I'll try not to bitch about the cold too much but there is a reason why I live in San Francisco and that is mostly to avoid frigid temperatures and only venture into them for reasons such as skiing - and around here skiing has been terrible and warm so even better for me :) My time in Philadelphia was spent in my ski coat (which has now gotten more use than ever before), Uggs, ski gloves, hat, and variety of layers. I will say that when you are dressed appropriately the cold can be manageable but when you walk outside and it's painful to breath and the temperatures are 30 degrees less than normal there is a problem! I hope spring finds its way East very soon.
Good thing that much of the time in Philadelphia was very active - active by way of lifting, carrying, hauling, and more trips that I can even begin to count between houses as my mom moved. I even brought back my house painting skills from a few years ago and painted a room! The prep of cleaning, taping, spackling, etc took way longer than the actual paining but it was a success. I've even thinking of doing some painting in my apartment, but we'll see. I've thought about it for 7 years and never done it.
The move was from one side of the street to the other, literally to the house across the street. So there was a lot of back and forth! And as anyone who has moved knows it's not the main stuff that is the pain (and thank goodness for movers!) it's the remaining small percentage that kills you. It also doesn't help to find a full closet of stuff that hasn't been moved just a few hours before I'm supposed to head to the airport - sorry mom!
As we hauled stuff from one house to the other I was taken back in time with so much of it. In the first move that my parents did about two and a half years ago from the house I grew up in my dad boxed up tons of stuff and it just moved between two additional houses before being sifted through over the past few weeks. Some items from my childhood room that still remained found their way to the trash while others I just couldn't get myself to let them have the same fate. For a few years I had an obsession with rocks and had quite a collection of stones and gems which were of course very precious. Sadly they met their fate last week with a trip to the dump. As did all of my school papers - pretty much everything from kindergarten was still there. Lots of swimming stuff made the cut and remained. I tried to get rid of it and save just some of the things but was convinced otherwise. Pretty much every medal and certificate I received ranging from 10 and Under through High School club, high school, and national competitions remain. I did come across a gem yesterday in the closet find... my Gameboy and stack of games. Many an hour were spent on that sucker. It was definitely a keeper!
But anyway no need for more of the blow by blow of a week of moving and the mishaps along the way. It was all successful and this California girl remembered what it was like to live in Philadelphia and survived the cold to help get it done.
The house is looking great and will only get better as mom gets more settled in.
While in Philadelphia I also got to do (mostly eat) some of my favorite things. There were multiple trips for soft pretzels, scones from Cake, a Wawa visit or two, DiNic's pork sandwich at Reading terminal, two meals at McNally's, and a rare chance for Chick-Fil-A at the airport. I did also go to the Dump (technically called a Sanitation Convenience Center) which sounds odd, but something I loved to do as a kid. Sadly, you can't go into the part where you chuck all of your trash items into the massive abyss of a hole so it wasn't quite the same. But nevertheless it was a highlight (sad I know). I also had a brief throwback visit to the pool at LaSalle University to watch a bit of the championship swim meet called Easterns that my high schools hosts and participates in. This pool has not changed since I first set foot in there in like 1989 for Country Club swim champs. It's still just as steamy, hot, and dingy feeling as it's always been. Nice to know that some things never change!
After ten days in the cold it was a nice change to come back to San Francisco last night and have the car read 59 at 8:30 PM. I was really looking forward to a run outside - I'd had enough running on a treadmill watching my reflection in the glass window at the Cricket Club gym - and some general sunshine. Well both of those I got!
A 12 miler out along the coastal trail to the Sutro Baths, back under the Golden Gate Bridge, and along the Marina made a pretty good morning. The run itself was ridiculously painful - I thought I was doing 14 but missed that I needed to do a last little extra 2 mile loop at the end and by that point I was really ready to be done so it didn't happen. I then thought that I'd try a new spot for lunch called Basik Cafe. I'd passed by when I was in SF before so I wanted to check it out, I thought I was heading to a place with various salad bowls but it was just Acai bowls which I had no idea what that meant and I'm still not totally sure but I definitely knew I was back in San Francisco. It was quite tasty but it was basically like eating sorbet with fruit and granola in it. It was more like dessert than what I needed after a long run. I followed that up with a visit to a coffee shop for some internet browsing and an afternoon latte. When the computer battery died I knew I needed to get out of there and find more food!
The plan is to be in San Francisco for the next two weeks. Not sure what exciting things I'll be getting up to or perhaps lazing the days away. If the last two weeks are any indication it will be the end of March before I know it. I need to check a few things off my San Francisco list so I'm heading to Alcatraz tomorrow to check out the Ai Weiwei exhibit. I've seen very cool photos of it so I'm excited. It's also been a few years since I've been to Alcatraz so I figured I'd take advantage of what's supposed to be a really nice day - sorry East Coasters!
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