almost 50 things

This blog has chronicled my life since graduating from college. My struggle to find a job and move to a city, where I used to think life was. My incredible uneasiness and nervousness when I couldn't do those things--I never expected to let my financial state affect me so heavily. My feelings of independence when I finally did it. My feelings of loneliness when those feelings of independence wore off. My interest in veganism, in making new friends, in sewing, in exploring a new city, in music, in bicycling, in Philadelphia.

I am going to end this blog once I am done with my VISTA year and move out of 1826 East Passyunk, my first ever real job and my first ever apartment. I will keep writing something for people to read, a new Greece blog and then a new whoknowswhat blog.

Reflections on a life of AmeriCorps though more specifically,

in my first real (full-time, office) job and my life in South Philly

things I have learned:
1. It is almost impossible to not surf the internet when sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day
2. Working full time blows. I need daylight
3. Not being around your/a family at holiday time makes the holidays not feel like themselves
4. Not being around trees and natural bodies of water and gardenable space makes summer not feel like itself
5. food stamps rule
6. $900 a month is not nearly as meager a salary as everyone except Kristy, incidentally, thought before I started this job.
7. It is important to keep track of your finances and check your credit report yearly
8. taxes, so much about taxes
9. Vietnamese tofu hoagies are delicious and cheap
10. Sitting down for 8 hours a day makes me feel like a worthless sloth of a human. It's hard to get enough exercise when you sit down this much. Even if you ride your bike a lot.
11. Reading a lot can almost replace humans in my life
12. Politics totally affect citizens' every day lives. Barack Obama has affected my life/job very positively.
13. Financial education should probably be taught in schools. Parents can't be trusted to teach their kids about finances and many people don't know enough to teach their kids the facts. There are a lot of myths about banking and finances and credit.
14. Riding bikes is 1000 times better than driving cars
15. Though I don't think I can be happy without occasional road trips, even if they are just road trips home to NEPA
16. Full time jobs are soul-sucking. I have hardly: written poetry or anything else except this nonsense blog, taken photographs with my millions of film cameras, or sewn. I get home and am too sleepy to do many of the million things I want to do in this life.
17. I never want a job where I have to dress nicer than business casual
18. I never want a job I have to drive to get to
19. I'd much prefer a few wonderful friends than many wonderful but not as close friends. I knew this before, but it has never been an issue so much as this year. I had basically never been single until January of this year. That combined with all my best friends being globetrotters has made me realize how much I rely on my closest (physically) closest (emotionally) friends.
20. Never get an apartment that you can't have a couch in.
21. Never get an apartment that you can't have a cat in.
22. Never get an apartment that doesn't have a porch, a balcony, roof access a back yard--some little piece of outside for you to put your plants and go outside with no pants on and sit and read on nice days.
23. Projectors rule
24. Fish are okay pets but they die often and cuddle never
25. Book clubs are way fun
26. Sour grapes work both ways
27. Never convert a bike with vertical dropouts into a single-speed. It's a bad idea.
28. removed for self-preservation
29. However, it is nice to date someone who lives a few blocks away or even in the same building.
30. If you are always gone, you miss a lot and you miss out on a lot.
31. No matter how hard I try, I do not like coffee. No matter how much I sometimes think they are a good idea, I do not like cigarettes.
32. I do like getting drunk. I especially like being able to drink out because I am not driving home.
33. If you get drunk, it is important to stay away from people you are secretly still mad at.
34. Being pretty and nice gets you into things for free.
35. It is very hard to ride a bike in a pencil skirt.
36. Trolley tracks will fuck you up.
37. Fixing your own bike tire will probably make you feel good. No one should even pay someone to patch a tire. Unless you want to pay me.
38. Cooking for people with food you get for free from the government is way fun. Cleaning up afterwards is not.
39. I do not need this many clothes.
40. Wearing flats instead of sneakers makes your legs look longer.
41. Wearing high heels makes them look even longer, but sucks otherwise.
42. Don't ever use 40 volume developer on your hair.
43. Don't fall in love with every person you meet, most of them aren't worthy of it.
44. Dance parties are still amazing.
45. Washing machines, working refrigerators with a separate freezer door and garbage disposals are worthwhile.
46. If someone isn't acting like he or she cares about you, get him or her the hell out of your life. Actions always have and always will speak more loudly than words.
47. If you get an orange tattoo, you will be telling people it isn't henna for the rest of your life.
48. In some cultures, having two different colored eyes means you have a twin.
49.

I'll add more as they come to me.

I wouldn't mind living in a big house in West Philly with six of my friends and a backyard and a basement for shows.
A smaller house in south Philly with four of my friends and a backyard and a basement for shows.
Anywhere with a store front.
Queen Village
the Art Museum district, maybe
Rittenhouse, obviously
Somewhere warmer. See: Austin; Athens, Georgia
or Brooklyn, maybe

I would not want to live any further south in Philly than I already do
I would not want to live in a city much bigger than Philadelphia. If I moved to BK I would mostly stay away from Manhatten.
There are like six people in this world I would like to live with and two of them are my brothers.