Peace Corps? Grad School? Hm.

A new friend took me on a tour of Philadelphia this past weekend. He asked me what my plans for the future were, because I had mentioned I don't really plan to stay in Philadelphia for longer than a year. So, he asked me what my plans are. I didn't really have a response. I told him that, right now, I am just planning my life a week at time. I have plans for the future, that is true, but I am not sure what order they are going to happen just yet.

I am having a constant battle of future plans… grad school or peace corps or grad school with peace corps combined in the program? Oh the possibilities are endless. Now Jessica is telling me our next move is going to be to Nashville, and that she will pack my bags for me and force me to move. I can't keep delaying my grad school! I know it is something I WANT to do. Though, the real question is… when am I going to do it? I have several things I am taking into consideration when thinking about the peace corps/grad school debate. One, is the cost of a grad school program in Social Work. It's not cheap. Many schools offer fellowships to people who have done Peace Corps and give $$$. Which is what I need! Also, Peace Corps will make me a better applicant at the competitive schools I am applying to.

Another option is to do a combined program of both grad school and peace corps. Not many schools offer the program, however, so my options for grad schools are severely limited. Though, with this type of program, I know that Peace Corps is also really competitive, and having some education behind me will better prepare me to serve overseas.

Damnit! Peace Corps… then Grad School? Oh goodness gracious. I have too much free time right now, and my mind goes crazy with all this. I need to start working. I accepted a job offer from a company called Devereux.. working as a residential counselor in a mental health facility for adolescent females. Not the job I wanted, but I still have not heard back from another company, the one I really wanted. Hopefully I hear back today or tomorrow.. which will then make me have another debate with myself.. keep the job I accepted or take the other one? Devereux is already full-time, though doesn't start until July 18th. The Center For Autism.. not sure when they'll start but it is only a summer position and not guaranteed for the full. Bah.

So, for now, instead of driving myself crazy with where I am going to be in a year, I am just going to chill out and enjoy my life day by day. I miss the woods and trees, so a friend is taking me out on a woodsy trail to explore and be amongst the wilderness again. Can't believe I am saying this, but I miss the bugs and stillness of the woods, I miss the obnoxious chirping birds and almost accidentally stepping on frogs on the trails. And I miss the hilarious and stupid comments the boys would make. Life was a lot slower there.. I wasn't preoccupied with the future. Ha I was more preoccupied by the swearing and sexual harassment going on around me. Though, camp is an entry for another time.

In other news. I will be home in LA by Wednesday, the 22nd. Home for 2 weeks! Holy crap, what the heck am I going to do with myself for 2 weeks? Make sure you're all free. =)

Ladies Love Country Boys

I found a cuter coffee shop to blog in and drink some coffee. They almost have cups like Central Perk does! One downside is that they don't have any wireless. Boo. My old trusty Saxbys didn't have any working wireless today, so I decided to wander over to this one, which I'm not quite sure of the name of, only to discover it doesn't have wireless. It's alright though, it is really cute. A nice place to recount my time in Nashville. It's a beautiful day in Philly right now, so I'm writing to you all outside, people watching and blogging.

Nashville was a treat. It was amazing to be immersed in the culture of country music for 4 days. I cannot recap the whole 4 days because I know I will not be able to do Nashville justice. However, for those of you who don't know, I was in Nashville for the CMA Country Music Fest, which is a 4 day country music celebration with a ton of country music artists and other fun things. My least favorite part of the entire trip was the drive. From Philadelphia to Nashville it takes about 13.5 hours. I've never driven further than 5 hours, so my goodness, 13 hours was a lot. We left Philadelphia about 6:15am and made it to Nashville around 7pm, thanks to central time zone changes. Ha. Now, our hotel… while not the swankiest of hotels, was not too bad. We did discover that they steal from other hotels, as we found mini toiletry items from other hotels in our shower. Nice job, M Star Hotel.

The venue for the CMA Fest was the Titans football stadium.. LP Field. It's a pretty nice stadium, though not the easiest to move through. During the day, there were 2 blocks of fun, country festivities and free things to enjoy. Jessica and I definitely enjoyed the free things… especially the free ice cream and free t-shirts. My goodness, it was hot! Since it was ridiculously hot there, everyone was handing out little fans, so I have a nice collection of those fans in my car. I'm sure they'll come in handy sometime in the future. Jessica got a nice burn the first day, which thankfully has turned into a nice looking tan. Although today, I noticed she was peeling the skin off the burn… it was rather disgusting and I told her she looks like a snake peeling.

I continued to practice meeting and flirting with guys there. I figured it was a perfect place to practice, considering everyone at this thing is there to have a good time and meet people. Country boys are attractive. The blog title holds true for me now… I'll take a boy in a cowboy hat, wranglers, and cowboy boots any day. While the male country music artists were singing, I'd pretend they were singing to me. It is a fantasy of mine, for someone to write a song about me ha. Unfortunately, I didn't meet any real country boys. We did end up meeting some interesting gentlemen the first day. They were standing right next to us at the outside Riverfront stage, complaining about the heat and grass and having no where to sit. See, Jessica and I are smart, we brought beach towels to sit on during the outdoor concerts. They complemented us on our ingenuity. I figured, I am here to have a good time, right, why not invite these guys to share my beach towel. So I offered mine and made Jessica share with me. They were nice, chatty, complaint. Ha they didn't want to sit on the grass because they would get there khaki shorts dirty. Really? Are you girls? Anyway. To make this rather long story short, we ended up hanging out with these gentlemen most of the nights there, because Jessica and I could never decide where else we should go. I think I did pretty well attracting one gentleman, he was fun. Of course, I got a little neurotic at the end, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't get all quirky, right? Sure.

