philly bucket list: phillies game!

I was so hesitant about going to a Phillies game. When we first moved here, all we saw were Phillies jerseys. The city is like a freaking sea of red t-shirts and hats. I was adamant that I would never attend a Phillies game nor don their colors in support of the team. I would not be "one of them."

They're ruthless, I tell ya.

[Did you read those hyperlinked articles? I am not at all surprised that Philadelphia holds the #1 AND #2 spots for meanest sports fans in America.]

But darn it, those Phils grew on me.
And well, it's highly unlikely that they'll ever play my beloved Tigers (miss you Magglio! But only a little bit, because let's be honest, I was hardly your biggest fan. I'm kind of a fair-weather sports fan) so I figured, it's not the worst thing to go to one measly little game. Right? So I reluctantly added it to our Philly Bucket List.

On Friday, after hitting up Wal-mart and buying some clearance Phillies gear, we headed out to the game. Joining the sea of red on the subway ride down to the stadium.

It was a perfect evening for a baseball game. We couldn't have asked for better weather.
And well, I say I did a pretty good job at picking out our seats. Score. Plus the tickets were only $9.50 a piece. Double score.

A little high, but we didn't miss any of the action. And check out that city view!

I HAD A BLAST! This has been one of my favorite Philly Bucket List items to check off to date. It was a really good game, and I got so into it. I was getting really frustrated at the end when it was looking like my Phils could lose. My Phils, psh, I talk about them like I've supported them for years. Little do they know it's been a whole 4 days. Speaking of my Phils, I decided to pick a Phillie, like people have "a Tiger." "Whose your Tiger?!" (Ordonez. Always was Mags.) My Phillie is most definitely Chase Utley, which is unfortunate because errrbody and their mama likes Chase Utley. But he played a good game (all 3 outs 1 inning!) and I like his little smirk in his scoreboard pic.

Well, I was gonna put Chase Utley's official picture here, but I stumbled upon that.
And well, I clearly picked the right Phillie :)

I think Ryan had a lot of fun too. Although he was not nearly as into the game as I was. Case in point: his favorite part was when the Phillie Phanatic (their super lame mascot) came onto the field on a four-wheeler. I heard an audible gasp and turned my head to see Ryan frantically pointing at the field, "LOOK!!!!" he says. Hahaha, oh Ryan :) Plus, he kept cheering on a player on the other team. Because he liked his beard. This guy (Jayson Werth from the Nationals, who USED to play for the Phillies) is their best hitter AND has publicly said he hates the Phillies and their fans. So Phillies' fans HATE this guy. I was truly scared that Ryan was going to get us beat up.

Isn't he just the cutest Phillies' Fan you've ever seen?

I also decided that the players must pick their own pump-up music for when they are walking up the plate. So they probably all have a list of like 10 or so songs for the announcers to choose from, right? Ryan and I had fun discussing what our playlists would be. Take a little listen, what do you think? [Mine's awesome? Yeah, that's what I thought too.]

Nancy's Pump Up Jams

 

Ryan's Pump Up Jams

We had so much fun! I might have to continue to peruse stubhub for super cheap tickets to future games. I mean, we already have the gear. Might as well, right?

Currently playing on the record player: Nothing, got the dang tv on

ten years in photos

10 years ago, Ryan and I met while in marching band at high school. We went to the band camp dance together, and slowed danced a whole foot and a half apart; Ryan was barely touching me with just the tips of fingers. Ryan was nervous, and shy. He actually wasn't even going to ask me, but our friends made him. We were all sitting at the picnic table together, in between practices, when they made him ask. We were opposite ends of the table, and I don't even think he made eye contact with me. Hahaha. We've been best friends ever since.
Join me for a trip down memory lane and look at some of pictures from our last ten years together!

Phew, I tried to scale back, but then I ended up just picking out so many that I loved or that had good memories behind them. And I didn't even bother with wedding or honeymoon pictures. Ya'll would be here forever!

Love you Rye, looking forward to the next 10 years with you!

Currently playing on the record player: "Best of the Doobie Brothers" (Another big thanks, Em! You picked out some good records!)

philly bucket list: hershey, pa

Ryan and I were fortunate enough to find a church shortly after we moved to Philly.
We only had one bad experience while church-hunting. An experience that maaaay have included a 3 and a half hour long sermon and hundreds of Asians. Not that Asians are bad or I'm a racist or anything. It's just a little awkward when you are one of the only two white people in a purely Asian church. I felt like everyone was looking at us thinking, "Heehee, someone didn't get the memo."
After that we got a postcard in the mail for Epic Church, went there the next week, and never left :)
We love our church.
We love our pastor and the people there.
We love their vision.

