Kelly's Run & Fabric Flowers for the Soul

These pictures are from a previous weekend but I needed to make this shout out to the pretty lady in the birthday princess outfit who has been my friend for years. She has propelled me into the world of activism by giving me a wonderful supporter and partner in discussions. Now 20 years old, she'll be moving away again but our friendship always manages across distances so it's okay.

I took a mental health break from Philadelphia for the weekend before I have to do the projects and papers that are integral to the final weeks of the semester. I went home to enjoy the springtime weather, time with family, and a reunion with my love.

We got a chance to see my little brother (who is actually really big at like 6'1") play volleyball on Friday night. Sometimes I feel bad for the kid, since he's all alone at home now but he probably loves it.

 We went to Kelly's Run on Saturday afternoon and hiked for almost 3 hours. This trail is truly gorgeous - its just six miles from the Maryland border and takes a scenic 40 minutes to get to. My only complaint was the number of times where I had to nervously cross the water on slippery stones.

It was perfect hiking weather; just cool enough to wear long sleeves and avoid bugs but warm enough to soak in some sunshine. Needless to say, the long hike with an extensive incline at the end left us both exhausted for the afternoon. We then indulged in way more Olive Garden food than I'd care to admit and indulged in an evening of movies and conversation.

(Notice how one of us is wearing tie dye in both of the pictures of us.Typical.)

Sunday morning was for french toast and dollar store flowers for dorm rooms, and one last drive in the familiar sunny roads. We parted ways on Sunday afternoon after a very satisfying weekend of time spent together - no tears involved when so many great memories there are to last till summer time. 

I was rejuvenated by the time I got to spend with my mom, including helping to make a delicious dinner on Sunday night which the whole family was home for. I've gotten to the point where I just deeply appreciate the time I spend at home instead of missing home or being homesick. 

On the train ride back at 5:30 in the morning, I had three days worth of pleasant thoughts to motivate me to look on the next three weeks of papers, projects and exams with optimism. I will make the most of the last weeks of academic vigor and then gladly take a few weeks of time at home before moving on to the next adventure of summertime on my own.

Hope everyone is enjoying spring thus far.

Smiles, Morgen

Dwindling Weekends (More like weeks) Part Four

So I haven't been doing very good at doing my posts during the week because I'm busy having fun doing so much other stuff before I leave, so this will cover Wednesday through Sunday. (If you haven't noticed, I've fallen head over heels for #picstitch. Definitely my current favorite app.)

Sam has become quite the tie dye artist as of late, as in he's tie dyed at least ten shirts in the past two weeks. He's expanded into pillow cases and apparently women's blouses. If you want one, he'd be happy to make you one. He's so proud of his work and it brought me great joy to watch him do his art on Wednesday evening after thrifting that afternoon.

Thursday and Friday were both spent in our lovely downtown of York. Most of the people our age scoff at the idea of going downtown, but we had a great time. Central Market and Cherry Lane were our destination of choice on Thursday morning. After getting a cranberry walnut cookie from a new bakery, we hung out on the Codorus Creek and took some cutesy montage pictures. On Friday, I finally took Sam to a swing dancing class at the York Swing Club. Since I was busy dancing, I couldn't take pictures but I snagged some of us after in our outfits. It was so much fun and for only five bucks, you get a lesson and hours of dancing! But what you don't expect is how sore it makes your calves. We are going to try to go back next Friday if I get off work!

Saturday night was spent at a graduation party, which wasn't too interesting aside from some goodbyes to friends. It's just getting progressively more weird to think of saying goodbye to people I take for granted. Sam and I returned to one of our favorite hiking spots at Apollo County park on Sunday afternoon. York is having this wonderful break from the heat with regular breezes that force you to think about the anticipation of fall! To take full advantage of the weather, we went to another free concert at Long's Park featuring Booker T. Jones. I got a chance to rock my new tie dye blouse and jeans, but even more exciting was Sam's super seventies collar on his thrifted shirt from Wednesday. He looked like a total dad with his cooler and backpack chair, very cute though.