A Photographic Philly Wedding

It’s Sunday night…where did this weekend go??  I know exactly where…Philly!  The Rocket Scientist’s sister got married this weekend in downtown Philly, and it was quite the site to be seen!  Lucky for you, I took lots of pictures.  :)  This was our second wedding in three weeks (first can be viewed here!), so it was interesting to see the differences between the two.  Here we are, a photographic journey into my weekend!

Friday Night – Rehearsal

I was actually supposed to work on Friday night, therefore missing the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner…I was just going to head down on Saturday for the actual ceremony and ensuing festivities.  When I showed up at work on Friday, I jokingly said that I would go home if they didn’t need me, but they hadn’t heard about staffing yet.  We got the word on how many nurses we needed…and then another nurse showed up!  She had been called off but didn’t have her cell phone with her, so she headed to work anyway.  Since we had an extra nurse, they said we could battle it out about who would stay and who would go.  The other nurse remembered that I had something else to do tonight, so she said she would stay.  Yay!  Night off.  :)  I raced back home to shower and pack and head down to Philly.  I ended up missing the actual rehearsal,  but I made it in plenty of time for the rehearsal dinner!

The rehearsal dinner was hosted at the Vesper Boat Club, which is on Boathouse Row in Philly.  The area is very pretty at night, with all the boat houses lit up…definitely gives a good view from the highway, but it was fun to be on the other side!  When we first showed up, some of the crew teams were still out on the water.  The view of the city was quite nice:

It’s no Chicago, but I guess it works.

Lights of Vesper from the deck.

University of Pennsylvania’s boat house.

Hanging out in the window.

  Rocket Scientist sporting his mom’s lovely leopard print jacket.

Saturday – Play Time

The Rocket Scientist’s family are not city people in the least.  Soooo when Saturday rolled around, there was no actual plan of action.  (And I quote:  “What is there to do around here?”  Ummm…anything your little heart desires!  Anyway.)  No one had to be anywhere until 3pm, so we had plenty of time to play.  After sitting around in the hotel for awhile, we finally headed out into the city.  The wedding was to be at the Franklin Institute, so we headed over there to check out the exhibits and such beforehand.  It brought back memories because we visited there many times when I lived outside Philadelphia as a wee little one.  (Ages 1-6!)

 

The Pendulum that demonstrated that the Earth rotates…every 25 minutes it knocks off a different peg.

Touring the giant walk-through heart!

Learning about arteries and blood flow…keep your heart healthy!

The Rocket Scientist learning about lift!  Not that he didn’t know about it already…

We’re flying!

After we left the Franklin Institute so the boys could get changed for the wedding, the RS and I went on a hunt for a card…because he was clearly planning ahead.  After walking a few blocks, some friendly pedestrians pointed us in the direction of a CVS.  As we strolled power walked along, we passed this beauty:

BAKERY!!

When my dad lived in Philly back in the day (like…wayyyyy back in the day), he used to live a few blocks from the Swiss Haus Bakery and loved one of the cakes that they had.  When my parents came to visit in August, we walked outside his old apartment and found this bakery.  While he said the cake was different than he remembered, the goods were still fabulous.  Since I can’t pass up the chance to stop at a bakery, I went in while the RS powered on to CVS.  Please note that the guy working in the bakery laughed at my photography as I stood outside.  Maybe I should try to get a job there…then I could eat/bake this deliciousness on a daily basis:

Rocky Road Brownie!!!  Normally I hate nuts in my brownies, but this was tasty.

Saturday – The Big Event

Saturday night was the big night!  Since it was at a museum, it was a rather late event.  The actual ceremony was in the Planetarium, so of course the crowds had to clear out before we could head in!  Pictures were first taken outside…luckily the sun came out in the afternoon for some pretty pictures.

Rocket Scientist’s family with the bride and groom.  Three other wedding parties were also taking pictures.

Woo!  Thanks to my friend for actually picking a bridesmaid dress I could wear again!

View of City Hall (and Ben!) from Logan Square.

Married!

The reception was in the main hall…no joke, we ate at the feet of Ben Franklin.
 Menu!

The salad was AMAZING.  I had Sea Bass for dinner…tasty tasty!  Definitely some of the best wedding food I’ve ever had…I usually feel like it leaves something to be desired, but this was awesome.

Not going to lie…I wasn’t too impressed with the cake.

Okay…LET THE AWESOME PICTURES BEGIN.