So after service one sunday, we were just hanging out, chatting with the pastor and a few friends. And out of nowhere, he's like, "So..we were at the beach this past weekend and I thought, 'Ryan and Nancy would like something like this!' so we want to send you guys on a little weekend getaway!"
And I was all, "REALLY?! YIPPEEEEEE!!!"
And Ryan just stood there. Boys.

After some planning and swapping of ideas, we decided to shoot for an amusement park. Which was perfect, since Hershey was on our Philly bucket list!!

 We had SO MUCH FUN! Hersheypark is a great amusement park. Sure, the rides aren't as huge as at Cedar point, which is the amusement park we grew up going to, but they're really good! And there is a lot of other stuff to do there besides ride roller-coasters.

Hersheypark offers a "preview night", so if you have a ticket for the next day you can enter the park at 7:30pm the night before! We were hoping to get lots of our roller-coaster riding in the night before while the lines were shorter. We went on a wooden roller-coaster first and it was so jerky and jostling. We both got off and felt...not right. And then I thought, "Oh shoot. I can't be old enough to say, 'I'm too old for this' yet!" That can't come until my 30 birthday. Which I am determined to make as miserable as possible. (I have a complex about turning 30. I'm not saying that everyone out there who is over 30 is old.) So we charged on, both determined that we were most definitely still young enough to ride roller-coasters.

Turns out that wooden roller-coaster was the worst ride in the park.
We spent the next day riding almost all of the roller-coasters there. And loving every minute of it.
Definitely still young enough. (Phew! I've still got a good 6 years left in me!)

This was one of my favorites, even though I really FREAKED out on it.
It's called Fahrenheit, because of the high degree of the first hill. I'm not even kidding, it is STRAIGHT up and then on the way down, you even go under the track a bit. It was crazy.

I wasn't kidding.

 On the way up, I was ...well, like I said, freaking out.
"I'mfreakingout. I'mfreakingout. I'mfreakingout. I'mfreakingout. I'mfreakingout. I'mfreakingout."
That was me.
And then at the end, I was like "WHOOOOOO!! That was AWESOME!"
Pretty sure everyone on the ride loved me.

But to be honest, I freaked out at the beginning of every ride. And then loved them at the end.
Storm runner was also a really good one, you get up to 70-something miles per hour and it just SHOOTS you off in the beginning. You're just sitting there waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And then all of a sudden, "Get Ready. Herewego." WHOOOOOOSH! You're off. It was awesome. And SO. FAST.
And we liked the racing wooden roller coaster a lot. Mostly because the 2 racers were "Thunder" and "Lightning." And I liked going on Thunder so we could sing "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC.
Everyone on that ride probably loved me too.

But enough about roller coasters.
We also got to go to CHOCOLATE WORLD! Hello! Can you see why I had so much on this mini-vacation?

A little hot, and a little tired at this point

We went on this really stupid "ride" that takes you in a loop and shows you how they make chocolate. Complete with singing animated cows. It was bad. But then you get some free chocolate at the end.
So naturally, we went on it again. (Ryan's idea, I swear)
I think the lady passing out the chocolate felt bad for us, because the next time through she gave us 3 samples each. How sweet of her, right? Saving us the misery of going through that dang ride over and over again.

I really wanted to do the factory tour where you make your own candy bar, but the tickets for that were sold out. So we did a tasting "class" instead. It wasn't the greatest thing we've ever done, but it was fun. And I got to eat chocolate. So...no complaining here.

 

Overall, Hershey was a great addition to our Philly Bucket List!

Currently playing on the record player: "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits"
(Thanks, Em! LOVING this record!)

me, myself and i [august]

It's time for another Me, Myself and I.

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

I would REALLY love to have a "let me DIY for you" type of business. Where non-crafty people can bring a picture of something they like, or saw on pinterest, and I get to make it for them. And then they pay me for it.

I would attempt to make this blog more than something my family and a few others read.

Or I would love to just make stuff to sell, or up-cycle flea market finds. I would love to have an Etsy shop where I sell stuff that I love, but I feel like to be successful on Etsy, you need to have something that no one else can replicate. The inevitable failure is what keeps me away.

If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?

Easy peasy. I would literally sell all my stuff and go work with Watoto for my last 6 months. Probably in Gulu (northern Uganda), but it doesn't really matter. I would just want to cuddle those little babies. Ryan would come with me, obviously.  Because he's not about to leave me in my last 6 months. And my Drakey baby. And we'd probably take a super swanky vacation for my last 2 weeks.
Although...come to think of it...I'd be willing to do that now. No need to know my death is 6 months away or anything.

If a front page news article was written on you, what would the headline be?

It'd probably be something like, "Girl Who's Giving Philadelphia a Bad Rep is Finally Set to Move. Hallelujah."

