A Day Away

I've wanted to visit Longwood Gardens since I lived in Philadelphia, but hadn't yet made the effort. A few weeks ago I purchased a discounted ticket through Groupon and had to use it before the end of this month. I decided yesterday was a good day to do so, and got an early start to my day off to make the drive into southeast PA with my Starbucks travel mug full of coffee. Though none of the outside gardens are blooming yet, there was a lot of land to walk around, and a few cool buildings to visit (the former home of the Du Pont family, who used to own the Gardens, some treehouses built to get elevated views of the grounds, and a chimes tower). And I spent the largest portion of time walking around the seemingly endless rows and rooms of flowers and plants in the Conservatory. The sights and smells filled me with awe for God's amazing creation. The place is a photographer's dream. I'm far from a professional, but I took a ton of pictures and did ok with my little Sony digital camera. It was a successful outing, and I feel like there was plenty to see even though it's still winter, but I would like to go back again in the summer to see the outdoor gardens in bloom and the many fountains running with water. I hit Panera (one of my favorite restaurants) for a late lunch and did a little shopping on the way back. And I came home to a dog who was happy to see me and ready to go for a walk. After that, I spent the evening relaxing with my latest book (The Paris Wife) and a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. It was a good day.

Holloween

If you've seen the tv show Gilmore Girls (no longer on tv) you know that the fictional town it's based in is called Stars Hollow. It's a VERY small town, where everyone knows everyone, there are events and traditions that happen every year, and they have regular town meetings to make decisions about these activities. There have been quite a few times since moving to the small town where I live when I have felt like I live in Stars Hollow. One of those times was the other night when I went to a bonfire co-sponsored by the town and the county parks department. It reminded me of the annual Firelight festival on the show. Probably one of the main differences though is that we have a very limited number of businesses that are open all year, since we have such a large summer population. I don't recall much mention of Halloween on the show, but I imagine it would be a fun community event in Stars Hollow. Here, we sign up to be a house for trick-or-treaters. I debated it for a while because in my adult life I don't get too excited about Halloween and trick-or-treating. I'm not necessarily against it, and I know it's fun to dress up, I just think maybe we could be doing something different than spending money to get kids all jacked up and fat on candy. So anyway, despite my feelings to the contrary, I decided it would be a good way to participate in the community, so I signed-up and bought some mini bags of pretzels to give out. They came in a pack of 35. And I had less than 10 kids come to my house. Three of them were kids from the church, and one of them was surprised that I live here (at the church) so it may have been worth it just for that and the opportunities for other community families to see the fun, youngish, female pastor. Worth it? I guess we'll see.

GG Makes it All Better

Today was a little hard because I had to do the funeral for the church member who passed away last week. I was feeling lots of different things, which is not unusual. But after a long morning and afternoon of preparing, presiding, and lunching, I needed to do some relaxing. It rained practically all day today, so it was a good day to come home and snuggle up on the couch and watch some Gilmore Girls. It definitely made me feel better, although I didn't get a whole lot done the rest of the day, I felt ok with that since I already had a pretty full day, especially emotionally. This was the second day in a row I didn't feel like running. That happens every now and then. And while I was able to get myself out the door yesterday, it just didn't happen today. It's not something I want to get in the habit of doing, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it because missing one day every now and then isn't really going to impact my training. And now to bed, so I can get my butt moving tomorrow!

TGIF?

This was one of those Fridays (my regular "day off") that I spent mostly doing pretty boring stuff around the house like cleaning, because it was one of those crazy weeks where I let all of that stuff go until today. I interspersed some fun things into my day to help me get through my to-do list: I watched a few episodes of Gilmore Girls (from seasons 3 and 4), read a little, spent about an hour and a half on the beach, and baked some cranberry-orange bread and (homemade) granola.
I finished my latest book before going to bed last night: "Does the Noise in my Head Bother You?"- Steven Tyler's memoir. It was... interesting. Aerosmith is one of my all-time favorite bands, in the top 3. I learned a lot about the band and it's members, and learned that Steven Tyler is probably a musical genius. I also learned that's he's probably more than a little crazy, and learned way more about the drugs they did than I ever needed to know. If you like biographies and/or rock bands you would probably like this book, but be warned that it would probably have the equivalent of an "R" rating for a movie: there's a lot of harsh language and I found some of his comments offensive.
Now I'm close to finishing another book (fiction) that I had actually started before, but had to put aside when I got Steven Tyler's book from the library. I plan to read a bit more tonight and go to bed early, so I can get up early for a long run in the morning.

Seriously?

It's September already? Seriously?! I don't know where the last two months of my life have gone, I can't believe I've been here in NJ that long already. It seemed like when I first got here that I would be waiting FOREVER for my ordination day to come, but now it's only a few weeks away! And I think things are about to get even busier for me, so the day will probably be here before I know it. This weekend will be the last big hurrah for all the summer folk here at the shore, so I expect things around town and the island to get a lot quieter. We also go back to one Sunday morning worship service after this Sunday (we have two in summer because we get more people... life is a little different here at the shore, haha). But even though I'll have one less worship service each week, we're starting Confirmation classes and I'm beginning an adult Bible study so I'll have a few more things to add to the regular schedule. We're also having our first monthly Saturday evening worship service today. I have no idea how many people will show up, and it honestly doesn't really matter to me. I'm looking forward to using the Holden Evening Prayer service, and hope that I don't mess up the guitar accompaniment too much.

