New Tattoo

I got a new Tattoo of a pomegranate on my back. I took it from this picture.

It was a grey-t weekend!

I went to Rehomo with my South Philly posse, which was fucking amazing. It was Greyhound weekend, and can I just say that I may have seen over 500 Greyhounds in a span of 48 hours. Crazy. Most of the owners had these amazing elaborate outfits, collars, and accessories for their babies. Amazing. The beach was beautiful. The frog pond was hilarious. I got hit on by a woman wearing an" i'm grumpy" t-shirt, with a picture of Grumpy from Snow white, who paints photo-realistic paintings in black and white of cartoon characters.... I think she may be my true love. I also may have got grinded on during the electric slide, by a woman wearing tie dye. I also may have had breakfast at Bob Evans for the first time in my life, which was a mixture of traumatizing and amazing. I will post photos. get excited.

.my heart.

is fine. I am staying positive. I'm awesome.

a few more activities...

I discussed my list of exciting activities with some friends and forgot to mention a few:

11. Going to see the largest ball of twine.

12. The Minnesota corn maze.

13. Going tubing own the yellow river, while wearing winter jackets because the air temp is like 65 degrees in late August!

Also, on our tubing adventure yesterday, we stopped to eat at Tobie's restaurant in Hinkley, where I purchased a post card of a man ice fishing with the caption, "The Minnesota sportsman is a hearty can-do individual who is not easily swayed or discouraged by little things like the temperature outside."

I love Minnesota

It's my Dad's 51st birthday and both of my parents are wearing tie dye.

We just finished eating dinner at my parent's house in Minnesota.  After running a summer camp for the last two moths, I decided to hightail it straight to the land of ten thousand lakes. My dad is an amazing cook. He has a huge marble bbq pit in the backyard that is wood burning.  For dinner he made steak, trout, turkey burgers, corn, and salad. Immediately after dinner my dad heads down to the basement to play guitar with my brother.  My brother's girlfriend, Ellie, entertains my mom, which really means that she listens to my mom talk about god knows what. I am left to my own devices typing away at my abandoned blog. 

Both my parent's are huge hippies. Really! They are both really wearing tie dye t-shirts right now.  Did I mention that my dad looks like the spitting image of Jerry Garcia?  He even has a finger missing, just like Jerry. I can't wait for Andrea to meet them.  On one hand I am really excited and on the other I am completely terrified. Andrea comes on Tuesday, and I am literally counting the hours. I also made a list of all the fun and amazing things that one can do in Minnesota in August: 

1. Watch Conjoined twins buy clothes for their two heads at the mall by my parents house. Really, my dad saw them a few days ago. If you don't believe me type in: Brittney and Abby Heshel on YouTube

2.  Go to the state fair and eat friend snickers bars on a stick while walking through the "miracle of life" tent where you can watch baby animals being born every minute on the minute.

3.  Experience the wonders of Lego Land at Mall of America.  It is the largest display of Lego's in the United States. I also recently heard on the radio that there is now a water park next to MOA called " Water Park of America." clever.

4. Swimming in the 10,000 lakes.  My parent's live on Christmas Lake in Minnetonka, MN. My mom likes to joke that we were the only Jews on Christmas lake. haha.

5.  Play miniature golf designed my contemporary artist at the Walker Art Center.  Next to the Cherry on the Spoon, you can try to get a hole in one designed by a modern Picasso.

6. Go to the quaking Bog. Next to the high school I went to is this crazy bog.  It has an Eco-friendly bridge to be able to walk across the bog.  Me and my friends used to go there and get really stoned and convince each other that we could see magical fairies.  We must have had some pretty good pot back then. 

7. Thrift stores, thrift stores, thrift stores. Do you have any idea how many pairs of used hockey skates you can find in Minnesota thrift stores?

8.  My mom added "Demonstrate against the RNC." I am telling you, my parents are liberal hippies. We were coming out of the Mall on Thursday and she ripped a Norm Coleman sticker off of someone's SUV. regardless, The RNC isn't even coming until September, so that's not an option.

9.  Go to the SPAM museum. Really, it's in Austin, MN

10. Last but not least, going to the Lesbian bar called "Pi."  yep. I'm not joking kids.  On the door it says, " So many women...only one Pi!"  It looks like a giant rec center and the dance floor is big enough to play a full court basketball game on. 