What is your biggest pet peeve?
Lately, I've been really hating when people try to prove that men and women are the same. And get offended when they discover, *GASP!*...we're different. I hate when people talk about double standards. Ugh. It's all stupid.

I hate when people use facebook to complain or whine about their lives.
Or preach about "my ammmaaaazing husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/wife" etc. Just tell them how you feel. Those posts are okay once in a while, but c'mon, enough is enough.

On that note, let me add...when people describe things as amazing.

Plus also, 'man cave' is on that list. So I love the people who did that survey.
(Sorry, that was way more than one. Haha)
What is your favorite chick flick movie?
I will always love "You've Got Mail." It is just...the perfect movie.

 

Currently playing on the record player: Madonna, "Like a Virgin"

sad animals

I'm sure most of you heard, but our sweet little Drake got bit by a dog last night. It was mostly just an unfortunate mishap, stemming from a somewhat nervous dog and Drake scaring him while chasing after his ball. He spent 13 hours in the Emergency Vet room and got 4 stitches. He's already doing much better than he was this morning, but he's still just so pitiful.

Sorry little guy!

He has to wear a cone for the next two weeks. He's pretty pathetic with it. He crashes into stuff all the time, but then kind of just freezes. Not sure what to do. A lot of times he gets close enough to the wall to where the edge of the cone hits it, so then he freezes. Stuck staring at the wall. I call it his self-inflicted time out.

Time out near the TV stand

All this reminded me of a book I saw at Urban Outfitters once. It was called, "Feel Better Little Buddy: Animals With Casts." Clearly a book full of pitiful animals. I initially picked it up and thought, "What the heck?" But after just a few pages I was hooked.
Or Similarly, animalswithcasts.com. Perfect.

These are some of the best ones...best, as in, worst. Best because they are so so sad but still so stinking cute. It's unfortunate it works that way. They try to show the after pictures, so you don't have to feel so bad for being entertained by a hurt animal.

I also liked this little pup. But he's not pitiful. He's actually super happy about his stylin' cast.

This guy is lovin' life.

Then on "Talk Philly" today (a sad excuse for a mid-day news show) they showed this video and I about DIED from the cute sadness.

Currently playing on the record player: Frank Sinatra "My Way"

it's okay, i'm an outdoorsy girl

For the past few years, my birthday has really sucked. I've spent the last few birthdays home alone. Last year, my presents from Ryan (besides a globe) were stuff that I decided I didn't want during our shopping trip the week before. Oh heavens. It's just been bad news bears for a while. I used to really love love loooove my birthday, but now it's kind of like "meh." And it's not that whole "getting older so it doesn't matter anymore" thing, it's just that I know it'll be another day. So I don't really look forward to it.

This year, Ryan was determined to make my birthday not sucky.  He planned and planned and planned and bought my present several weeks in advance. And gave me NO HINTS whatsoever. Maybe because I always guess what he gets me. Which I don't think I should be punished for; I can't help it he gives the most obvious hints ever. But that's besides the point. He made me feel super special.

For my birthday present, he bought me a lot of vintage cameras from Ebay.

It was so much fun pulling them out one by one and seeing what beauty was tucked under all that packing paper. These were some of my favorites:

I'm really hoping that movie camera (bottom left) works, cause I'm loving it. But I don't even know how to begin testing it. And I'll probably try and use that Polaroid 210 (bottom right.) It needs to be modified to fit a size of battery that is still sold today, but once I do that, the film for it is super cheap. So...that rocks. (Assuming it works, of course) And the top two Brownies are just cute/cool looking, so I'll keep those. There were a lot of Kodak instamatic-esque cameras in there, so I definitely won't be keeping all of my loot...but that doesn't even matter because Ryan only bought the lot for one camera.
One shining treasure.
One beautiful piece of photographic machinery.
Yes, you guessed it.
The Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera.

It's seriously so beautiful. I love it to pieces. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. BUT, we found someone to fix it for us. And the price of all those cameras+SX70+getting it fixed is about equal or less than buying a tested (meaning it definitely works) one. So no biggie. Just that I have to wait a bit longer until I can use it.
It's kind of killing me inside.
I was super impressed with Ryan because when he bought this I had only briefly mentioned in a conversation that I wanted this camera. And then after he had already bought my present, I really started talking about it a lot. Not only did he buy me an awesome present without me dropping tons of hints, but he also kept his mouth shut that he already had one for me when I started really obsessing over them!

As if this wasn't enough, Rye also planned a little camping trip! We headed up north and camped for a night by the Delaware River. We got some new camping gear for Christmas this year, so it was nice to finally get to use it.

Drake isn't always the best at posing.

