Two years.

We've made it to another one of those landmarks - two years of togetherness.

I'm about three weeks late with this post, but I also didn't see the boy until a few weeks after our anniversary. We celebrated by going back to a hot dog shop that we discovered on a trip to Philadelphia last summer - before we were apart, before I moved away, before a lot of other challenges and complications. And there's a picture of Sam in underdogs where he's refusing to just look at the camera.

But here we are. Still holding on to what we have. Still making each other smile. Still cherishing sad goodbyes and excited hellos. When people ask me if the distance is hard, I honestly have to answer not really. I'm still just in love all the same and there's no one I'd rather have by my side (but hundreds of miles away) than this guy. We have so much history, so much shared understanding that it'd be hard to not do this.

I'm happy to be able to look back on these two years and be proud of what we have created.

Rockabilly, Rittenhouse and Ritz Theatres

After a very college weekend last weekend for Halloween, I had a very city weekend to make up for it. There are certain things about living in Philadelphia that I would hate to leave.

Free music and good food are two of those things. I went to my first Free at Noon, which is a concert put on by WXPN, our local radio station. I invited Rachel to come with me and she agreed without even asking what kind of music it would be. Its good she didn't know ahead of time, because she probably would have said no if she'd known JD McPherson did throwback rockabilly R&B type music. It was an amazing show - he sounded exactly like he does in recording and the stage presence was to die for! Then it was off to Center City for the entire afternoon. We all know I love Underdogs, and as much as I hate to go without Sam since he loves it too, I went anyway before we sat and watched birds and shopped. 

I drank a lot of tea and almost finished two papers that are do in the next few weeks on Saturday, so I rewarded myself by taking me out on a date. If you ever forget about yourself, it's a great move because you'll always be grateful to yourself for taking you out. I went through all the works, did my makeup and dressed up. It's a great self-care step.

My date of choice was a panini at the Noshery and a movie in Old City. I had been waiting to see Perks of Being a Wallflower but I couldn't wait anymore! The movie was beautiful. It broke my heart about three times over, but I was okay with it. Some of the cool parts about going to a movie alone include getting to sit wherever you want and crying without any shame. I walked through the lit up streets of Old City in a romantic haze when I left the theater.

After a fulfilling weekend, it's back to the grind. Except the grind includes ABC Family movies and coffee since I got ahead yesterday. Hope everyone else had a nice weekend, if not, do something for you today, because you deserve it.

Smiles, Morgen.

Dwindling Weekends (Part Three) plus a Monday!

The weekend itself was pretty low key. We celebrated Sam's graduation and his brothers with a party thrown at his house. The most eventful part of this was when the boys played jazz for about twenty minutes at a time. I adore watching Sam perform and play his guitar because he is so happy to do it. Some of our couple friends showed up later in the party and we all ate and had some laughs since we hadn't all been together for a few weeks. After the party we went to watch fireworks at the park, where the boys decided to take their shirts off and we all sang "When My Time Comes" by Dawes at a borderline disturbing volume.

Thanks to Sam's parent's we got to go to Philly for the day and see Good Old War perform at Union Transfer as his birthday gift. It was a new experience to travel together but we made quite the pair since we are both so into planning things down to a tee. We spent the afternoon in South Philly, walking through the neighborhoods of older town houses and grabbing a malt on South Street. After working up an appetite from walking for a few hours, we headed into Center City and Rittenhouse Square. The hot dogs we got from Underdogs on 17th street were fantastic, especially because they were accompanied by great tunes and friendly staff! I will definitely be making this a regular stop whenever I'm in this area. To regain some strength and rest up before the show, we got coffee and pastries from a French bakery and sat around in Rittenhouse park for a few hours of people watching, reading and talking about dogs. We made our way north for the concert before the doors even opened. Good Old War had a great DJ spinning oldies tunes and a pleasantly surprising funky folk band opening for them.  Of course, Good Old War was awesome especially because Sam sang along to every song, since they're his favorite band. We had to leave early to catch our train home, but it was okay because the day was perfect. I'm looking forward to having memories with Sam in Philly, so when I go to school it will feel a little more like home.
Smiles, Morgen.