  I told you he’s nerdy…the socks/glasses were for the wedding pictures…each groomsman had a different color!

The Rocket Scientist found another scientist!

The heart is an awesome muscle…so I flexed mine!

Flashing our gang signs…that’s “EAST COAST” for the Rocket Scientist and “MIDWEST” for me.  :)

Okay…that’s actually kind of cute. 

It was a really fun weekend, filled with lots of good food!  Dancing was a little limited at the reception…everything was kind of broken up so it didn’t really get started.  Annnnd we got pulled away for lots and lots of pictures.  But that’s okay, fun was had by all.  It was one of the fancier weddings that I’ve been to, and I can’t say I’ll ever see anyone get married in the Franklin Institute again!  I hope everyone else has glorious weekends as well.

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Clearing My Mind: A Realization

One of the hardest parts about working my evening shift schedule is the fact that I can’t call and talk to my mom whenever I want.  Yes, I’m twenty-five years old and want to talk to my mom on a daily basis.  It was nice when I first move here because my first month was spent on day shift (evening chats!) and by the time I switched to evenings, my mom (the elementary school art teacher) was on summer break…I could call whenever I wanted!  I try to catch her during her lunch break now, but any longer chats are reserved for weekends or days off.  Therefore, when I do have a random day off work, I’ve been known to call my mom two-three times throughout the day.  I had already called my mom three times yesterday when I had a realization on my way to Princeton…so I called her one more time.

It’s no secret that I’m not really happy right now.  I don’t like my job (and being my first and only job in nursing, it makes me question my career choice), I don’t really like where I live (middle of nowhere…I really wanted to be in a big city), I don’t know many people around here (I’m shy + work odd hours…it’s probably just excuses), and I can’t even run right now (biking just isn’t the same).  All of these are a bit difficult to contend with, but the main thing I realized on my drive to visit the Rocket Scientist was this:

For the first time in my life, I am not actively working towards a goal.

In high school, I was busy studying, running, playing in the band…to get into college.  Once in college, I wanted to go to medical school, so I was working hard at that and I had classes.  Once I realized I didn’t want to be a doctor, I put my effort into figuring out what else I wanted to do with my life…and I still had classes with immediate goals in front of me.  After graduating from Maryland, I had some time off but knew I was headed back to nursing school.  I spent all of 2008 in nursing school with little breathing room (that’s what you get for cramming two years into one!), and then post-nursing school was spent job hunting.  Like crazy.  My goal was getting a job.  Now I have that job, and I don’t have any immediate goals made for me.

If I stayed where I am for the rest of my life (as some of the nurses at my hospital have!), it wouldn’t be totally crazy.  After all, I went to college (twice!), got a well-paying, supposedly rewarding (some days…not so much) job, and I could get married, have kids, and live the American dream.  (Okay, that was a bit over the top.)  Anyway, the point is that I no longer have those straightforward goals of midterms, projects, and applying for the next step in life.  For me, this is very disorienting because I feel like I have no direction.  I’m obviously not going to stay at this job forever,  but I don’t really know where to go from here.  I keep looking at graduate programs (in a wide variety of topics) because it seems like the next step.  The Rocket Scientist and all his grad school friends are still living the academic life (go PhD programs!), and my college roommate just went back to grad school for a PhD as well.  Not saying that’s what I need/want to do, but the academic life is definitely different than the “real world.”  Schedules are ruled by semesters and exams, while I don’t even know if I’ll be working on Christmas or not.

But that’s not the point.  The point is that I feel lost because I don’t feel like I have goals right now, which is such a foreign feeling.  It’s never really been up to me to dictate my goals (outside of the larger “I’m going to nursing school” plan, etc), and this feeling of being stagnant and lost may contribute to my current unhappiness.  I called my mom to explain this to her, and she definitely agreed.  The working world is full of different goals than the school world.  For now, my goal may be to plan a vacation, make a new cupcake recipe every week, or learn a new hobby.  These are definitely different goals than learning the steps of the Krebs Cycle or creating a care plan for my patient at the hospital.  (Although I’m immensely glad that I no longer have to make care plans!)  My mom reminded me that I have a well paying job, and although I tend to get stuck upon the fact that I have loans to pay back, I have money to do things I want to do, like travel or take cooking classes or learn to paint or whatever my little heart desires.

In the end, work is work.  Although it’s a big part of my life, at the end of the day, I go to work and get a paycheck.  That sounds terrible because I feel as though nurses are expected to say that they were called to nursing and care and would help people despite the paycheck…but let’s be serious.  Nursing is way too stressful for me to say anything like that.  The point is that I need to find something else to make me happy.  Whether that’s planning a trip to Europe for next summer, working part time at a bakery, or learning to teach group exercise classes (all things I’ve thought about doing!), I need to pick something and do it instead of dwelling on how much I don’t like my job or how I think other people are happier than me.

Easier said than done.

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That was a bit long winded, but thanks to those who stuck through it.  Here are some questions for my readers!

For those who have graduated and are working, did you feel anything like this?  I can’t possibly be the only one who is (has) experience(d) this.

What goals do you have for yourself?  Are you planning a wedding?  Taking a dance class?  Joining a flag football team?  Let me hear them!

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My two best friends

My leg still hurts!  I will be making an appointment to see a doctor.  Still pain when I try to run.  I start my workout by running half a block to see if today is the day…and it’s usually not so I hope on the bike.  I would like to introduce you to my two current best friends:

The foam roller

THE ICE CUP

During high school cross country when we had shin pain, we would all flock to the trainer’s room and grab some ice cups to use on our shins.  Admittedly, I did this even when I didn’t have shin pain because it was kind of fun.  The idea behind it is very simple…you fill some (wax-coated) cups with water, freeze them, then peel down the sides and rub all over where you have the pain for about 10-15 minutes.  For me, I use it on my outer thigh/knee.  This method has been shown to be more effective than icing alone, as you have the massage factor going on too.  It feels good for me.  I recommend the ice cup.

some good rides

When we got back from Maryland on Sunday, the Rocket Scientist had his 20 mile long run to do…and I had some biking to do.  I figured I’d go bike about ninety minutes, as the longest I’d gone this far was about seventy minutes.  I live right by a nineteen mile trail that I go on all the time, so I headed over there.  Once I got about 45 minutes out, I figured I must be near the end of the trail…so I kept going.  The end of the trail ended up being about fourteen miles away, so at that point I decided to go for an even thirty mile ride.  That’s a long way to ride, but I made it!  I think I did pretty good for my first two hour plus ride!

Sunday, October 4
30.08 miles in 2:13:07, avg pace of 4:26 (13.6 mph)

Rest day on Monday…my legs were tired!  On Tuesday I decided to ride for about an hour, exploring a different part of the trail.  I ended up getting lost in the local state park, but a friendly park ranger pointed me in the right direction.  Yay!  This ride was pretty hilly…hills on a bike are so difficult!  But I made it and had a really fast ride based on my overall speed.  I must be getting better at this whole biking thing.

Tuesday, October 6
14.72 miles in 1:02:44, avg pace of 4:16 (14.1 mph)

Ahhh legs were ridiculously tired today…and it was crazy windy!  I almost fell off my bike sideways…good thing I wear a helmet!  Really nothing else to write about this ride other than I wish I was on my feet!  I rode past a couple runners and all I wanted to do was tell them that I’m one of them…not that they really cared about my biking!

Wednesday, October 7
11.22 miles in 49:02, avg pace of 4:22 (13.7 mph)

cancelled-ish

I got called off for the first four hours of work tonight since I stayed about 45 minutes late last night.  I have to call at five to see if they want me to come in at seven…I don’t know whether to hope that I get called off the rest of the night (day off, woo!) or hope to go in for four hours (how bad can four hours be?  Plus, money is always nice.)  I guess we’ll see…

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Hellooooo College Park!

This is a bit overdue, but I had a glorious weekend in College Park!  It was very odd to go back to my alma mater and not really know many people.  Last time I was there, I had only graduated a few months earlier and therefore still knew many of the people on campus and in the band.  It was also homecoming so many more people showed up.  This time was quite different…the people who were freshmen when I was a senior are now seniors themselves (crazy!), and it was a random game instead of homecoming so the spectators were few and far between.  I was able to see many people who I went to school with, so that was exciting…but let me tell you…I felt so old.  Something about being around eighteen year olds really makes you realize how far you’ve come.  My goodness.

Can we also note that I am not a fan of noon football games?  We left my house at about 6:45 in the morning to make it to campus in time for some tailgating…soooo early!!  Anyway, here’s the fun in pictures:

Maryland has these specially decorated Testudos all over campus…and this one is a Marching Testudo!  Love it.

I hit my knee on the corner…showing Testudo who’s boss!

Pre-game tailgate with my dorm neighbor from sophomore year!

Maryland flag in the end zone.  Fantastic.

The band all lined up for pre-game…I remember those days!

Spelling out “Maryland” on the field…I remember being in the “a”!

Pretty view of Byrd Stadium.

My band buddy from senior year is now drum major…here she is leading the band!  I like to think I shaped her into what she is today.  :)

Aw I love Testudo!

Crowd surfing mascot!

The Rocket Scientist and me and after the big win!

With one of the gigantic Testudos on campus…rub his nose for good luck!

Chris was my bus buddy senior year…we sat together during all the band trips, so when we hopped on the shuttle bus, I knew it was picture time!

At the bar with Julianne, my band buddy!  I’ve never felt so old in a bar before…

The game itself was quite exciting…We were expected to lose (boo!), but we managed to pull through and win.  Both teams spent about ten minutes going back and forth on our 30 yard line, which made for a nail biter in the end!  The Clemson field goal kicker missed two (yes, two!  I know what he’s doing this week…) field goal attempts that would have tied the game.  Luckily, we pulled through and won.  Woohoo!  I think the Rocket Scientist and I are good luck and we need to attend more games.  Obviously the solution here.

After the game, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (which is now open in College Park!  Oh how I wish they had one when I went to school there), which was quite tasty.  Then we headed out to the bars with my now of-age friends.  I can’t believe they’re seniors!!  Next year I won’t know anyone at all!  Very sad.  The bar was an interesting experiencing, as apparently the style these days is to wear dresses that aren’t quite dresses…in fact, I’m not sure what you would call them, but they certainly didn’t cover much.  Also, while I may not quite look the part of 25 (even though my birth certificate says so!), I definitely felt old among this crowd.  So young!

I always say that I would love to go back to college.  I love the college life…learning, going to class, projects, being involved in all the activities, etc.  I was never a huge partier or anything…I’m such a nerd.  :)  While I miss college, I realize now that I was done with it.  A part of me is sad saying that because walking around campus, I didn’t feel like it was “mine” anymore.  I’m no longer a student…other people call campus “home.”  I definitely miss the freedom and automatic group of 250 friends (go band!), but I suppose we all have to grow up sometime!

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Marching band nerds…I mean awesomeness

Dear doctor,

Thank you for not biting my head off you returned a page that the previous shift had made and I wasn’t fully prepared to take your call.  I appreciate the fact that you kindly reminded me to have all the information at hand instead of screaming at me for wasting your time.

Love, Susan

In my defense, the patient had only been back about ten minutes, most of which were spent getting her back into bed and changing her diaper.  Like I said, I appreciate constructive criticism much better than I enjoy getting yelled at.  Overall, not a terrible week at work.  KNOCK ON WOOD.  This is probably the first week that I’ve worked all five days since…July?  That’s a bit crazy and super tiring.  My legs are tiiiiiired.  And I’m not even running much…blah.

I’m thinking I should have a doctor check out my leg…I don’t even have a primary care doctor here yet.  (Is that bad?  I don’t know…)  My insurance website has a doctor look-up where you can search for doctors that take my insurance, and I found a sports medicine doctor nearby.  Maybe I should make an appointment…It’s been about two weeks since I’ve run and my leg still hurts.  Better safe than sorry…especially maybe with time to salvage my marathon attempt.  I hope.

M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D

I’m so excited for tomorrow!  The Rocket Scientist and I are headed to Maryland to watch our Terrapins take on Clemson.  I haven’t been to a MD football game since Fall 2007…long overdue!  My post-college football experience is a bit different than my college football experience, as I spent four years in the glorious marching band.  While I loved it, I never tailgated or anything like that.

Then:

Pre-game rehearsal…freshman year!!  Guess which one is me??

Massage line?  Yes, please!

With the Rocket Scientist!  (Yes, I played the trombone…AWESOME.)

Trucking into the game!

Awesome pre-game picture of (half of) my section.  :)

 

Maryland shield on the field!

Now (circa Fall 2007):

My first tailgate EVER with my roomie.  :)

SOOOOOO EXCITED.  Jess!  Let me know if  you’re going to be there…we can exchange numbers and have a bloggie meet-up!  I’m working tonight, but I’ll check back late tonight/tomorrow before we leave.  I hope to see you!

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