We were right on the river. It was BEAUTIFUL. (I took my most favorite polaroid picture to date there, but you'll have to wait to see that.) And Drake looooved it! As soon as we got there he jumped out of the car and just ran around like a psycho. And then he jumped in the river and swam for over an hour. Ryan was so proud of our little swimmer. He has always hoped that Drake would love swimming and this trip proved that to be true.

It's surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of a dog swimming

There were several waterfalls in the area, so we went on 2 different hikes and got to see 3 waterfalls.
And I took a whole bunch of pictures. And had really terribly frizzy hair. But it's okay, I'm an outdoorsy girl now. So stuff like that doesn't bother me. You know how it is.

We had a blast and are so looking forward to our next camping trip!
Thanks for planning a "Birthday Extraveganza" for me, Ryan! I had so much fun and felt so treasured!

Haha. We look awesome. But oh yeah, I don't care about that. I'm outdoorsy now.

just a dump

Oh heavens. I put my blog off for a week, cause I was extra busy with working. Seriously. People are calling me left and right for watching their kiddos. Crazy business. Anyways, so I did that. And then my planned posts kind of piled up on me. And then every time I came here to post something it was more like a chore because I had to do x,y and z before I could post what was inspiring me for that evening.

Then today, I was like, "Screw that."
So I'm just gonna dump all my planned "Philly Bucket List" post business here, so that I can consider myself "caught up" and start posting regularly again. I mean, really, it's August 11th and this is my first post of the month? Ceetus La Peetus. [10 points for the first person to name that movie. Julie, you don't get to play. But I'll award you 10 points anyway since I know you know it.]

First up: My in-laws came for a little weekend visit!! We braved the 103 degree heat and headed out to the National Aquarium in Baltimore! It was so nice having visitors and not going to see the Liberty Bell :) I'm so over that thing. Haha.

We had a blast! We all really loved the jelly-fish and I swear my Dad-in-law got a video of a jelly-fish farting. It's not even a joke.

Then my supposedly-retired-from-the-force-ex-cop Dad did some police business after witnessing some chicks fighting. And one of them got maced. My mom-in-law and I were shopping during all this mania. And buying caramel and M&M covered apples. Naturally.

Second up: We checked the "Outlet Mall" off our Philly Bucket List. Hahaha. Whoop-de-freaking-doo, I know. I had just heard really great things about this outlet mall so I've been wanting to go for a long time. And I got a nice little (er big!) gift card from the family I was nannying for when they moved. [It was a really sad day. I don't want to talk about it.]

But they did have a Bare Minerals store. So that rocked. And I FINALLY got the gingham button up shirt that I've been wanting for...uh...7 months or something.

Third up: We checked out Main Street Manayunk one sunny (and HOT) afternoon. I guess Ryan didn't realize why this was on our bucket list, cause the entire time he was like, "I had no idea this place was so cool!" And I was like, "Well, yeah. Why would it be on our bucket list if it was sucky?" I'm surprised he didn't come back with "Well, you took me to the outlet mall for our bucket list." Because that would have been a legit comeback. (Bummer Rye, maybe next time.)

We went in this really cool store that is the exactly what I want my future craft room/shed/separate house to be like. It's a good eclectic mix of vintage or refurbished pieces. You can check out his website here, but the store had a much different vibe than the website. The website kind of just reminds me of my mom's creepy dolls. (Have I ever told you about Sally?! Oh goodness, Sally is the definition of Creeps McGee and I've practically peed my pants several times because of her. She is an old and really big doll, like probably 3 and half feet tall. I've found her randomly placed in several spots around my parents house. You never know where she's gonna be. So, for example, I would be headed down to the dark basement, turn the corner and see Sally perched there at the bottom of the stairs and basically scream bloody murder and lose all control of my bladder because my mind was telling me that doll was about to murder me. I hate that dang Sally.)

This is a cuter version of Sally. Except Sally's
hair is nowhere near that nice. It's a frzzy mess.
Also, sorry in advance for your nightmares tonight.

Annnnyways, back to Manayunk. Since it was super hot, we basically just walked up and down main street and then got some froyo. FROYO, YO! We love frozen yogurt. Ryan reeeeally loves frozen yogurt. We both got dark chocolate and coconut (surprising, on Ryan's part, I know.) It was thebombdotcom. My mouth is actually watering just thinking about that coconutty goodness.

Oh and side note, I've started to post comment replies. Not to all comments, but to some. Sometimes certain comments really make me laugh or are really inspiring or someone asks a question that I want to answer...etc. So if you asked a question, be sure to check back for the answer! Or there should be an option to have reply comments emailed to you, so just check that if you want :)

Currently playing on the record player: Nothing again. Sorry, can't miss the Olympics!!