trafficked, homeless, disabled, or have lost a parent to the military and help them remember they are worthy of being loved and their past does not define their future. 

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Tomorrow could be the someday you’ve been waiting for.

William Chapman (via quotemadness)

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Soooooo, have you ever had Honeycomb and Green Tea Ice Cream?! Franklin Fountain is the real MVP right now. Featured at Harbor Park on Spruce Street. P.s. there are rainbow hammocks

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Tomorrow could be the someday you’ve been waiting for.

William Chapman (via quotemadness)

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"I like feeling anonymous in a big city. No one knows me, so it's easier to remember who I am."

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On a mission for Change in Upper Darby

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Beautiful Baby. At a Change meeting today spending some time with amazing people, talking about more progress for Church for Change and holding wittle babies. So cute.

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Testing out the new iPhone 7 Plus Portrait mode. This satisfies my need for a camera for now! Beautiful!

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Being A Part of Something Great

So I was in an Uber the other day and I was talking with this woman who was carpooling with me and she mentioned how the city is great as long as your doing something. If you just live in the city, its not very exciting, but if you have a job that you love or something bigger that you are a part of, it makes it a much more exciting experience. I have to agree with her.  During my first week or two in Philly here has been exciting, but I am starting to die down on my excitement. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is because I am still waiting for my job to officially stat putting me on the schedule and I keep just going to cafe’s every day for the wifi. As exciting as that may be, Im starting to run out of money and i feel like my skills and time are being wasted. So aside from applying for other jobs, I have reconnected with my old Church friends who are redefining the church and how its perceived, in a way that would surprise you. Keep in mind I didn’t think I would be curious, being a spiritual person myself, but they want me to be a part of it with them in collaborating ideas to reach the entire city. I couldn’t be more excited. Not only are these people old friends but they are really trying to make a change and reach out to people who have this negative and boring conception of churches and how they run. It’s called [Church for Change], and although they arent holding services yet, one of their main goals is not to be a church where you feel that you have obligations, where they have the same schedule every week, the same setting and the same quiet, repetitive environment, where they meet once a week, and have bible study or youth groups at other assigned days of the week. This is not what they want to achieve. They want to have an environment with events, hangouts, and celebrations while also incorporating resources for your devotional study. There are many things in the works and I am very excited to be a part of this planning. This group of amazing people who are not only doing this event but allowing me to be a part of the growing process and planning of it makes me excited to live in this city, excited to make a change. That’s really all I want to do in my life and I feel many people would agree. If you want to check out their [Instagram] or [Twitter] they would definitely appreciate a follow we would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

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View from the 52nd floor at a Charity Gala in Melon Tower that I attended

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Coexist

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this what i picture world peace looks like

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This is where I want to be

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Tiny woman in pink coat is literally me in 50 years

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this is such a pure video I want to watch it every time I give up on humanity

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This is everything

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Weekend of Exploration

It has been quite an adventurous weekend! I explored lots of new places this weekend with some friends and it was a blast! I have to admit that the first week I was here was somewhat stressful. It may be safe to assume that moving to a brand new place is always stressful to some extent. But I have learned that it is important to say “No” when you are overwhelmed in a new place and get invited to do things you may not be ready to do yet. This is something I have learned about myself that will be incredibly beneficial for my future endeavors and plans. That being said, there is a lot of amazing stuff I want to go over that I discovered this weekend!

Saturday morning I woke up feeling immensely better about moving, especially since my stomach has been upset from stress and getting settled, but saturday felt a lot different. It might have been because I was by myself this past weekend and felt a sense of independence, or maybe it was because I actually had most of my belongings put away. Whatever the reason was, it felt good and I went for a long bike ride around the art museum and around the area I live in. 

I’m not sure if many people know this about the art museum, but behind the art museum near the water works building there is a beautiful walkway with greenery, fountains, and a small trail that goes all the way down to the river. It was beautiful and a lovely surprise. I believe I might have mentioned this one of my previous posts, but i didn’t have a picture of it then, I went again and made sure I took some pics! 

The walkway also tells the story behind the Water Works which I found very interesting!

After biking around for a while I went back home and heard from my friend Meghan about going out to the bars that night. I agreed of course because I really wanted to see what was around me as far as bars go. We ended up going to Morgans Pier, an outside bar, which has a beautiful view of the Ben Franklin Bridge. 

