Out of impatience and having our gifts ready already, Angela and I exchanged some gifts tonight. She got me a whole slew of shaving paraphernalia, mostly soaps but also a few aftershaves as well. I’ve so far used the “Pirate’s Cove Bay Rum Soap” twice with luxurious results. I am looking forward to the other 2 scents of the same brand, plus 4 others of another brand! Angela sure is swell!

I finally joined a gym. There’s a gold’s gym on exit away from work off of the highway, so it isn’t even much out of the way. They have a whole bunch of new weight machines, treadmills, cycling room. They are adding a smoothie bar, making improvements, etc. Basically, they’re on the up and up. The manager offered to honor the Gold’s Gym free enrollment that had been advertised on the website, along with the local gym’s $20/mo. fee. Seemed like such a great deal, I didn’t even wait till the end of my 7-day trial, so I signed up right there, what I great idea I had. Or so I thought. This was last Monday, I hadn’t been back since, thinking the Monday after Thanksgiving would be a great time to start. I pull in at 7am. Chains are locking the door and the gym has been closed! Ridiculous.

I am thankful for lots of things:
My family
My girlfriend
My house
My pets
My job

NOT GOLD’S GYM

Applications are in motion for graduate schools. It feels good to once again be doing something outside of work that is productive toward my future. While it is relaxing to come home and not have to do anything, I think that I enjoy having projects to do (or not do!). I am looking forward to graduate school.

While Angela is off planning a trip for next summer, I am thinking about hiking a part of the AT for a week. I have always wanted to hike it, and I hope to be able to do the whole thing at some point in the not too too distant future.

In other news, I am glad that the SEPTA strike is now over. I think Angela will appreciate being able to go downtown when she wants, rather than have me drop her off reeealy early!

Angela has been getting several interviews for med. school. I have accompanied her to Albany, and soon to Norfolk and Richmond. I am using the time to get to know the graduate schools in those cities. I visited with a couple of professors at RPI near Albany. Other than the offices looking like cells on a prison ward, their facilities were pretty nice (they were building the bio-sciences building while I was visiting for undergrad). Their program sounds pretty cool (much more of a research focus than classes) and the research they are doing sounds pretty interesting.

This weekend I am visiting with faculty at ODU and EVMS. It should be a pretty busy day, and hopefully it will help me put my foot in the door at each school.

Wish Angela luck on her interviews!

I’ve gotten a couple of solicitations from Nigerian scammers recently. One was in response to an iPod I am selling on Craigslist for Angela’s sister. They offered to pay for me to mail it to of all places..Nigeria! They sent fake paypal emails saying that I received payment (that look nothing like other paypal emails that I’ve gotten officially) and to mail it to someone with an obviously Nigerian sounding name who is supposed to be “Judith Clar(k)’s” daughter at the embassy! Amusing, I think.

Today I got a spam email from “FedEx” claiming I have a delivery of money pending that is coming from…Nigeria! Why, I wonder do these people actually say that they are from Nigeria, why not make up some other place entirely?? I think less places have heard of the Madagascan scams..

It boggles my mind that a city with as much crime as Philadelphia is planning on announcing the layoffs around 759 police officers tomorrow. Additionally, all of the city libraries and rec-centers will close by Oct. 2 as well.

It really frightens me that the legislation can’t be passed to raise the city sales tax by 1% as well as some pension reform (this I cannot really say one way or the other since it doesn’t effect me.) I would be willing to shell out another penny / dollar if it kept the jobs of those 750 police officers, and libraries open! I feel like this city can use all the help it can get.

I must say though, that I am thankful for our little island in the wild seas of west philly. Our block just started a town watch group, so hopefully we will at least be able to take care of ourselves.

What I’ve been up to, only in order of when I remembered it.

1. I had a great birthday on Sunday with a trip to longwood gardens, with my lovely girlfriend. She got me a Mr. Bento lunchbox! It’s like a thermos, but for food!
2. I had my first outing with my ‘little brother’. We played football for an hour in the park.
3. Spent a weekend at my dad’s just hanging out. We celebrated my birthday, Angela’s, and my step-mother’s brother’s birthday.
4. I gave my dad some old-school shaving gear, including a safety razor from the year he was born, a brush, and shaving soap. I then taught him how to shave.
5. We had a great steak dinner, complete with cake, at my mom’s for Angela’s and my birthday.
6. I’ve been volunteering at Manna, helping to package meals for people too sick to cook.
7. I built a bookshelf
8. I started re-doing the floor upstairs with leftover laminate flooring. Unfortunately, there was not enough to finish the job, so I must wait for extra to come in to the store.
9. I had an interview for a permanent job at GSK. I think I like what I am doing more now, but if the offer is better…..
10. My contract has been extended until next August with GSK, so even if #9 doesn’t pan out, I’m good until grad school.
11. I’ve been biking to work a couple of days each week. Usually, only there and back on separate days, 30 miles each way.
As to the future, Angela and I will be in Pittsburgh next weekend for David, and Natalie’s wedding.

I’m off the everyman sleeping wagon, and sleeping semi-full nights every night. I feel better overall, except on those nights that I only get 5.5 hours anyway.
I have been getting out to row a few times so far this year, with anticipation for more to come. This is facilitated by my decision to drive to work and thereby saving about 1.5 hours per day to be used otherwise. Additionally, I have started biking again. I started out with a grueling 30 miler home from work into a head wind the whole way. I plan to do a couple more of those next week.

Last weekend I took a trip to Seattle to visit Jared. We did some of the touristy things like go up the space needle, going for a hike in the mountains, and the Pike Place Market. We also went into the library, which is pretty wildly built. We also went on the underground tour, which toured parts of the city that had been built over in order to prevent flooding and improve the sewer systems. I was fortunate that the weather was exceptional, and I enjoyed myself.

It has been a month and a half of sleeping about 4 hours a day. I still tend to miss naps because I am busy, which I think really takes a toll on my mood and general feeling. When I hit my naps, I do feel pretty good.

This week was a pretty great week. Some of the things we’ve been up to:

Last weekend I finished installing the trim in the downstairs.

Angela and I hung some framed pictures, as well as many of out photographs from the summer.

I got back on the river on Friday when I took a single out for the first time this season. The weather was beautiful (and still is today), and I really enjoyed the nice easy row.

Yesterday, Angela and I spent the morning volunteering at the park. We swept up some sidewalks, and picked up trash. There weren’t a lot of people there, but it was nice to see someone else supporting the park. They also had events for kids that had been postponed from the Easter celebration last week.

Afterward, I fulfilled my monthly duties at the Co-Op, which I always enjoy. I stock shelves and sweep up for the most part. I like helping people find things, so I’m learning where everything is pretty quickly.

Finally, I went to home depot to get some materials for some projects. More details on these to follow.