Local News: Volume 2

This week I was hard pressed to find any news that really interested me much. Then, today I finally found something on USA Today. According to US 2010 Census, thirty percent of Americans have never been married, the largest percentage in 60 years. Obviously, the article gives the standard reasons why this occurs: "cohabitation is continuing to increase in popularity." and "marriage is becoming optional and people are choosing to do it later in life." As if these weren't the obvious answers. But this got me thinking, if 30% of America is unmarried, why do I feel like 100% of my friends are getting there and FAST?!

I'll tell you a story of why I feel that way. Last week, I decided that since all my good friends seem to have other plans for the future like moving in with their boyfriends/getting engaged, I better find some new girls to hang out with or I am going to be bored and alone in Manayunk. I contacted a girl I hung out with in college in hopes that maybe she would not be glued to her boyfriend... and would be interested in hanging out. She gladly accepted and I was really looking forward to our meeting for drinks and catching up. I talked to her last week and we agreed to meet today. And then a crazy turn of events. In the time between when we had talked last week, and our meeting scheduled for today... she got ENGAGED. Talk about awesome timing. Last night she left a message that "due to her recent engagement, she'd have to reschedule".

I feel as if everywhere I turn I am surrounded by engagement these days. I must say, even though I am trying to be happy for my friends, I am sort of annoyed by it too. There is only so much of everyone elses happiness you can stomach before you start to feel left out.

I know someday I will be engaged too, and get married, and we will move to the suburbs and meet other couples to be "our friend". But, sometimes I wonder if the days of having girl friends are just plain dwindling as my woman friends meet guys and make them their world. Everyone seems to be planning out their future these days instead of enjoying the moment. It sort of makes me angry... because I believe that having girl friends is important.. yet I know I'm guilty of it too sometimes... forsaking friends for my boyfriend. I don't think it happens with guys as much, I think they have an easier time maintaining friendships and a relationship too... it seems they just do a better job at making "man time" a priority.

So, anyone else agree? Even though anti-marriage rates nationally seem to be at their highest ever.. it seems to me, 100% of my friends still want it.. and sooner rather then later.

Wet Wedding Weekend

This weekend was Joes friend Toher's wedding. It was outside in his fiancé's backyard in Douglassville, PA. Unfortunately when planning a back yard wedding you take a gamble in regard to the weather.. especially in May. This weekend was alittle soggy here in PA.Since the wedding started at noon, I had my hairdresser, Borica, do my hair. I was just plain too lazy to fuss with it at 8am. I really like the way it came out.. what do you think?

I had spent a lot of time coming up with an outfit for this wedding. Not really because I didnt have plenty of clothes I can wear already in my closet, but becuase I really just wanted something new and fun. Plus, with the wedding being during hte day and outside, a lot of the dresses I already had were too fancy. I ended up going to Lilly Pulitzer for my first time and fell in love. I ended up with my dress, shoes, and necklace. I didnt really indend on spending all this money, but once I walked into Lilly I couldnt help myself.

The weekend was interesting.. I cant get into too much details.. but lets just say it was a weekend of firsts: my first backyard wedding, my first time at an econo lodge, and my first time at a female strip club...which I was dragged to by Joe and his friends aprés wedding... lets just say it was not pretty.

Local News: Volume 1

I've decided to start a segment in my blog called "Local News". In this segment I will blog about things going on in the news or community that some how caught my eye or has some sort of personal significance to me.

This week I was reading Forbes Magazine and their article about the 10 best places to buy a house caught my eye. Guess which city was named number 1? ROCHESTER! Currently in Rochester you can get a 3000 sq foot house for around $300,000 -- roughly the price of my 1900 square foot row home on fifty feet of land in Manayunk. Rediculous!!!!!! I know what your thinking, you pay for location and to an extent thats true. But Rochester, NY has so much to offer that I used to take for granted. Amazing schools - both highschool and college. NYS highshool curriculum is top notch and the SUNY system ranks umong the top 100 public colleges in the country. Access to the Great Lakes provides summer time fun of boating, fishing, lake houses and the like. Access to Finger Lakes provides a wine country. Delicous restaurants line the streets of the city and fun festivals such as the Lilac Festival and the Corn Hill Arts Festival take place every summer.

I miss Rochester a lot and I often think of how my life would be different today if I had stayed. For one, everything there is generally cheaper, not just the real estate. I think my money would have been stretched further if I had lived there. Also, my family is there. I miss them a lot and sometimes harbor tons of guilt for missing precious time with them. I have a boat and a jetski that I rarely get to use, and that makes me very sad in the heat of the summer-- trapped in a city. My mom owns an ice cream store there which I could have taken over for her and had a business of my own. This is just the short list...

There have been a lot of life changing decisions in my life, but leaving Rochester was by far the most defining. Part of me feels blessed to have had the Philly experience and know that I've done so many things here that I would never have had the chance to do. Part of me thinks about packing up, moving back, and living the life I am missing out on by not being in close proximity to my family... and there is a constant push/pull between these two things. I know that a certain boy I've met here would never move there with me.. and that is always in the forefront of my mind as our relationship continues to get more serious. And, as things change and people move on here in Manayunk, I cant help but think about my options and choices and whether it will ever be in the cards for me to head back to Rochester, my real home, and the home of incredibly well-priced houses.

Kate Middleton, My Girl Crush

Source

I tried my very best to wake up at 5 am this morning to watch the royal wedding. I have to say, I have a girl crush on Kate Middleton. I think she has this natural grace and elegance about her, but also a streak of Independence and toughness. She is also naturally very pretty. I admire her. I think she nailed the wedding dress, for what she needed it to be - conservative, elegant, and royal. While I don't want sleeves on my wedding dress, she single handedly just brought them back in style I'd say. Not to mention her waist in that dress looked like a double zero.