So here is a funny story: Meghan and I ended up sitting at this table by ourselves and we were talking when a guy comes up to our table and sits with us. His name is Brian and he asks us if we want to see a magic trick. He is a pretty good magician and we are thoroughly entertained, although I can’t help but feel slightly worried that after his tricks he’s going to ask for money. Suddenly another guy sits down at our table across from Meghan and I, his name is Dennis, he introduces himself and Brian shows us another trick. Then another guys sits down directly next to me putting his arm around around my shoulders, his name is Tony.  Naturally, I grab my wallet and can’t help but question if we are about to be robbed from the sudden surrounding of people around us. Then I look at Brian and say, if you show me an incredible magic trick, I will give you a dollar. Brian laughs and says I have to show him something first, I tell him my face should be amazing enough and he laughs and says that’s fair and that he likes my haircut. Seeing as we haven’t been robbed yet, I relax a little and we learn that they are all doctors and just recently graduated a couple of years ago, and they are all actually very nice. They ended up paying for our Uber to Frankford Hall (Which I will get pictures of next time I go because it is BEAUTIFUL) and we hung out with them for the rest of the night. We played Drunk Jenga at Frankford Hall, which is one of the games that they offer you to take to your table with your drinks, and one of the blocks I got was to kiss a stranger, I found a relatively cute guy and asked him if he had a girlfriend, he said no and I asked him if I could kiss him and he said yeah and we kissed and it was hilarious!!! End result, these guys were actually really really cool and we had a great time with them, I would probably go out with them again if the opportunity arose because they were fun and respectful. 

So Sidenote, Frankford Hall has a grapefruit beer that is SO delicious. The only downfall of this beer is that it has low alcohol content. But if you are just looking to relax and enjoy a beer, their grapefruit beer is worth trying. 

Go follow Brian on Instagram! Also praise for people who have the guts to approach strangers and make conversations and friendships out of interactions which is rare to find anymore. That’s the kind of friendships and relationships I’m looking for! @Physicianmagicianbrian He is a cool dude! He basically made this card that I signed appear out of thin air with magic. 

That concluded the majority of Saturdays interesting events, it was also loads of fun.  On Sunday morning I picked up my lovely old roommate and friend @underthesea-insteadofaboveground Sierra and we explored Philly! Starting with the art museum, I learned something I didn’t know that Sierra told me. Having not seen the Rocky movie, I was not aware that Rocky ran the steps at Independence Hall in the movie. But apparently everyone at the art museum also runs the steps and takes a picture at the top with their fists over their heads like Rocky. This made sense after wondering what everyone at the top was doing after they ran the steps. 

My favorite part about going to the top of the steps is turning around to see the view. 

Sierra Photo Cred 

After the Art Museum, we went to South Street. I had 3 main goals for South Street: Find a store I couldnt remember the name of with Incense and Spirituality books, Find another store I couldnt remember the name of with fun and beautiful Nik-Naks that i hadn’t been to or been able to find in 6 years, and expose Sierra to the hilarity of Condom Kingdom. 

As we were waiting for our Uber, this gold man, who I dubbed the name 24k GoldMan, started chasing a dollar into the street, I told him as he came back that I would have done the same thing for my dollar. I don’t know if it is because I was just friendly or what but he said “Free picture for you guys for being so friendly!” Selfie Time! 

Kindness is appreciated, even though I’m not sure what I did. Maybe just being friendly! 

South Street was amazing! We found all three stores I was looking for. The two stores which names I could not remember were called ‘Garland of Letters Book Store’ and ‘Eyes Gallery’ both gorgeous locations with a lot to offer. You can click the names to go to their Facebook Pages and check them out!

These are a pair of Hamsa Hand earrings I got from the Eyes Gallery!

(In front of the Garland of Letters Book Store with my favorite Lion!) 

We also went into Condom Kingdom which has flying cartoon sperm on the ceiling and a fountain. It is very amusing and obviously by the name of it, is NSFW. It is not really a place to post pictures of, you really just need to see it and experience it for the hilarity of it, if you have a good sense of humor. 

Before we went back home, we stopped at Big Ass Slices, a place Sierra was very excited to go to because they have slices of pizza the size of your face! Sierra was very happy to model the pizza. 

It was an incredibly eventful weekend and I saw a lot of Philly. I highly recommend seeing all the places above because they are definitely worth checking out! Im going to conclude this post of fun-filled events with a lovely picture of Cowboy with a gift from my Grandma. 

Pretty Kitty! Also, adventures with Cowboy are in the works, that just takes a bit more planning. Until Next Time! ~Chessie~

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Schuylkill River view from the Water Works Gazebo, it was a beautiful day!