The 13+ hours back to Philly after all this was brutal. We didn't sleep much ha, we were out a little too late every night, so my goodness, the drive back was hard. I discovered that Nashville during all this requires the same amount of energy as Las Vegas, which I wasn't quite prepared for. Now I understand why they call the Music City, Nash Vegas.

So, now I am back in Philadelphia, back to hanging out with myself most days and trying to figure out where the heck I am going to work. I accepted a job offer from a company called Devereux, acting as a Direct Support Staff for a female residential facility. Not the particular job I was looking for, but the one I reallllly want hasn't contacted me yet. So, until they do contact me, I'll have this job. Whatever. Since I have some free time now before I start any particular job, I will be going home for two weeks, from June 22-July 6. Yay.

So much more I want to write on this beautiful summer day in Philadelphia, but I'll save it for another time. Stay tuned for more… I'll have to update you all on my social experiment… a new way to meet guys at bars ha. A crossword puzzle! So far, it got the attention of two gentlemen. I'll test out the theory again soon and let yall know the result. =)

Deuces!

Movie Ticket for One, Please.

I did something for the first time the other day. After my usual 2 hours in my coffee shop, I packed up my laptop in my backpack and decided to just keep walking until I found something to do. And I did find something to do! I came upon a United Artist movie theater… and I asked a friend if it's sad that I'm considering going to a movie by myself. He said not at all. That was all the encouragement I needed to walk into the theaters. I watched Hangover 2 by myself. Going to movies solo is kind of fun, I enjoyed it ha. I'll do it again sometime.

After the movie, I began my walk back to my apartment. I figured I had spent a good 5 hours outdoors doing absolutely nothing in particular.. I deserved to return to the apartment to do absolutely nothing there. On the way, I stopped in a used bookstore. I love bookstores, I could have spent a long time in there perusing through the shelves. Unfortunately, it was 4:30 and I hadn't really eaten lunch and I really needed to use a restroom, so I didn't spend much time there. It was nice to notice, as I was browsing through the various shelves that are not sorted in any particular order, that I had read several books on the shelves. I politely joined into a conversation that these two guys were having about different books and authors. It first started with the Eragon books, and which order the books went in. Of course I know that answer. Eragon, Eldest, Brissinger. I never read Brissinger.. I actually tried to, but the library was demanding that I return the book, so I never finished it. They were fun books to read. The conversation then turned to Khalid Houssini and his books. I enjoyed his books and am anxiously waiting for him to write another book. We talked about Paulo Coehlo and his books as well. I've only read two of his books, The Alchemist (who hasn't read that book?) and the Pilgrimage. After that, I decided to stop barging in on their conversation, they didn't really seem to want to talk to me, so I dropped it and returned to the books.

I have a lot of books waiting to be read. Before he-who-must-not-be-named was leaving for Indonesia, he collected all the books he had read over the past 2 years while at camp, and was going to sell them. I figured this was a perfect opportunity to update my booklist so I raided the selection before he was able to sell them. I came away with variety of different books. It's probably about time I pull one out and start reading it.

Anyone have any suggestions for books to read? I am always looking for a good book, despite the pile of books I already have.

Deuces!

Here's to a new city.

Hello from Philadelphia =)

Updating for your viewing pleasure from a coffee shop called Saxbys. Let me tell you about Saxbys. Saxbys always has very attractive men walking in and out of it on a daily basis. I have been here a handful of times, using there internet to keep myself occupied during the day. Saxbys is located in my little town of Manayunk. Tomorrow there is a bike race coming through the town. So lately, I have seen many international spandex-clad cyclists with some pretty hot accents. Yesterday, I didn't look so great as I was sitting here hunting for jobs. So today, I made sure I looked better, and put some make up on. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the attention of the attractive Australian cyclists. The only time they looked my way was when I tripped walking off a platform and almost twisted my ankle. Nice first impression, Meli.

Other than my new found appreciation for spandex-clad men, life in Philadelphia has been alright. Unfortunately, I've been spending a lot of time by myself because Jessica works all the time and I have no other friends in Philadelphia yet. Though, that hasn't been too bad to be honest. The past 9 months, living in Rhode Island, I never really got a whole lot of time to myself, so lately, this time to myself has been enjoyable. I have been occupying my time by watching television, sleeping, hanging out in coffee shops, running, the occasional baking, and trying to do crossword puzzles.

The crossword puzzles are the most frustrating parts of my day. Oh, the life of an unemployed 24 y/o female. It's been very exciting. I have been practicing the art of flirtation lately, as I am back to the single life, thanks to that jerk I used to date. Readers, remind me to never again date a coworker. Screw you, he-who-must-not-be-named. I'm glad I haven't lost the ability to flirt, though. A little rusty, but not too bad! Yay for Meli.

On the agenda for the next few weeks: NASHVILLE, TN!!! Jessica and I are roadtripping to Nashville for the CMA Music Fest... four amazing days of country music! Super excited. Additionally, hopefully in the next few weeks, I hear back from some jobs and find out they'd like to hire me. As awesome as this break from employment can be, it's going to get pretty damn boring. Cross your fingers. =)

As the kids say in Rhode Island when someone leaves... Deuces!