She just lived out 2 billion girls fantasies. Commoner to Princess in the wedding of the century. But I have to say I think she has a tough road a head of her, there is a tough life behind all that waving to the public. It was the constant media attention that ultimately killed Diana. I hope that they can rise above the media, the attention, and the constant scrutiny that the royal family is continually under and live the real-life fairytale. That story that ends with "and they lived happily ever after".

Anything You Can Do.. I Can Do

So the home renovation projects continue this week. My main entry door is a wood door that is also equipped with a storm door. The storm door, has been annoying me the last few weeks. Sometimes the latch works and the door stays shut, and sometimes it doesn't. Also, upon cleaning my basement I realized that the storm door came with a screen that can be used in the warmer months to get air. But, the current door handle, while it has a lock, I was never left the keys, so I feel weird about ever leaving the door open and using the screen

This week, I went on Home Depots website to look at what I might need to fix the door. I bought a new handle, new clips to hold the screen in, and a new one of those things that hold the door from swinging too far, as the most recent storm had broken mine since the latch wouldn't stay shut. I got out of work early yesterday because I was working at a different office. Upon arriving home, I found that my Home Depot order had arrived. At this point, I contemplated if I should wait for Joe to do this or not? If I had to admit defeat, I would be sans door handle until Joe could come help me. I decided to take the project on.

I went to the basement and got the screen that matched the door and cleaned it off. Then, I unscrewed the old screen clips, and removed the glass where I was going to put the screen. I put the screen up and inserted the new screen clips which held the screen perfectly.. PROJECT COMPLETE... THAT WAS EASY.

NEXT: Feeling pretty good about myself, I decided to tackle the door handle next. I unscrewed the old door handle to find that one of the main screws holding the darn thing together was stripped. At this point, I was standing with my screwdriver at a stand still. An old man walked by and said, "man gotta love a woman trying to fix things around the house." (as if this is a foreign concept in the new millenia). Next my neighbor walked by and offered to help me. With some advanced tools, we were finally able to get the old handle off. Licking my bruised ego, I wasn't sure that I wanted to take the project on anymore.. but the pamphlet only had three steps-- how hard could it be? After about a half hour I had successfully installed the new handle complete with the new dead bolt. The door looked like new. I locked the screen and left the door open to go to the kitchen to make dinner.

I cut some squash, zucchini, and vidalia onions and put them in a hot bag. I threw those on the grill with some steaks. As I stood there by the grill, pretty impressed with my domestic and renovation abilities, I began to think about gender roles and whether they really exist anymore. I know not all girls are like this, but I believe that anything a man can do, a woman can do. I would rather try and fail at a project then not try out of fear or doing it wrong. I am as comfortable with a grill as I am with a stove. I am as comfortable with a hammer as I am with a spatula. Am I the only one?

I think there is a lot to be said for being well-rounded. There is a lot to be learned in this world.. and gender shouldn't hold anyone back. I never knew how a door handle worked until yesterday...and I have a great sense of pride for my new door.

April Showers.. Bring Redecorating

Well I am happy to report that things have calmed down a bit in Nicoleland. Joe got a new job and starts May 2nd. The days of travel are officially over. After a mini-meltdown last week, I have resigned myself to the fact that in two months I will be sans roommate as my current roommate is moving in with her new fiancé. While I was pretty sad about living alone, I am not prepared to take on some random roommate instead. I have been living with a roommate since 2004 and I just need a break from cleaning up other peoples messes. I just want to focus on me. While taking a random roommate sometimes works out, I'd rather not take a chance. Regarding Joe moving in, while that is the short-term goal, at the moment I don't feel that we are prepared for that. I think he really needs to live alone too, settle into his job, and know what its like to take care of yourself (since he lives home now) So, for the time being, I am going to live alone... I have resigned to this.
What better way to prepare for living alone then REDECORATE and make the house better. While my original goal was to plant the flowers outside this weekend, the rain prohibited that from happening so I decided to work on this inside instead. Joe and I headed off to Pier1 & Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up a few things that I had been eyeing. Also, my spice rack that I had ordered came in so that needed to be installed as well. Here are some pictures of my new finds:

new spice rack

Fork and Spoon chalkboards in the kitchen from Pier1

Hanging plates from Bed, Bath & Beyond

What do you think? I also made my 3rd bedroom into a quite nice guest room. Visitors Welcome :)

Amazing Grace

How you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. And so it is with life, for which many of us, becomes one gigantic test followed by one gigantic lesson. In the end it all comes down to one word: Grace. Its how you accept winning and loosing, good luck and bad luck, and the darkness and light, that defines you. In the moments of triumph or sorrow, will you respond the way you should? Will you rise to the occasion and act with grace or will you let the situation get the better of you? We cannot choose what happens to us or around us I guess. But we can choose how we respond to it. Life is hard. Anyone who tells you different is lying. The world owes you nothing. Sometimes life throws you curve balls and you will find yourself in a situation you did not expect to be in. In these moments, it is the toughest to respond with grace. More often then not, we resort to the more readily available emotions: anger, hate, jealousy, resentment, sadness. Its only human nature I guess. Its hard to be the bigger person, its hard to suppress the more readily available feelings and continue on the high road and act with grace. But, when all is set and done, acting with grace preserves dignity. It ensures that no matter the outcome, you've shown your best possible self.. and no one can say anything about your character. Act with grace and you come out a winner because you know you've faced the situation head held high and self-worth intact. And in the coming days as I act and react to life's tests and lessons.. I hope I can find it within myself to act with grace no matter how I feel on the inside.