Chicken

After twenty five years, one would think that I know how to cook chicken. Today I was about to put a piece of chicken breast in the oven and I completely got nervous about cooking the chicken. I somehow had just forgotten how to make it.  How hard is it to put a piece of chicken in the oven?  I just couldn't remember what to do. So, I called my mom. " Mom, how do you cook one lb of chicken breast?" Jewish mothers are always the best for impromptu phone calls, except when she starts going on a tangent about how I should go to JC penny's and pick out a winter coat. She is always trying to get me to buy things from JC Penny's. She even e-mailed me on MySpace to tell me to go to a JC Penny's and try on coats, because she has a 15% off coupon.  How Jewish is that? My mom is so funny. She has this great accent that is a mixture between East-coast Jew and Minnesota nice. Living in Minnesota has really rubbed off on her after all of these years. The timer goes off.  Twenty minutes later, I pull out the chicken breast. perfect.  "Thanks mom, I'll call you later."

Running

I've been slacking on my running in the past two months. Today I went for a jog and I am not up to par. I think I may have ran a twelve minute mile. I know, I know. I spent my whole fall, winter and spring training and loosing weight. I lost close to 50 lbs, but I think I have put on 10 lbs and it feel gross. Philly is like a hot sweaty steam bath, which makes it nearly impossible to want to exercise.  Despite the weather, I am going to start training for the half marathon. I really think I can run 13 miles. If not, I can definitely run an 8K. That is 5 miles.  I am pretty sure that I can push myself to do it. No. I am sure. I think I just need some encouragement. 

I'm running a summer camp for middle schoolers

I am the gym teacher, art teacher, drama teacher, and choreographer of two very good dances that will be performed at the end of the summer talent show on August 8th.  I am working in North Philly with 30 middle school kids. My day consists of teaching physical fitness for an hour. Today we did step aerobics. It might have been the highlight of my summer to see 30 kids from Olney go up and down on a step to jazzercise music. Then we have lunch.  Do you know what the school district of Philadelphia feeds my kids?  One sandwich, consisting of two small white buns with a piece of meat and a piece of cheese. One small fruit cup or unidentifiable piece of fruit, one milk. That's it. That is like 300 calories. No wonder the kids want to beat the shit out of each other by 4:30 p.m. everyday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we go swimming in the most ghetto pool I have ever seen.  We have to walk 15 minutes just to get there, and then pretend like we are not a camp, so the kids can participate in community swim time.  The paint in the pool is peeling off the ground, and there is so much chlorine in it, that the kids say their eyes burn for the rest of the day. On Monday and Wednesday we work on dances, gymnastics and art. On Friday, we take the kids on a field trip.  Since, My program is funded by the state, we can't take them anywhere cool, like Dorney Park or Rollerskating...instead we go to the Mann center, because they will pay for a free bus, so the kids and learn how to Irish Step Dance. Weird. Oh, we also had a field trip where we went for a walk for three hours in the Nature Conservatory in Tinicum.  I bet you can imagine how much whining was involved!  Yup, I run a summer camp! Even though the kids can be squirrelly at times I do however, really love the kids I work with. 

Hair Cuts

I cut six inches off my hair. Or maybe more like 8. I'm unclear, however it may have been the worst mistake of the summer. I can still put it in a pony tail and a small braid, but it is just not the same long locks of gorgeous jewish ringlets. I really have no idea what I was thinking. Something along the lines of, " oh, my hair is so big and long and frizzy and hot, that i just want to cut it all off." Clearly i should have kept this all as just a thought and not acted on idiocy. This is what my hair looks like now :

O.kay, okay, it doesn't look that ridiculous, but it is now blonde and I have permanently changed my eye color to blue with corrective surgery. 

My Handsome Clark

I got home from work and walked Clark around West Philadelphia.  Clark is my 3-legged dog that Andrea and I are fostering from VHUP. Clark is laying on the floor, while Possum (my mini-cat) is laying on my bed with an eerie glazed look on her face. I am watching Wheel of Fortune and wishing Andrea was not in Delaware, while she is on a two week rotation.  Vet school is really annoying when your girlfriend has to be at a large animal hospital in the middle of nowhere at 5:30 in the morning.  Andrea is  sleeping at her parents house and Eva and Howard are not huge animal fans. This means it's just going to be me and Clark all week! It's crazy how much i have changed in the last year. I am a 25 year old owner of one cat, one dog, one bedroom apartment, and a non-profit job. It wasn't too long ago I was living in a Jewish lesbian collective house in West Philadelphia trying to smash capitalism and rid the world of patriarchy. Now i just want to come home and walk my dog.