The effects of Hurricane Earl were felt here a bit, but not too bad. I don't know if we even had any rain at all, but we did have a good bit of wind yesterday. The rest of the weekend promises to be gorgeous though, so I might get on the beach at some point (it doesn't get too crowded near my house). I spent most of yesterday (taking refuge from the wind) crafting up a storm, while watching Gilmore Girls. Two of my close friends (one from high school, one from seminary) and my cousin Erin all had babies in the past month. Sooo that means I'm working on some homemade baby gifts. I've been knitting some things for my friends' babies, and I'm working on a quilt for Erin's baby, Bettie. Since baby things are small, the knitting isn't taking too long. The quilting will take a bit more time, but I'm hoping to finish it by the time I see them at my ordination.

Crafting and making gifts helps my mental and emotional health. I'm also working on a few goals for this month related to my physical health. I've been continuing to train for my first marathon (although I deferred Akron to next year - long story - so I'm now aiming for Philly in November), and have been getting pretty regular 5x a week runs in, so that's good. What I need to work on, is getting the long runs in each week, and increasing the distance. I did well with 12 miles last week, but got up to do 14 this morning, and barely squeezed out 9. A combo of no energy and some sore joints were working against me. But I'm going to try getting out again tonight for another 4 or 5 miles, if I'm not too sore. So one of my goals for the month is getting in the long run miles that I should for my marathon training. Another is to do yoga or another form of strength training 2x a week. I only do it very sporadically right now, and I really think this will help my training. And my third goal for the month is to establish a more regular sleep pattern. I did really well the first few weeks or so after I moved here, getting to bed at a decent time (probably because I was exhausted) and getting up early to run. But lately I haven't been going to bed at a regular time, and I usually hit the snooze button at least once in the morning. I've been really dragging in the mornings, and it's not because I'm not getting enough sleep (I do get 7-8 hours most nights), so I think I just need a better pattern. I'm hoping my posting these goals on here will help me achieve them!

Have a great long Labor Day weekend!

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Well, I had been doing a decent job of posting more regularly, and then the end of the semester arrived, along with finishing assignments, filling out paperwork, graduating, visits from family and friends, making moving plans, celebrating, saying goodbyes, and enjoying my new-found "freedom". That's pretty much what my life's been about for the last few weeks. I graduated from seminary on May 21st, with my fellow classmates and friends, with my mom, dad, aunt, and best friend there to support me. I enjoyed a nice, but brief, visit with my aunt and parents, and then Mandy stuck around for most of the next week, since her last visit occurred during "Snowmaggedon" and we couldn't actually go anywhere. We spent some time at some shops in Chestnut Hill, up the street from the seminary, and we visited some of the typical touristy sites in center city Philly. We also attended the wedding of one my close friends from seminary, watched season 4 of Gilmore Girls, and each worked on a quilt. Mandy has several quilts under her belt, but I had yet to try one, so I was excited when she agreed to help me with my first. I found a design online that I really liked and she had the fun job of figuring out the pattern. We picked out some cute fabrics, and were able to complete the top of each of our quilts. I really like it, and I'll be sure to post a picture of it later. I'm waiting until I can get together with her again to finish it. Since she went back to western PA, I've been trying to find a balance between doing things I have to do: like starting to pack, and working on sermons for some guest preaching I'm doing, and things I want to do: like finally reading the Harry Potter series and working on some other sewing projects. I'm not sure I've found the right balance yet, but I'm working on it!

(*If you don't want to wait until I post a picture, you can see the quilt I'm working on at Mandy's blog, here.)

Time to join the blog world!

So I've been toying with the idea of blogging for a while now. I have several friends who blog, but never considered myself much of a writer. However, a request has recently been made that I blog in order to keep my family updated on my life, especially as I take on my year as an intern. So here goes nothing... I hope I'm able to write posts that are at least somewhat interesting!

I chose this title for my blog because I consider myself to be a 'burgh girl, as my family hails from the Pittsburgh area, and I've spent most of my life in western Pennsylvania. I cherish my roots in that area, and love visiting my hometown, but I'm so grateful I've had the opportunity to expand my PA horizons and live in Philadelphia for the past two years. I never thought I would say it, but I love living in the city! Western and eastern PA are truly different worlds, but I'm glad I've been able to experience the best of both of them. (Sidenote: I realized after I chose this title that - minus the PA part - it's the title of the Hannah Montana theme song. This slightly disgusted me, but because there is someone close to me who has an affinity for Miley Cyrus, I'm going to stick with it and hope people can forgive the similarity.)

As I write this, I'm watching an episode of Gilmore Girls (my all-time favorite tv show... I'm sure there will be more posts to come about this) and staring with disgust at a pile of boxes, most of which are full, some of which are empty and waiting to be filled. In case you couldn't guess, I will be moving soon. In two weeks, actually. And instead of waiting to pack in a panic at the last minute, I decided to get an early start so I can do a little at a time. It's less tiring this way, but it also means that I will be living surrounded by boxes for the next few weeks. A fact that makes me a little crazy, but that I will deal with. I will also feel better once I get my apartment situation under control, which I won't get into right now, but will hopefully be coming together in the next few days. I'm actually really looking forward to starting my internship at a congregation in New Jersey, but I will be able to be more excited about it when I'm no longer in moving-limbo.