Random ramblings from the past week

I am still here. Haven’t lost my sanity yet! But being so much by myself really have me appreciating that I have a family waiting for me that will eventually be here too. Truth is that my life has been all work and family and family and work for a couple of decades now and it is kind of scary to look at all these hours every night and every weekend and not really have any clue about how to fill them out. Books and cross stitch is OK (finished a project BTW):

But it is not human interaction. And I have very conveniently blamed everything on “well I don’t have a car yet so I can’t do much but just stay here in my little bubble”. Time is counting down though and when Kristian visits next week we have car finding on the agenda. Which means I no longer have excuses for not getting out and do stuff. But what stuff? And how? And where? Sigh. Meeting potential new friends with my kids friends parents, kind of doesn’t work anymore. And I also know that before long work and family will swallow me for a while. I have a few ideas such as signing up for dog cuddle volunteering at a local shelter (I miss Bailey SO badly😔), perhaps something crafty? Ideas from you out there would be very welcome!

I have spent more time in Philly and I am getting to know the city a bit better. But somehow my inner map is tilted 90 degrees so I keep thinking east-west is north-south whenever I get off the train which kind of confuses me, and makes it hard for me to follow google maps. I have learned to look out for the City Hall though which is a giganormous fluffy building literally in the middle of the street:

I have also learned that Philly has it’s own Alcatraz called the Eastern State Penitentiary:

Apparently Al Capone also served time there and I am looking forward to going inside. Kind of love old abandoned prisons. I just find them way more exciting than many other places.

And then there is the food! I am currently trying out some of the vegan places so I am ready for when Teresa visits. Came across this one Saturday:

And tried their vegan Philly cheese steak:

Yep. That’s vegan. It was hard to tell but it was really good, so no complaints from here. I plan to go back there this coming weekend. Living in no-sidewalk-ville makes me appreciate all the walking I can get done downtown: