Moving On

It would figure that the day we picked to go into the City would be the same weekend that the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall chose to do the same. But nothing was going to stand in the way of me and my Amish pretzels, so we headed in around one o’clock. Before long, we were cruising down Market Street, which is where there would be lots of roadblocks if the royals were insight. Phew, annoying traffic avoided!

I love Philly!

We inserted our nickels and dimes into the parking meter, enough for an hour, and braved the cold for about 100 yards until we entered…you guessed it…READING TERMINAL MARKET! It’s my most favoritest spot in the entire city and I foresee making several trips back to Philly in my lifetime just to spend time at the Market. I love the hustle and bustle, I love the sights and smells, and I absolutely love Fisher’s Amish pretzels. It’s all the way towards the back on the left-hand side, right in front of a meat stand. D says I could find it blindfolded. Probably could, who would forget how those pretzels taste and smell? And I know I've finally been to the Market enough times because I don't stare at the Amish people anymore. I realized that about half way through our visit and was kind of proud of myself. Staring is rude, I'd always tell myself, but continued to do it. It took some convincing, but I got two pretzels on Saturday and I loved every minute of eating them. D said I could get two if I shared some of one with him. I knew that wasn’t going to happen and pulled out the excuse that this was the first time we’d been in the city in months and who knows when we’d have the time to come back. It worked. I got two to myself and D got one because, while he doesn’t share my unbridled enthusiasm, he likes them too. Speaking of David and liking things, he always gets coffee from the same vendor: Old City Coffee. Check out our fun:

On our way out of the city, thinking that we had totally avoided the royal visit altogether, we were stopped at a stoplight when at least ten police cars whizzed by at a very dangerous speed. I thought, Well Philly hasn’t changed at all, people are still getting into big trouble. Then another ten police cars sped on by followed by shiny, black cars with men in suits half hanging out the window yelling at everyone to stop (like that would have done any good!). Well I knew this wasn’t a crime in progress anymore, sorry to the people I assumed were getting into trouble. It was the royal entourage and they were making us sit at a stoplight next to this guy who had sprayed painted words on the side of his car, presumably to get a point across, but none of it made sense to me. Then another five police cars followed and signaled the end to our waiting. Altogether, we must have waited five minutes. It was a neat sight to experience for being at the right place at the right time (because, most of the time, the security details intrigue me more than the actual person/people they are securing). The end of Saturday brought with it the end of D’s weekend. He got up bright and early Sunday morning and I got to see him for the first time tonight when I got home from work, because I was very much asleep when he left.

I always enjoy the rest and relaxation that Sundays bring, which is why I only half enjoyed yesterday. After Sunday morning service, the girls from my Sunday school class stayed around to decorate for Sara’s baby shower. We had a whole two hours to play with, and we didn’t need that much time, so we ended up fooling around for most of it. But you would have never known by the looks of it. Our class always enjoys being together, we mesh really well, which is what I will really miss when we move. I’m sure there aren’t a lot of churches with good groups of young couples like this. But anyway, the shower was tons of fun and we kept it moving at a good pace. Two hours from beginning to end and Sara was opening gifts for about an hour and fifteen minutes of those two hours. Dana gave a short, but sweet devotional. Cake was passed out during present-opening time. Games were going on during the shower…and they were very clever games, might I add. When you came in, you were given a clothespin and the instruction that no one was allowed to say the word “baby.” If you did, someone was supposed to take your clothespin and whoever had the most by the end wins a prize! Another game had you estimating the number of M & Ms in a baby bottle and whoever came closest won the candy. And the best, most creative game of all…GIFTO! A form of BINGO. Everyone got a bingo-type card with the items listed on Sara’s registry written in the squares and as she opened each gift, you had to search to see if that item was on your card. I thought this was just the most clever idea because gift-opening it the majority of the shower and people tend to get bored with it. Everyone was all into watching her open the gifts because they wanted to win GIFTO. It was quite ingenious of Julie to look that up on the Internet. I totally am not a game person, so I loved these type of not-put-on-the-spot and take-forever-to-be-done ones. After the shower, I came home and wrote two papers, which about wrapped up my evening.

D, on the other hand, witnessed his first death at the hospital. They were working on her for a while, but she coded too often and they had to call it. He was and is totally bummed. Poor David. He came home and slept for a good two hours, even though he said he only had one trauma during the night. Week #5 started today and he's now rotating through orthopedics. Time continues to fly!