I had a really great weekend filled with lots of good people. It was a nice reminder that it’s a good idea to try to socialize sometimes…

Mikey got to town on Friday and was there when I got home from work. He got reacquainted with Rover, who promptly kicked him like a bunny. Rover has been super itchy because of seasonal allergies. If you pet him aaaanywhere, he starts furiously scratching with his back legs. It’s easy to get caught in the crossfire.

 

Friday night Mikey and I went out to Longwood Gardens near West Chester. A few of my friends had gone the week before because there’s a big light installation up by an artist named Bruce Munro and it looked really neat from their photos. It ended up being a really fun and different way to spend a Friday night.

 

This was in a reclaimed wood house called the Candlelight House or something. It was really glowy and smelled like fresh wood. This was the only structure that was built. All the other installations were just lights among the gardens.

 

I had no idea how huge the gardens were! We went at 9pm and stayed until they closed at 11 and barely made it around to everything in time.

 

All the installations were made with fiber optic cabling. miles of it.

 

It was a really breezy 65 degree night. It felt like fall.

 

This was the biggest installation. You walked into the woods and there were thousands of these little lighted globes and fiber optic cabling everywhere alining the paths.

 

This is standing up in an overlook looking down on trees.

cheesin

 

A blurry photo but gives a better idea of scale. It went on for so long. It was really surreal feeling.

 

There was also a river with lots of loud bull frogs.

 

and very forward geese.

 

There was a long row of drinking fountains and I set up the self timer pretending just to take a cheesy photo. But really I had a secret plan to squirt Mikey in the face and catch it on camera. I failed and just ended up taking a cheesy photo. I did, however, squirt Mikey in the face a split second after the camera snapped. It was funny.

 

The following morning we got a pretty epic brunch at the new Sabrina’s in West Philly. We shared quinoa stuffed tomatoes that were really light and delicious. We followed that up with this monstrous stuffed challah french toast. oh my god.

 

and then caught up with my friend Mike and his friend Joe, and we all went out to the Wissahickon to hike around.

 

We found Devil’s Pool and Mike and Joe decided to jump in.

 

Apparently the water was really cold.

 

This is Mike H. jumping in.

 

There were so many people there!

 

 

Then we headed to another area to find this climbing spot that Joe knew about.

 

He said he wanted to show us a spot where you can climb a bridge. I asked if it was strenuous and he said not if you can shimmy over a 6 foot wall and climb up a sloped wall using a rope. Didn’t sound so hard to me.

 

Then we saw the bridge that he meant. I wish I had gotten a good photo of the bridge…

 

This is stolen from Mike H’s phone. It’s the closest depiction of how big and scary the bridge was. This is me jumping over the 6 foot wall.

It was so scary! I had decided not to go and then talked myself into it by reminding myself of all the hard things I do at the gym and realizing I could physically do it without a problem. It was just a matter of working up the nerve.

 

This is stolen from Mikey’s phone. Yikes!

Mikey didn’t seem to hesitate. Mike H. decided not to do it.

 

 

We were sooo high up and only climbed the bottom portion of the bridge because it was the only portion with a rope. As the grade got less steep, you just had to shimmy up it freehand. Joe went all the way to the top.

 

This is Joe shimmying down from the second higher portion.

There’s Mike H. way down below.

 

Overlooking down onto the river that we were over. After hiking, we all got Roti, and then Mikey and I had a pretty quiet night and just watched a movie.

 

The next morning we were pretty productive. We headed to Grindcore House for our morning coffee and talked about commissions.

 

Then we went over to Staples where I fiiiiinally made more copies of my zines. It felt like such a relief to get done. Mikey was gracious enough to both drive me there and help me staple zines.

 

After getting donuts at Federal Donuts, we headed back up west where we lazed around for a while, then planted some plants at my new house to see if things grow well in the front yard. Then we headed over to Cloud City to see Twerps and State Violence.

 

We drove to the show so we could bring Dawn, who just had leg surgery and is in a brace.

 

Overall the show was really fun and I spent most of it hanging out with my future roommates, and with Mikey and his future roommates. It made me feel good about my social situation for the fall.

 

Bonnie, caught red handed in an edge break.

 

I threatened to instagram her fake edge break before realizing I had taken that photo with my real camera. So I instagrammed it anyway. Metagrammin. This picture is stolen from Laura.

 

jesse, a west philly comrade

 

state violence

 

tight bros

 

yep

 

All these folks are moving into a house together in August. They keep joking about it as being Real World Philadelphia because they’re all coming from different places and are moving into a huge house.

 

and another

Post show trip to Lucky’s for cheap chinese food

 

This photo is stolen from Jesse.

 

Late night Lucky’s on the roof

 

Late night Mikeys on the roof

 

Mikey had off today so he was able to sleep over and meet up with me during my work day with Asher. It always feels weird when people I’m close with haven’t met my nanny baby because Asher is literally the person I spend the most time with during any given week.

 

Asher is really fun right now too, and charging full speed ahead with his walking skills. He still needs a little coaxing but he’s doing a great job.

 

Asher snapped this photo

 

and this one

 

Mikey took this one. I love this photo!

 

and I love this one too. haha

 

He was pretty into the glasses.

 

Mikey said he had a lot of fun with Smash. I think Asher liked all the attention.